Fourth Annual Ethical Outlook

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at SCU held its fourth annual “Ethical Outlook: A National Ethics Agenda” on Nov. 10, 2005. The center’s Emerging Issues Group, which meets weekly and includes faculty members, staff, scholars, and advisory board members, developed the list of six critical ethical issues that will shape personal and national character in the coming year.

The topics on this year’s national ethics agenda were immigration, energy, excessive executive compensation, the ethics of confirmation, student performance exams, and heroes in
our society.

To accompany the panel discussion, the Ethics Center staff published a printed report and created a DVD of the event to send to college professors of ethics and applied ethics throughout the nation.

The panelist included David Berger, chair of the mergers and acquisitions litigation practice at the Palo Alto law firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati; David DeCosse, director of the campus ethics program; Steven Johnson, director of character education at the Markkula Center; Scott LaBarge, assistant professor of philosophy and classics at SCU; Judy Nadler, senior fellow in government ethics at the center and former chair, U.S. Conference of Mayors Standing Committee on Energy; and Terri Peretti, chair of the political science department at SCU.

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