Congratulations to our first ever UCCS Ethics Bowl Teams who, under the stellar leadership of our very own Dr. Jen Kling competed recently at the Rocky Mountain Regional Ethics Bowl competition, and came in 3rd and 5th place. Although the teams will not advance to Nationals, this is an incredibly strong showing for UCCS’ first time competing in the ethics bowl; many coaches and judges could not believe that UCCS was a first-time competitor!
Also, even more importantly, the UCCS Ethics Bowl Team won this year’s Spirit Award. The Spirit Award is awarded to the one team that exemplifies the spirit of the ethics bowl—open, careful, thoughtful, constructive dialogue and discussion about complex ethical issues—throughout the competition. This award demonstrates, more than anything, that the UCCS Ethics Bowl team is living up to the ideals of our liberal arts university.
The students who competed for UCCS are: Madison Harris, Cathy Hoefker, Raven Chavez-Maltby, Zaheer Charles, Morgan Pracht, Jayden Martinez, and Philip Oke-Thomas. Their coach is Dr. Jennifer Kling, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Legal Studies. Their assistant coach is Dr. Colin Lewis, Instructor of Philosophy.
The Rocky Mountain Regional Ethics Bowl competition took place on Saturday, November 16th, from 8:30am-5:15pm, at UNC in Greeley, CO. It included 10 teams from 7 different universities and colleges in the region. Teams discussed real-world ethical cases over a series of head-to-head debates, and were judged on their consideration of the various ethical issues in play, their ability to respond to potential objections to their view, and their ability to engage in constructive discussion about the case in question.
The UCCS Ethics Bowl Team will next compete at the National Bioethics Bowl being held in April 2020 at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. For more information, or to get involved with the Ethics Bowl team, please email Dr. Kling at [email protected].
Written by Sonja Tanner, Chairperson, Department of Philosophy