A New Title for Dave Boeyink
David Boeyink, Associate Professor of Journalism, has been appointed Poynter Fellow and Director of Media Studies. Closely associated with the Poynter Center in a variety of projects for the last ten years, he has set an ambitious agenda for his new role.
He plans to explore the feasibility of creating a computer data base for cases in journalism ethics; he hopes to organize a national conference on the past, present and future of journalism ethics in connection with the 1995 annual meeting of the Association for Practical and professional Ethics; and he has tentative plans for local and state seminars on journalism ethics both within the university and for practicing journalists. "I'm confident I'm not going to do ALL those things," Boeyink noted. Boeyink received his BA from Central College, Pella, Iowa, in 1967; his MTS in Theology from Harvard Divinity School in 1971; and his PhD in Religious Ethics from Harvard University in 1978. He served as editorial page editor for the Messenger-Inquirer in Owensboro, Kentucky, before joining the faculty of the IU School of Journalism in 1987.
In 1991, the School of Journalism named Boeyink a Gretchen Kemp Fellow in recognition of his outstanding teaching. He offers courses in news writing, opinion writing and journalism ethics, and he will introduce a course on pedagogy, teaching graduate students how to teach, in the fall.
Boeyink's formal association with the Poynter Center began in 1983, when he codirected a seminar on Media and Ethics with Jon Dilts, Journalism, and Judith Granbois, Poynter Center. The seminar, part of a Lilly Endowment-funded program, brought together a group of journalists, religious leaders and academics for an exploration of moral issues in the profession.
In 1987-88, he participated in "Professional Leadership and the Common Good," a seminar funded by the Exxon Education Foundation that assisted IU faculty members in developing ethics curriculum for the schools and departments that prepare students for professional careers. Boeyink was appointed an affiliate by the Poynter Center in 1990-92. His research focused on journalists' use of anonymous sources and the use of ethical arguments in editorials, and he also conducted field studies of decision making in newsrooms. A charter member of the faculty of the annual workshop in the Poynter Center's program on "Ethics and the Educated Peson," he will make some presentations in the first workshop in "Teaching Research Ethics," scheduled for this summer.
The project's working group includes Roger B. Dworkin, Professor of Law and Nelson Poynter Scholar and Director of Medical Studies; Gregory P. Gramelspacher, Assistant Professor of Medicine; Kimberly A. Quaid, Assistant Clinical Professor of Medical Genetics and of Psychiatry; Gail Vance, Assistant Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics; and David H. Smith and Judith A. Granbois of the Poynter Center.
The project will focus on seven late onset diseases for which genetic probes are available. The working group is beginning with Huntington disease (HD), capitalizing on Indiana University's extensive experience with that disorder. Subsequently, the group will broaden its study to include familial Alzheimer disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, myotonic dystrophy, neurofibromatosis, adult polycystic kidney disease and retinitis pigmentosa.
HD provides a rich historical model for exploring the complex issues raised by genetic testing, because it has progressed through a series of stages -- preliminary research, verification, refinement and clinical application -- that will be repeated as the genes for other disorders are mapped and sequenced. Experience with HD has identified many of the difficult questions found in presymptomatic testing for late onset diseases.
Presymptomatic testing differs from the classic encounter, in which geneticists counsel couples about the likelihood of problems that may affect their children. In presymptomatic testing, the persons diagnosed are not healthy carriers of genetic diseases but rather individuals who will themselves eventually develop the disease in question. Some of the ethical issues raised by presymptomatic testing surround autonomy and the nature of testing. To what extent, if at all, are persons entitled to testing? What criteria define a professional relationship in the context of genetic testing? Do individuals have an obligation to be tested by virtue of their duties owed to actual or potential family members? Are persuasion or coercion ever justified? Whose interests are to be considered, and how are conflicting interests to be weighed?
The working group has begun collecting and analyzing case studies that raise these questions and others. In November, three external consultants reviewed the group's materials, suggesting additional questions and identifying supplementary cases. They are Marguerite Chapman, Associate Professor of Law, University of Tulsa College of Law; Dorene Markel, Director, Family Studies Core, University of Michigan Medical Center; and Barbara Smith, a former board member of the Alliance of Genetic Support Groups.
A special reception and program is planned for center directors at 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. Stuart Gillman, Associate Director of the U. S. Office of the Government Ethics and Rachelle Hollander of the National Science Foundation's program in Ethics and Values Studies will share some information on funding opportunities for centers.
