Fusion Discussion Group:

Fusion is open to faculty, staff, and students in order to discuss their diverse and distinct perspectives on important and relevant issues. A brief reading will be selected by the Center for discussion during the lunch hour. Participants are invited to bring lunch or to enjoy the food provided. Fusion will be held a few times each semester. Please RSVP to Kate as seating is limited.

• February 2, 2012 (Thursday), 12-1pm, Fleck 305: The group will discuss “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal,” by Lev Grossman. The article appeared in the February 10, 2011, edition of Time.
• March 6, 2012 (Tuesday), 12-1 pm, Fleck 305: the group will discuss “Indefensible: Moral Teaching after ‘Humanae Vitae,’” by Michael Dummett. The article appeared in the February 11, 2011, edition of Commonweal.
• April 18, 2012 (Wednesday), 12-1pm, Fleck 305: the group will discuss “The Moral Instinct: Evolution has endowed us with ethical impulses. Do we know what to do with them?,” by Steven Pinker. The article appeared in the January 11, 2008, edition of The New York Times Magazine. See also David Loye in Tikkun for more.

ACE on the Hill: Perspectives from an American Council on Education Fellowship

Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 12-1pm, Fleck 305

This is co-sponsored with the Center for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Russell Frohardt, Associate Professor and Chair of Psychology at St. Edward's University, will discuss his experiences in the 2010-2011 ACE Fellows program class. The ACE Fellows program is a highly selective internship for mid-career academics that are seeking training in administration. He was hosted by Vassar College in the fall and returned to continue the fellowship and resume his duties at St. Edward’s last spring. Dr. Frohardt will share his perspectives on the fellowship experience and lessons learned from mentoring, leadership training, reviewing relevant literature, site visits to several other institutions and work on specific fellowship projects. There will be an open discussion of some of the ethical challenges of training for administration and some of the challenges facing higher education in the future. For more about Dr. Frohardt, see his website. RSVP for lunch to Kate Rosati (kater@stedwards.edu).

Ethical Challenges in Intellectual Property Law

Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 5-6:30pm, Fleck 305

Mark Bradley Wilson, Partner at Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP, will address ethical challenges in IP law. As indicated on his firm’s web page, Mr. Wilson’s “practice focuses on all aspects of patent prosecution and enforcement, and “his docket is split among patent counseling, patent prosecution and patent litigation matters, with an emphasis in biotechnology related matters.” For more on Mr. Wilson, see his website.

Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) Conference

Cincinnati, Ohio, March 1-4, 2012 (submission deadline October 14, 2011)

The APPE is having their annual meeting in Cincinnati Ohio from March 1-4, 2012. Please contact Jack if you are interested in proposing a paper by the October 14, 2011 deadline. He can help you brainstorm a topic, and if your paper is accepted (and his budget permits) he may even have some faculty development funds to help you go!

The Most Reverend John McCarthy Lecture Series on the Catholic Church in the 21st Century

Wednesday, October 19, 5 p.m., Mabee Ballroom

The Most Reverend John McCarthy Lecture Series on the Catholic Church in the 21st Century will feature Michelle A. Gonzalez, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious Studies from Miami University. She will be discussing "Global Catholicism: The Church in the Americas." The Church in the Americas is a microcosm of global Catholicism. This presentation will examine the diverse face of Catholicism throughout the Americas highlighting race, culture, and religious pluralism. She will look at the gift this diversity brings to the American Church, a diversity that promotes and does not undermine its unity.

The series honors the Most Reverend John McCarthy, who led the Diocese of Austin from 1985 to 2001, and to underscore the university's commitment to its Catholic roots and Holy Cross heritage. Event is open to the public. Reception to follow. Complimentary valet parking provided.  

Food and Philosophy Ethics Series: Entrepreneurship and Medical Ethics

Thursday, October 20, 2011, 11am-1pm, Maloney Room

This talk will be given by Nicholas Capaldi, the Legendre-Soulé Distinguished Chair in Business Ethics at Loyola University, New Orleans.  He also serves as Director of the National Center for Business Ethics.  His talk is co-sponsored by the Food and Philosophy Ethics Series. For more information about Dr. Capaldi, see his website. For more about the Food and Philosophy Ethics Series, contact Dr. Mark J. Cherry (markc@stedwards.edu).

Water Policies in Texas in the 21st Century

Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 5-6:30pm, Mabee Ballroom A

Erich Fritz, Supply Intelligence with LCRA, will discuss different policies informing how city dwellers and farmers use water in their day-to-day lives. For more on the LCRA, here’s their mission statement: “The mission of the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is to provide reliable, low-cost utility and public services in partnership with our customers and communities and to use our leadership and environmental authority to ensure the protection and constructive use of the area's natural resources.” This program is co-sponsored by Behavioral and Social Sciences faculty Dr. Peter Beck.

