Ethics Bowl Team

• Previous Teams 2001-05
• Previous Teams 2006-08
• 2009 Team Won National
• 2009-10 Team
• 2010-11 Team
• 2011-12 Team

Poynter Center 2009-10 IU Ethics Bowl Team Places Third in National Competition

Each year the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions at Indiana University sponsors a team of five undergraduate students to compete in the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl. The competition begins in the fall with ten regional matches that feed the national competition, held in the early spring.

The Regional Competition

The Central States regional, in which the IU team competes, took place Saturday, November 14, 2009 at Marian University in Indianapolis. The IU team placed third. A team from the University of Kentucky placed first in the regional, with Wright State University placing second.

Femi Taiwo, Kyle Fletcher, Sara Shapiro, Patrick Fritz, Devin Carpenter, Luke Phillips at the regionals.

This year the IU team fielded cases that included a discussion about the ethics of creating and using synthetic meat to feed the hungry, to address global warming and to lessen animal cruelty; the medical professions' role in torture; and open-pit copper mining in West Papua, which has resulted in changes in environment and disrupted the lifestyles of two indigenous tribes.

The National Competition

The IU team placed third in the national competition March 4, 2010 competition in Cincinnati, Ohio. The competition was won by University of Alabama Birmingham, with Weber State University in Utah placing second. The IU team fielded questions on issues such as the very strict divorce law in New York state and whether or not a business would be justified in requiring employees to have an identity chip implanted as a security measure in their job.

Richard Miller, Sara Shapiro, Devin Carpenter, Patrick Fritz, Luke Phillips, Kyle Fletcher, and Femi Taiwo with the third place troply.

The IU team members were:

• Devin Carpenter, a senior from South Bend, Indiana, majoring in Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Political Science
• Kyle Fletcher, a sophomore from Greenwood, Indiana, majoring in Philosophy and Economics
• Patrick Fritz, a senior from Carmel, Indiana, majoring in Religious Studies and Germanic Studies
• Sara Shapiro, a sophomore from Newton, Massachusetts, majoring in Political Science and Economics
• Olufemi Taiwo, a sophomore from Carmel, Indiana, majoring in Political Science, Mathematics/Economics, and Philosophy

The coach was Luke P. Phillips, a PhD candidate in Philosophy. The advisor was Professor Sandy Shapshay from Philosophy. The sponsor was Richard Miller from the Poynter Center.

The regional includes three matches, where one team responds to a question about a case they have already studied. The second team responds to the first team's presentation, the first team responds to the second team, and then the judges ask questions of team one. In the second half of the match, the second team answers a question about a different case, and the process is repeated. IU was matched with University of Michigan, Marian University, and Belmont University. There were 18 teams in the competition this fall.

The team practicing for the regional. Photo 1 is Patrick Fritz, Kyle Fletcher, Devin Carpenter. Sara Shapiro and Olufemi Taiwo are in photo 2.

The Ethics Bowl competition is presented annually by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics as a method of involving students in deliberating about and seeking to resolve difficult cases and situations. The national competition, which draws together the top 32 teams from the regional rounds, occurred March 4, 2010 in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics in Cincinnati, Ohio. IU won the national competition in 2004 and 2009.

At the national competition, the 32 participating teams compete in three rounds in the morning. The teams are given thirteen complex ethical and policy cases to study in advance of the competition, though they are not told what questions they will be asked about any case. For each match, one team is required to present a view on a case and then respond to questions from the opposing team and judges. Then the roles are reversed, and the opposing team presents an argument surrounding a different case, after which they respond to questions. Teams are evaluated at the end of each match for the quality of their arguments, responses, and counter-responses. The top eight teams advance to the quarterfinals, which are held in the evening.