Carleton Ethics Bowl Team Posts Strong Finish at National Competition

Northfield, Minn.––The Carleton College Ethics Bowl team of seniors Carmen Ross (Welch, Minn.), Chris Logel  (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Dan Kagan-Kans (Bethesda, Md.) recently advanced to the national semifinals of the 16th annual Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl.

The Carleton squad, in its fourth year of existence, suffered a narrow two-point loss to eventual national champion University of Alabama at Birmingham. (Scores in the competition are usually in the 40-50 point range, with the majority of matches decided by 10-20 points.) The national tournament featured 32 teams that qualified through regional competitions. UAB defeated Weber State University (Utah) in the finals after dispatching host Indiana University in the other semifinal. Carleton was the smallest institution to crack the final four.

Michael Hemesath, professor of economics at Carleton, coaches the squad. “I am especially happy for Carmen and Chris, who have been involved with Ethics Bowl for three years,” he said. “The students were so adept at responding to judges questions, that one of the judges wrote me a note after the competition praising the Carleton team, both for their answers and their poise.”

According to the website for the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, which administers the competition, the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) is a team competition that combines the excitement and fun of a competitive tournament with an innovative approach to education in practical and professional ethics for undergraduate students. The format, rules, and procedures of the IEB all have been developed to model widely acknowledged best methods of reasoning in practical and professional ethics.

“Ethics Bowl really consists of two parts: a formal presentation of the case and responses to the other team and the judges,” Hemesath said. “Carleton students are good at organizing their formal presentations and presenting them as they might a thesis-driven paper. But where this trio really excelled was in thoughtfully and carefully responding to the questions put to them by the other team and the judges. They never got flustered, even by challenging questions. They responded by acknowledging the ethical complexities and possible trade-offs implied in the question, but carefully reasoned their way to a thoughtful response.”

“The team was a superb mix of disciplinary perspectives.  It was valuable to have two philosophy students, Dan and Chris, who were adept at using formal ethical tools and then a political science student, Carmen, to help craft arguments that could be applied in practical, real world situations.”

Hemesath related that the competition is organized by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, with an eye toward bringing ethical reasoning into everyday situations.  Each case either focused on a personal ethical dilemma or a public policy question.  “The students, like all of us, will face these kinds of dilemmas on a regular basis as professionals, citizens and human beings,” he said. “This kind of competition challenges students to reason carefully and deeply and not be tempted by a simplistic, knee jerk response to a complex situation.”

Hemesath added that ethics bowl is a great activity to help Carleton students tie in what they learn in the classroom into potential real-life scenarios. “This activity is exactly consistent with the goals of the alumni whose gifts provide the ongoing support for Ethical Inquiry at Carleton (EthIC),” he said. “It encourages students to reason ethically and reminds them that this is an ongoing challenge every day of our lives.”