At the Center

Social Media in Government

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:33:13 PST

Is it all right for a city councilperson to be text messaging with a spouse during a public meeting, and if so, is that message part of the public record? If four out of five councilmembers join a Facebook discussion on an issue before them, is it a meeting and subject to state Open Meeting Laws.? Can a councilperson create a link from their page on the city's Web site to a separate personal Web site or blog, and if so, are there restrictions on the kind of material that can be posted on the separate site?

These issues all came up during a discussion of Social Media and Government Ethics at today's Ethics Roundtable for Local Officials. The group of mayors, councilmembers, city managers, ethics commision members, and other public servants meets quarterly to talk about the ethical challenges they face in their work.

Promoting Democracy

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:35:45 PST

SCU Political Science Professor Jane Curry will be one of three panelists in a discussion Nov. 16, "Should the United States Promote Democracy Throughout the World?" Curry's ongoing research is on how societies deal with their authoritarian history. It is based on research she began in 2002 in Poland, South Africa, El Salvador, and the other states in Central and East Europe.

She will be joined by Farid Senzai, SCU assistant professor of political science, whose current research explores U.S. democracy promotion in the Middle East, U.S, and Cynthia Boaz, assistant professor of political science at Sonoma State and an expert in global nonviolent struggles.

Ethics of War

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:27:16 PST

David DeCosse, Director of Campus Ethics Programs, met on November 11 with Santa Clara University ROTC officers, their commander, Lt. Col. Shawn Cowley, and one of their Army instructors, Captain Rob McMahon. In a three-hour class on the ethics of war, Dr. DeCosse and the cadets addressed such issues as the moral justification for killing in war; the use of the ethical principle of double effect in making judgments about the protection of civilians; and the ethical questions arising from the case of the Navy Seal Lt. Michael Murphy, who posthumously won the Medal of Honor after a 2005 battle in Afghanistan in which he and his Navy Seal colleagues refused to kill Afghan civilians who then revealed the Seals' position to the Taliban. Dr. DeCosse teaches the Ethics of War and Peace in the Department of Religious Studies at SCU. The Ethics Center looks forward to continuing its fruitful engagement with the officers of SCU's ROTC unit.

Replicating Milgram

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:57:00 PST

In 1963, Stanley Milgram performed a series of experiments that showed ordinary people were willing to administer what they believed to be painful--sometimes even dangerous--electric shocks to innocent people if they were told to do so by an authority figure. SCU Psychology Professor Jerry Burger recently conducted a partial replication of Milgram’s famous obedience studies that allowed for useful comparisons with the original investigations while protecting the well-being of participants. He will discuss his findings at a talk November 12, "Why Otherwise Good People Sometimes Do Bad Things."

Medical Amnesty

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:50:26 PST

SCU students have been debated whether the campus should institute a medical amnesty policy, which would protect from University punishment anyone who called emergency services for an incident of alcohol poisoning. Kari Kjos, a senior and one of the Center's 2009-2010 Hackworth Fellows, spoke at an event on the subject co-sponsored by the Ethics Center and Associated Students of Santa Clara. Kjos addressed the issue of medical amnesty and responsibility.

Environmental Ethics Fellow

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:15:00 PST

Liza Dadiomov, a Psychology and Environmental Studies major and an Urban Education minor at Santa Clara University, has been named the 2009-2010 Environmental Ethics Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Dadiomov is vice president of the Green Club and an Environmental Education Intern at the Ulistac Natural Area in the South Bay. For her fellowship project, she will be conducting a survey of the culture of sustainability among SCU students, staff, and faculty. She is from Redmond, Wash.

Respecting Life as We Don't Know It

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:56:00 PST

The ethical aspects of space exploration were the topic of a fascinating panel on "Challenges Raised by Life in Space," sponsored last week by the Ethics Center. (podcast) Panelist Margaret Race, principal scientist at the SETI Institute, introduced the topic of "planetary protection," and the necessity of avoiding "forward contamination"--that is bringing earth's potentially damaging microbes to a new planet--and "backward contamination"--introducing life forms from other planets to Earth

Christopher McKay, planetary scientist from the Sapce Science Division, NASA Ames, focused his remarks on Mars and asked the audience to consider the moral status of alien life forms and the intrinsic worth of the richness and diversity of life

Center Bioethics Director Margaret McLean offered a set of principles which might inform our explorations including:

1) Space Preservation
2) Space Conservation
3) Space Sustainability
4) Space Stewardship
5) Respect for the "truly other other"

Health Care Reform and Social Justice

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:29:00 PST

Blueshield of California CEO Bruce Bodaken will offer his take on the health care reform debate at a presentation Nov. 5. Bodaken is a distinguished visiting scholar at the Center this fall. He will discuss his proposal for universal coverage based on shared responsibility.

Jonathan Zittrain on "Minds for Sale"

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:57:00 PST

Jonathan Zittrain got a lot of people thinking about crowdsourcing and its ethical ramifications at a talk he gave last week, "Minds for Sale: Ubiquitous Human Computing and the Future of the Internet." A summary of his talk is available here.

Courtney Meehan, a 2009-10 Hackworth Fellow at the Center and SCU senior, commented on the presentation on her blog, The Technological Citizen, as did Eric Goldman, director of the University's High Tech Law Institute, on his Technology and Marketing Law Blog.

The event was co-sponsored by the High Tech Law Institute and the Center for Science, Technology, and Society.

