USD Team Wins Regional Ethics Bowl

A team from the University of San Diego placed first in the California Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl on Dec. 6 and is now headed to the Fifteenth National Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Championship Competition in March.

During the competition, teams are judged on their answers to a wide range of complex and controversial ethical issues drawn from politics, campus life, science, business and current events.

The team of students of A. J. Clarke, Megan Clift, Kyla Glover and Carolyn Straub defeated a team from California State University, Chico, in the final round of the competition that took place at the National Hispanic University in San Jose. Ten teams from California competed in the day-long event, including San Jose State University and last year's regional winner, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, which USD defeated in the first match. 

"Our intense study of ethical theory and practical ethics and our hard training for this event paid off,” said USD Associate Professor of Philosophy Mark Woods. “I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of the students. They earned this. It is a victory for USD and something the students will always carry with them."   

The USD team competed in five matches, each of which was 80 minutes long. Questions posed to the team included those on whether undocumented students should be allowed to attend public universities and the ethical issues surrounding the production of biofuels. A second team from USD took part in the early rounds of the competition.

The competition started in 1993 as an intramural event at the Illinois Institute of Technology organized by its Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions and has grown to be a national competition that now includes 10 regional bowls around the country prior to the national competition next spring. The event develops students' intellectual abilities and reinforces their sense of ethical commitment. Answers from the students are judged are on a variety of factors including intelligibility, relevance, and thoughtfulness.

The University of San Diego is a Catholic institution of higher learning chartered in 1949; the school enrolls approximately 7,500 undergraduate and graduate students and is known for its commitment to teaching, the liberal arts, the formation of values and community service. The inauguration of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies brings the university’s total number of schools and colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Law, Leadership and Education Sciences, and Nursing and Health Science.

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About the University of San Diego

The University of San Diego sets the standard for an engaged, contemporary Catholic university where innovative Changemakers confront humanity’s urgent challenges. With more than 9,000 students from 69 countries and 50 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. The university's eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. USD's Envisioning 2024 strategic plan capitalizes on the university’s recent progress and aligns new strategic goals with current strengths to help shape a vision for the future as the university looks ahead to its 75th anniversary in the year 2024.