On Saturday, November 19, UMBC’s Ethics Bowl team earned third place in the Mid-Atlantic regional Ethics Bowl tournament, hosted by the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics under the auspices of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.
UMBC’s team went undefeated in the preliminary rounds before losing in semi-finals. This third-place finish qualifies UMBC to compete in the national championships for a second consecutive year. The Sixteenth Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl will be March 1, 2012 in Cincinnati, OH, as a part of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics' annual meeting.
UMBC’s ethics bowl team consists of Michael Iafolla ’12, English and philosophy; Danielle Albrecht ’13, political science and philosophy; Gini Bailey ’13, statistics and mathematics and philosophy; Kayla Smith ’13, biological sciences and philosophy; and Kwadwo Owusu-Boaitey ’14 biological sciences and philosophy. The team is advised by Greg Ealick’89, philosophy, and adjunct professor of philosophy.
The ethics bowl tournament, which is similar to a debate, requires students to work through the ethical considerations in a series of dilemmas. At the regional tournament, the team considered questions such as whether discrimination in hiring on the grounds of physical appearance might be justified in the appearance was indirectly related to job performance and how to balance the rights of students to participate in local government against the rights of the permanent residents. Teams are judged on their factual grasp of the nuances of difficult cases, the clarity of their moral reasoning and their ability to express their judgments clearly.
The regional tournament was attended by sixteen teams and won by Clemson, who defeated Georgetown in the final round. Other competing schools included the University of Maryland, College Park, the United States Naval Academy, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and the University of Richmond.
The students met weekly throughout the semester to prepare for the competition by engaging in group discussion, presenting their conclusions, scrimmaging, and being cross-examined by faculty and alumni. The students will continue their practice schedule leading up to the national tournament in March.
Photo: Last year's Ethics Bowl team was UMBC's first team to compete in the national championships.
On Tuesday, November 15, UMBC professor Bruce Walz, chair of Emergency Health Services and past president of the National Association of EMS Educators, represented NAEMSE at a White House meeting with national security staff. Walz was part of a delegation of 13 physicians, EMS and trauma service experts assembled by Advocates for EMS to discuss the issue of an EMS federal lead agency.