Loyola University Chicago

Ethics, justice, and social responsibility naturally find their home within certain academic departments and classrooms, especially in Philosophy and Theology classes. But delegating the task of ethics education and formation to one set of teachers and one particular set of classrooms should not be seen as the complete answer. University students (like most learners) learn best, and internalize that knowledge, when they see it in practice.

Ideally, then, in addition to formal classes on ethics, students should be educatedby faculty who, across the university, model ethical behavior in their classrooms and demonstrate consideration of ethics and social justice in the contexts of their particular professional skills and career contexts. Thus, while a course on ethics taught by a philosopher or theologian skilled in applied ethics might prove interesting to a business student, having a business professor who models ethical awareness, sensitivity and sophistication in the business classroom can have a profound, very practical influence on the moral development of the student. And this is true whether the discipline be business, information management, engineering, agriculture, biomedical science or any other.

The Center for Ethics and Social Justice offers a variety of training workshops for university faculty and staff who have not had formal university courses in ethics. We work with faculty to provoke discussion and awareness of

• The goals of ethics education,
• The strategies of ethics education in courses not focused upon ethics (Ethics Across the Curriculum),
• The ethics knowledge and skills that can help faculty feel more comfortable and teach ethics more effectively in their courses.
• The ethical issues that arise in the faculty members' different fields of work, with practical strategies to address them.

Some of the topics addressed during the Workshops are:

• Moral education: Can ethics be taught?
• An overview of the most relevant ethical theories
• Strategies for moral reasoning
• Ethics and the professions
• Issues of social justice in the different professions
• Working with case-studies: how to prepare them, how to use them

The Workshops are practically oriented, so that the participants will have by the end of the workshop some concrete 'products' to start working with in class - usually a unit for a course, or a set of case-studies with a strategy to use them.

Aditionally, the Workshops have the benefit of bringing together faculty and staff from different departments and sectors of the university, opening their eyes to the matters other people are dealing with, expanding our horizons and bringing together a very enjoyable spirit of comradeship.

For information on our Ethics Workshops for Faculty and Staff, contact us at 773.508.8349, or send an e-mail to ethics@luc.edu.