The program will include:
Equality Issues
The Poynter Center has begun convening a small, interdisciplinary faculty seminar, which is exploring issues in equality and affirmative action. The idea for the seminar came from John Lucaites, Associate Professor of Speech Communication at IU, and was prompted by his work on Crafting Equality: America's Anglo/African Word, a book he wrote with Celeste Condit (University of Chicago, 1993).
The seminar attempts to build on the book, which traces the use of the word "equality" in American public discourse. It is exploring the policy implications of the ways the word is used in public discussions of preferential policies, with particular attention to debates over affirmative action.
At its first meeting, the group discussed Lucaites' paper on equality in legal decisions on affirmative action and its role in what is being called the "new racism." Its second meeting focused on the work of legal theorist Ronald Dworkin, who discussed two potentially opposing interpretations of issues in affirmative action and reverse discrimination cases. The agenda calls for continued examination of the ways in which affirmative action is being debated in a wide variety of academic, philosophical, legal and public forums and the inclusion of "equality" in those debates. Members will present their own writings at future sessions. The group also is considering a conference on rhetoric and the law that will focus on debates about affirmative action as a case study.
In addition to Lucaites, seminar members are Judy Failer, Political Science; Kevin Brown, Law; Russ Hanson, Political Science; David Smith; and Trevor Brown, who recently completed his bachelor's degree at Stanford University.
The conference is part of a project that began over a year ago as an effort to create an environment for dialogue on the topic. Earlier events included a film series and lectures by James Fallows, Eugene Eoyang and Jan Nattier. This semester, David Nordloh of American Studies and Sue Tuohy of the East Asian Studies Center are collaborating on a course on the same topic. The original stimulus for this project was the United States' recent involvement in the Gulf War. Amidst all the "lessons" and commentaries that were put forth during and after the war, the important issue of cultural perceptions failed once again to receive its due. That is to say, the underlying question of how cultural perceptions of the "self" and the "other" factor into international conflicts did not receive the attention that it deserves.
In light of this oversight, the Culture and Conflict Working Group became convinced that it was important to encourage research and discussion of how Americans perceive themselves and other cultures and, in turn, how Americans are perceived by others. Because the group's fundamental goal is to make a contribution in the area of peace research and conflict resolution, group members decided that it was important to take a proactive stance by anticipating where future conflicts might occur. With that aim in mind, the group proposed the Pacific Rim and East Asia (broadly defined to include Southeast Asia) as the focus for the project. Given the significant changes that have occurred in geopolitics and the rapidly increasing economic power of East Asian nations, it is apparent that this is a crucial time for Americans and East Asians to reflect critically on their images and perceptions of one another.
Attendance at the conference was small but enthusiastic. The keynote speakers drew the largest crowds: IU President Emeritus John Ryan, Carol Gluck (George Sansom Professor of History at Columbia University) and Akira Iriye (Professor of History and Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University). Professor Gluck spoke on "In the Mirror of the Other: The Cultural Optics of Japanese-American Relations." Professor Iriye addressed "Change and Continuity in American Relations with Asia." President Ryan described his recent experiences in China.
Project cosponsors were the East Asian Studies Center, the American Studies Program, International Programs, the Office of the Vice President and Chancellor, the Office of the Vice President and Dean of Research and the University Graduate School, and the Indiana International Forum of the Indiana Humanities Council.
The second meeting featured a discussion of "A Communitarian Approach to Research Ethics," a short paper written by George Heise, Psychology. George kicked off the meeting with a few opening remarks, noting that the impetus for the paper was a desire for a coherent framework from which to take an ethical stance. Bernice Pescosolido, Sociology, and Peter Cherbas, Biology, opened the discussion with comments from their perspectives. The group generally agreed that a communitarian approach may provide coherence, but it hardly acts as a panacea for addressing issues in research ethics.
"Teaching Research Ethics"
As reported in the Summer issue, one of the Poynter Center's major projects for the next few years is "Teaching Research Ethics: A Workshop at Indiana University," sponsored by the Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), IU's Office of Research and the University Graduate School, and the Poynter Center.
The annual workshop, which is directed by Research Associate Kenneth D. Pimple, will bring twenty to thirty science faculty members from institutions in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC -- the Big Ten plus the University of Chicago) to Bloomington for a week-long workshop. The first workshop will meet May 22-27.
The workshop's aim is to enable science faculty to incorporate research ethics into their graduate courses. Most of the CIC universities have agreed to pay travel and lodging expenses for two or three faculty members to attend the workshop each year.
