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Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
An Industry Leader in Ethics Consultation

For more than 35 years, the Ethics Center has helped individuals and organizations make better decisions and includes offering fee-for-service options for organizations that want a customized approach to building training programs, case studies, and other materials.

Ethics Spotlight

Generative AI and Ethics

Tools such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and now Google's, Bard are the current ripple in a large historical pond of disruptive technologies. In this latest Ethics Spotlight, Ethics Center staff and faculty scholars shine a light on the impact generative AI has on education, the Arts, medicine, journalism, business, and more, and the many ethical challenges these technologies generate for the humans that use them.

Read Perspectives About Generative AI

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ESG Resource Center

Ethics Helps Companies Operationalize ESG Reporting

Companies are under extreme pressure from customers, investors, and the government to begin accounting for how they are performing in these non-financial matters, and this new set of resources will help them more efficiently operationalize ESG reporting.

Explore the Ethics and ESG Resource Center

Building a More Ethical Future

2021-22 Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Annual Report

Our 2021-22 Annual Report is available in digital format and highlights some of the programs and resources the Ethics Center implemented during the past academic year helping to build a more ethical future.

Read the Annual Report

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Featured Ethics Spotlights
The U.S. Flag and Constitution, semi-automatic guns, a shooter with AR-15, and a human hand held in the air to block or stop the action.

The gun debate has again reached a fever pitch in the shadow of several horrific mass shootings. Ethics Center staff and faculty interrogate the moral and ethical issues associated with gun use and regulation.

Laura Sanchez, right, holds her 2-month-old son, Lizandro, while receiving a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from a registered nurse, Noleen Nobleza at a vaccine clinic set up in the parking lot of CalOptima in Orange, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021 that more than 80% of the people eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine in CA

While vaccines provide protection for individuals and communities against severe disease and death, this fight is far from over as we see infection rates climb, especially among children who cannot be vaccinated. Ethics Center staff and scholars analyze the critical questions in this Ethics Spotlight.

Racism and hate are not new to the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, but the onset and spread of COVID-19 has led to massive increases in both. Ethics Center staff and scholars unpack some of the many related ethical dilemmas in this Ethics Spotlight.

All About Ethics: Perspectives From Across the Center
Collage showing reporters and journalists conducting interviews.

Why do people disagree so passionately about what is right and how can journalists unpack political speech and reframe their questions to get past those disagreements?

A black keyboard at the bottom of the picture has an open book on it, with red words in labels floating on top, with a letter A balanced on top of them. The perspective makes the composition form a kind of triangle from the keyboard to the capital A. The AI filter makes it look like a messy, with a kind of cartoon style.

In its recent decision to release ChatGPT into the wild, OpenAI seems to have failed to consider students and educators among the stakeholders who would be impacted by the text-generating technology.

Image 3: DALL·E 2’s attempt to “explain ethics.

While AI art generators might put art courses at risk and harm artists, AI text generators have the ability to ruin a wide swath of evaluation methods that much of our global educational system relies upon.

A Guide for Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit organizations rely on charitable gifts, but often lack guidance on how to navigate gifts from controversial donors. This guide offers practical and ethical considerations for nonprofit organizations that face increasing scrutiny for gift acceptance decisions.

Read the Guide

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Ethical Giving Guide

Materials to Support Donors with Gifting Decisions

Designed to help individual donors and family foundations think through their nonprofit giving decisions and to do it ethically, this guide outlines the steps to take with related ethical considerations and helps donors define their personal mission.

Find Your Personal Mission

Center News
Fourth-place-winning 2022-23 Ethics Bowl team and advisor Dr. Erin Bradfield with their trophy.

SCU's Ethics Bowl team displayed their mastery of ethical questions and dilemmas at the recent National Finals of the APPE Intercollegiate EthicsBowl.

Ethics Center Advisory Board member Kristi Bowers.

Advisory Board Member Kristi Bowers '90 has been a part of the Ethics Center community for decades and continues to champion ethics throughout her life.

Tracy Barba, Director of Venture and Equity Ethics

The Ethics Center launches the Lucas Institute for Venture Ethics and welcomes Barba to the lead the program focused on venture capital and private equity investors.

Teaching Note: Interview of Theranos Whistleblower, Tyler Shultz

This teaching module for business ethics, leadership and management courses includes two videos, homework assignments, and class discussion, all designed to spark conversation about ethical issues associated with whistleblowers and corporate governance.

View the Teaching Module

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Evaluating Culture for Ethics

Our Culture Self-Assessment Practice recommends approaches to evaluating culture for ethics within companies and other types of organizations. The materials are primarily for members of an organization’s leadership team, including human resources and legal, but designed to engage a cross-section of leaders from various disciplines.

Get Started

Media Commentary
New York Times Logo

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted in NYTimes.

Vincent News Communication Intelligence

Subbu Vincent, director, journalism and media ethics, quoted by Communication Intelligence.

Like Birds, Ethical Issues Are Everywhere...

...often difficult to spot, but noticed by those in search of them.

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University exists to help people see, understand, and work through ethical problems.

As an introduction to thinking ethically, we have created a framework for ethical decision making.

Learn About Our Framework

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