Fifth Annual Passion and Civility Debate Tournament: The Final Debate

Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 5pm, Mabee Ballroom A and B

Campus Ministry is teaming up with the Center for Ethics and Leadership to foster a healthy and civil single-elimination tournament of debate for students. The first rounds will be open only to the two debaters and a judge, who may be any faculty or staff. The semi-final and final debate will be open to the public. These debates will cover current and controversial topics without the need for prior debate experience or preparation from those participating. Please share this with students you think would enjoy this type of intellectual competition. Students may attend information sessions and sign up for the debates in mid-January. If you are interested in judging, please contact Kate Rosati. Like us on Facebook for more information!

Film Series: Truman Show (Monday, March 5, 2012, 7pm) and Of Gods and Men (Monday, April 23, 2012, 7pm), Jones Auditorium

In conjunction with Dr. Kathleen Lipovski-Helal and her Catholicism and Film course, the CEL will sponsor a showing and discussion of both films. Dr. Ed Shirley of Religious and Theological Studies (RATS) will help lead the discussion on March 5 and Dr. Steve Rodenborn (RATS) will do so on April 23.

“The Ethical Lens: A Photographer’s View”

Thursday, March 22, 5-6pm, Fleck 305

Darren Carroll will share his experiences as a professional photographer and address different kinds of ethical situations confronting those in his field. Here’s more about Darren, taken from his website: “Austin, Texas-based photographer Darren Carroll spends a lot of time traveling around the country shooting portrait, lifestyle, and action assignments for Sports Illustrated, as well as a host of other editorial and advertising clients. With over fifteen years’ experience as an editorial and commercial photographer, his award-winning images have appeared in dozens of magazines, as well as advertising campaigns and corporate publications.”

A Reading by Andrea Palpant Dilley: “Faith and Other Flat Tires: Searching for God on the Rough Road of Doubt”

Tuesday, April 3, 5 p.m., Maloney Room, Main Building

In her deeply personal memoir, Andrea navigates the doubts that plague believes and skeptics alike: Why does God allow suffering? Why is go so silent, distant, and uninvolved? And why does church seem so dysfunctional?

Yet amid her skepticism, she begins to ask new questions: Could doubting be a form of faith? Might our doubts be a longing for God that leads to a faith we can ultimately live with?

Andrea grew up in Kenya as the daughter of Quaker missionaries and spent the rest of her childhood in the Pacific Northwest. She studied English literature and writing at Whitworth University. Her work as a writer has appeared in Rock and Sling, Geez, and Utne Reader, as well as the anthology Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical. Her work as a documentary producer has aired nationally on American Public Television.

Faith and Other Flat Tires will be available in the St. Edward's Bookstore and for purchase at the event.

Writ Writer: One Man's Journey for Justice, a documentary film screening and Q&A with filmmaker Susanne Mason

Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 5-6:30pm, Fleck Hall 305

Writ Writer tells the inspiring story of Fred Arispe Cruz's efforts to improve Texas prisons by writing his own writs of habeas corpus from behind bars. This is a story about a "self-taught jailhouse lawyer...who challenged the constitutionality of prison conditions in Texas in the 1960s, and launched the state’s prisoners’ rights movement. The film uses narration adapted from prison diaries, letters, legal pleadings, and courtroom testimony" to show how Cruz suffered numerous trips to solitary confinement simply for writing habeas writs that required the government provide valid reasons to deprive people of their liberty by putting them in prison.

The Role of Civil Society in the Surprising Resilience of the Rule of Law in the Wake of 9/11

Thursday, April 19, 2012, 7pm, Jones Auditorium

In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the government adopted a wide array of extreme powers, including torture, rendition, and warrantless wiretapping.  But against its will, the government was compelled to curtail virtually all of its most aggressive initiatives.  How did this happen, when all political forces seemed to be directed towards greater security? Professor David Cole will discuss lessons learned from the first post-9/11 decade as we enter the second. 

David Cole is Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law, national security, and criminal justice. Professor Cole has litigated several cases before the Supreme Court, is a regular contributor to The Nation and the New York Review of Books, and has written six books, most recently The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable (2009), which chronicles how lawyers in the U.S. Justice Department used twisted logic and Orwellian reasoning to authorize what the law absolutely forbids -- torture.   See his page at Georgetown University Law Center for more information on Professor Cole.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Kozmetsky Center of Excellence in Global Finance.

Ethics Consultations for Faculty and Staff – and Your Students:

Jack works with faculty to do ethics consultations in their courses and gives many presentations for faculty, staff, and students on ethics and law. If you would like him to do a similar presentation for you, please let him know. If you would like your students to talk to Jack about ethics for a class project, feel free to send them his way, as well. He only asks that students not contact him at the last minute to pick his brain about ethics, that they not contact him very late in the term, and that you let him know he is permitted to speak to them as part of your course’s projects.

Last update: August 25, 2011