Core faculty for the workshop include Pimple, our own David H. Smith, Karen M. T. Muskavitch of I.U.'s Biology Department and a mainstay of the Catalyst project, and Muriel J. Bebeau, Education Director of the Center for the Study of Ethical Development, University of Minnesota. Visiting faculty will include Deni Elliott, Mansfield Professor of Ethics and Public Affairs, University of Montana; David DeMets, Professor of Medical Biostatistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison; C. K. Gunsalus, Research Standards Officer and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign; Nicholas H. Steneck, Director of the Historical Center for the Health Sciences, University of Michigan; and Michael J. Zigmond, Professor of Cellular and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh.
The workshop proper is limited to invited CIC faculty members, but a one-day conference connected to the workshop will be open to the wider academic community (see below).
The keynote speaker will be Rosemary Chalk, who served as the Study Director of the National Academy of Sciences's Panel on Scientific Responsibility and the Conduct of Research, which produced a major study, Responsible Science: Ensuring the Integrity of the Research Process.
The conference, still in the planning stages, will include panel discussions on the responsibilities of scientists and on how to teach responsible research.
For more information, call or write Kenneth D. Pimple, Poynter Center, 410 North Park Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405; (812) 855- 0261; PIMPLE@INDIANA.EDU.
Culture and Conflict
With Bill Meyer's departure for the Great White North, Kenneth D. Pimple took over as David H. Smith's assistant in the Culture and Conflict working group of the Indiana Center on Global Change and World Peace. The Indiana Center is entering its fifth year.
The Culture and Conflict working group has attracted more than its share of the Indiana Center's twelve MacArthur Scholars; several of our meetings have filled the Poynter Center's seminar room beyond its comfortable capacity. Continued participation of several of last year's MacArthur Scholars also attests to the popularity of the working group.
The group kicked off the year with a brain-storming and planning session on September 7. On September 21, Gustavo Adolfo Renjifo, a composer and songwriter from Colombia, gave a presentation (with translation help from MacArthur Scholar Ana Maria Ochoa) on "Cultural Mobilization through Music." The presentation included examples of music and discussions of ways music can be used as a means of counteracting violence.
On October 5, Beverly Stoeltje of IU's Folklore Institute led a lively discussion on Samuel P. Huntington's essay, "The Clash of Civilizations," which appeared in the journal Foreign Affairs in Summer of 1993. Pimple led a discussion of Clifford Geertz's essay "Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example" on October 19; David H. Smith led a discussion of Reinhold Neibuhr's essay, "The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness." The year's final presenters were Walter Abilla, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nairobi and John W. Johnson of IU's Folklore Institute. Johnson spoke on the cultural background of the situation in Somalia.
Planning is underway for the working group's winter film series, which will have the theme "The Good Life." A selection of films from various cultures will be shown, depicting images of the good life and problems associated with it -- such as how it is defined and how people gain access (or are denied access) to it.
The Culture and Conflict Working Group has invited Peter Walshe, Professor of Government and International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, to come to Bloomington on April 6-7 to meet with the working group and present a public lecture. Professor Walshe has worked extensively in South Africa; the topic of his public lecture will be the role of prophetic Christianity in the liberation movement in South Africa.
Elizabeth is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies, currently percolating a dissertation topic that will bring together issues in philanthropy and the current debate on family values. She received her bachelor's degree at Brown University and her master's in Religious Studies at IU and taught history at St. Catherine's School, a private Episcopal school for girls, where she designed and offered a course in the history of women in America.
In 1992-93, Elizabeth studied at the Free University in Berlin with support from The Heart of Germany program. Last summer, she bicycled with her husband, Jeff Fry, from the coast of Oregon to Boulder.
At the Poynter Center, Elizabeth's assignments include work on David Smith's book, Entrusted: The Moral Responsibilities of Trustees, and other presentations, and assistance to Ken Pimple on "Teaching Research Ethics."
Professional Morality
The seminar convened in connection with the Poynter Center's project on "Religion, Morality and the Professions in America" met for the second time in mid-October. The primary agenda for the meeting was review of some methodological options for field work studies.
The first session focused on anthropological field work, drawing on the work of Clifford Geertz, Mary Louise Pratt and James Clifford, who discuss issues surrounding the appropriate roles of the investigator's voice and the subject's voices. Geertz tends to take the view that the investigator must write as thorough and sensitive a description of the cultural event as possible. Clifford, in contrast, considers that position olympian and argues that the only honest approach is to let the subjects speak for themselves. Next, the group devoted some time to sociological field work, discussing Charles Bosk's book, Forgive and Remember, a study of surgeons' responses to error. Bosk distinguishes between technical error, which surgeons forgive, and moral error, which essentially consists of failing to take responsibility for one's own actions and which they remember.