Searching for Whitopia

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:31:06 PST

Rich Benjamin, author of Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America, told an Ethics at Noon audience today about his 27,000 mile journey around the United States to study the migration of white Americans to primarily white communities. Benjamin visited St. George, Utah; Coeur D'Alene, Idaho; and Forsyth County, Geogia, representatives of primarily white towns that have grown at least 6 percent since 2000. (podcast)

A Pre-Med Student Reflects on Health Care Reform

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:57:00 PST

This month, the Ethics Center co-sponsored an event, "Health Care Reform: Have 20-somethings Been Left Behind?" which gave SCU undergraduate and graduate students a chance to explore how various reform proposals might affect them personally. One of this year's Hackworth Fellows, Kari Kjos, was a panelist for the event and took the opportunity to reflect on the potential impact of reform on the career she hopes to have as a physicians. Here's an excerpt from her remarks:

Ethical Dilemmas Confronting SCU Students Today

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:21:00 PST

Santa Clara University alumni from the class of 1925 to the class of 2009 will be attending a Grand Reunion on campus this weekend, and many of them will attend the Ethics Center presentation, "Ethical Dilemmas Confronting SCU Students Today."

The event features three students and three staff members from the Ethics Center commenting on a set of cases that illustrate some issues the older alumni may not have confronted in their years at the University. One example is "Poster Wars":

Mary lives in a college dorm and displays a poster on her door with the text of California Proposition 8: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” She had supported the successful “Yes on 8” campaign in the 2008 election. James, her dorm neighbor, finds this poster offensive and demands Mary take it down. He worked for the defeat of the measure, which he feels is homophobic and discriminatory. To Mary, the poster is an expression of her beliefs and identity, and she does not think she should have to remove it.

Should Mary take the poster down? Should the dorm director force her to take it down?

Minds for Sale

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:46:08 PST

Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, talks about "Ubiquitous Human Computing," Oct. 19, at Santa Clara University.

Zittrain is a professor of law at Harvard University/ His research includes digital property, privacy, and speech, and the role played by private "middlepeople" in Internet architecture.

The program, co-sponsored by the Center for Science, Technology, and Society and the High Tech Law Institute, is free and open to the public.

The Technological Citizen

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:30:00 PST

A new blog offering ethical reflections on modern technology, The Technological Citizen is the brainchild of SCU senior and Hackworth Fellow Courtney Meehan. Keyed to issues that are raised in SCU classes, the blog has already sparked lively discussion on the Internet's effect on deep reading and whether it is ethical for employers to factor in online profiles in hiring decisions.

Lying

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:34:41 PST

Is it ever all right to lie, especially in government? Peter Minowitz, SCU professor of economics, has just published a new book, Straussophobia, on political philosopher Leo Strauss and his critics.

Minowitz was recently interviewed for Harper's magazine on some of the issues riased in the book. One question posed by the magazine was this:

"In an interview, the late Irving Kristol stated he was deeply indebted to Leo Strauss for an understanding of the “noble lie.” “There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people,” he said. “There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn’t work.”

Minowitz recently led the Center's Emerging Issues Group in a discussion of this idea. (podcast)

Get Ready for H1N1

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:20:02 PST

Universities like Santa Clara have plans in place to address the possibility of a swine flu outbreak on campus. Center Director of Bioethics Margaret McLean talks about what individuals and church communities can do to prepare in this article, written for "The Valley Catholic" and "The Catholic Herald."

Health Care Reform: Have 20-somethings Been Left Behind?

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:11:51 PST

Kari Kjos, a 2008-09 Hackworth Fellow at the Ethics Center, will be one of the speakers at Health Care Reform: Have 20-somethings Been Left Behind?, a program of the Santa Clara University School of Law and the National Coalition on Health Care, co-sponsored by the Ethics Center. The event is scheduled for Oct. 8, 4-6 p.m. on the SCU campus.

Kjos, a biochemistry major and economics minor at SCU, hopes to pursue a career in medicine and will address the question from the point of view of a potential health care provider. Other students, as well as public officials and health care advocates will also speak. The closing address will be given by Health Law Professor and Center Scholar Michelle Oberman.

Goodbye and Hello

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:10:25 PST

The Ethics Center is very sad to be losing our associate director of Health Care Ethics, Sr. Joan Marie Steadman, who leaves the University to assume the presidency of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.

Filling in for the leadership of the Health Care Ethics Internship Program, which Sr. Joan had supervised, will be two old friends of the Center. The interim coordinator position will be assumed by Karen Peterson-Iyer, who has been our health care ethics program specialist. The interim program administrator will be Anna Kozas, herself a graduate of the program.

League of California Cities Presentation

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:59:00 PST

Many elected and appointed officials are involved in community service long before they enter public life. Serving as a volunteer or officer of a non-profit or public benefit organization is often what leads these individuals into political life.

But membership in the Rotary Club, volunteering for Little League of Habitat for Humanity, or serving on the board of the Chamber of Commerce can create ethical dilemmas for both the public official and the agency.

At the recent annual conference of the League of California Cities, “Successfully Serving as a City Council Member and Non-profit Board Member” was a breakout session generating a large audience and active discussion.

A three-member panel led the session: Robin Lowe, City Councilmember from the City of Hemet (and new president of the League of California Cities); Eric Vail, City Attorney for the cities of Hemet and Temple City, and Judy Nadler, Senior Fellow in Government Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

After presenting the Ethics Center’s “Framework for Making an Ethical Decision,” Nadler emphasized the importance of considering the appearance of a conflict, not just relying on the city attorney’s interpretation of the law. “The law is the floor, not the ceiling,” she said, “and public servants should aspire to exceed what is simply required by an ordinance or ethics code.

Regaining Public Trust

mschulman@scu.edu (Miriam Schulman) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:37:57 PST

Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson returned this week from a conference of state legislators, "Doing the Right Thing: Restoring Institutional Integrity and Regaining Public Trust."

Hanson offered a session on "A Framework for Thinking Ethically in Government." He took participants through several cases developed by Center Senior Fellow in Government Ethics Judy Nadler. Much of the discussion focused on making budget decisions in an ethical way.