Session 3 was based on reading Paul Starr's influential and well-received book, The Social Transformation of Medicine. In contrast with Bosk's anthropological work, Starr's book is a sociological study of a profession but not a field work study.
Seminar members Carol Greenhouse, Anthropology, and Tom Schwandt, Education, presented a final "nuts and bolts" session on fieldwork. Greenhouse encouraged the group members to think of themselves as doing field studies or case studies rather than (somewhat intimidating) "ethnography." She recommended that investigators stay in the field "until the categories keep repeating themselves," i.e., until the investigator hears the same responses repeated and new issues are no longer raised. In one felicitous turn of phrase, Paul Camenisch described the investigator's relationship to the people who are research subjects as one in which the investigator "portrays and betrays."
At the group's February meeting, the agenda calls for all participants to share brief preliminary descriptions of their individual research projects, which will be discussed by the group.
Ethics Education
The University of Indianapolis served as host campus for the most recent meeting of the Poynter Center's project on "Ethics and the Educated Person," which convened on November 11-12. The meeting began on Thursday evening with a keynote speech by William Sullivan, Professor of Philosophy at LaSalle University and co-author of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society. Sullivan's address was entitled "Care of the Self: An Educational Theme for Our Time?" The large and enthusiastic audience included University of Indianapolis faculty and many students as well as faculty team members from the seven Indiana colleges and universities that are participating in the project.
On Friday morning, team members met to compare notes and offer suggestions on drafts of each others' grant applications. These applications will be submitted to the Lilly Endowment, seeking funds to implement the specific program developed by each team to address the needs of its own institution. This year's cohort includes Calumet College of St. Joseph, Indiana University-Bloomington School of Education, Indiana University-East, St. Francis College, St. Meinrad College, Taylor University and the University of Indianapolis.
The group's spring meeting, scheduled for March 10-11 at the University Place Conference Center at IUPUI, will once again provide a reunion of all participants in the project since its inception. The keynote speaker will be Nel Noddings, Acting Dean of the School of Education at Stanford University and author of Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Her address, which will be open to the public, will begin at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 10. Call Mary Mail, 812/855-0261, for further details.
Moral Duties of Trustees
David H. Smith is completing the final draft of his book, Entrusted: the Moral Responsibilities of Trustees, which will be published by Indiana University Press. In the midst of social scientists' renewed interest in analyzing "third sector," nonprofit organizations, Smith's book initiates an important dialogue on the moral dimensions of nonprofit governance. In clear and engaging writing, Smith describes trustees as the conscience or "moral compass" of nonprofit organizations; he delineates principles of trusteeship and evaluates the reasoning and actions of boards of trustees in a series of case studies.
Entrusted begins by outlining three principles that form the "moral core of trusteeship": the "fiduciary principle" underscores the loyalty trustees owe to the vision of the original entruster; the "common good principle" constrains trustees' action within the bounds of general social morality, including the use of just means in pursuit of just ends, as well as honesty, respect, and nondiscrimination; and the "principle of interpretation" articulates the responsiblity of trustees to guide an organization in interpreting and balancing its commitments to principles of trust and the common good in the context of social, cultural and political change.
In his second chapter, Smith develops a defense of trustee governance over the alternatives of professional governance and governance by elected officials. Following chapters offer thoughtful analysis of case studies that explore the crucial role of trustees in universities, hospitals, art galleries and social service agencies during the last decade or so. Readers will have some familiarity with the SMU football scandal, the controversy surrounding Robert Mapplethorpe and the Corcoran Art Gallery, as well as the long drawn-out conflict between Charles Curran and the Roman Catholic Church over his teachings at the Catholic University of America. Smith does not cast sweeping moral judgments in these or other examples he discusses, but rather offers careful and insightful analysis of the challenges confronted and actions taken by the various boards of trustees in light of the three core principles he has outlined.
Finally, Smith turns to issues of communication and justice within nonprofit organizations, and to the qualifications for trustees. The latter, including moral insight, sensitivity and savvy, emerge through two concrete examples: the role of hospital ethics committees, and the responsibilities of universities in moral education.
Smith modestly presents his book as being of interest to reflective trustees. Indeed, all trustees would be well-served by reading Entrusted. Others whose professional work and private lives are touched by the actions of boards of trustees would likewise gain insight into the complex, inextricably moral role that trustees assume.
Last updated: 22 January 1996
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~poynter/nl1993-2.html
Comments: pimple@indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, The Trustees of Indiana University