UCSC Philosophy Undergraduate Activities

UCSC Ethics Bowl Team 2006 at the State Regional Tournament.

From Left to Right: Jessica Cirilo, Ted Pennings, Laura West, Jennifer Bennett, Jason Bennett (coach), Sandra Dreisbach (coach), Leif Oines, Lauryn Terrones, Jeremiah Williamson, and Ryan Wells..

The Stevenson College/Philosophy Department Ethics Bowl Teams,
represented UCSC at the California Ethics Bowl Competition, held in
Chico, CA. on December 2, 2006. Fourteen teams, from across the
state and region, participated in this competition.

Both of the UCSC Ethics Bowl teams emerged as statewide finalists with one team ranking 3rd place and the other 4th place overall for the tournament. We have qualified to compete in the National Competition, to be held on February 22, 2007, in
Cincinnati, Ohio. UCSC will send one team to the Nationals. It will be
one of only thirty-two teams from across the nation selected for national competition.

Undergraduates' participation on the Ethics Bowl team involves a 2-unit
Stevenson College independent study course. This is the second year of
this popular and successful program, in which Philosophy Department
graduate students mentor our team in developing their philosophical
and debating skills. This year's team is being ably coached by Sandra
Dreisbach, Jessica Samuels, and Jason Bennett.

Ethics bowl is a team-debate style competition. It is an event designed to develop and demonstrate students' capacity for ethical analysis and judgment.

Student teams analyze case studies that demonstrate ethical dilemmas drawn from a wide range of areas (environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, business ethics, institutional ethics, personal ethics, etc.). This analysis enables students to determine a morally defensible resolution to the dilemmas, a resolution that they defend before a panel of judges and a competing team.

After a team presents a case and is challenged by a competing team and responds to that challenge, judges question the team to elicit more detail, raise issues not addressed in the original answer(s), or further challenge them. Judges evaluate the team's performance in terms of the coherence of the argument, propriety of reason, careful assessment, focus, and response to challenges.

Undergraduate students who participate in this course are required to assume primary responsibility for two to three cases studies. This involves thoroughly researching each case, identifying all the moral issues at stake in the case, and preparing an argument for a particular resolution of it. Should either of a student's two cases be called at the Ethics Bowl competition, that student will be responsible for presenting their argument before a panel of judges.

Furthermore, students will be responsible for familiarizing themselves with the other cases and for attending 1 1/2 hour weekly meetings. In these meetings, students will rehearse the cases and offer each other constructive criticism. Finally, students must participate in the Ethics Bowl Competition.

Students can receive two units of credit for participating by signing up for Stevenson 199.

Sandra Dreisbach at sdreisba@ucsc.edu or java@mac.com

Jason Bennett at jabennet@ucsc.edu

From Left to Right: Lauryn Terrones, Herman Sandhu, Meredith Holland, Andrew Crockett, Jeremiah Williamson, Ryan Wells, and Kevin Leddy (other team members that are there but you cannot really see in this image are Leif Oines on the left and Jason Bennett on the right).

There were two teams this year and the teams met together every week to present, prepare and discuss the cases for the Tournament.

Upcoming Nationals competition is on February 22nd in Cincinnatti, Ohio and the team will have one month to prepare since the cases will not be released until mid-January!

This year's state regional tournament was hosted at CSU Chico on December 2, 2006.

Case Studies for the 2006 tournament:http://ethics.iit.edu/eb/Regional.html

Last year's tournament was hosted at CSU San Bernardino on December 3, 2005. California State/Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition Tournament Rules

Ten Case Studies for the 2005 tournament

There was a demonstration debate at UCSC held last year on November 30th open to the public between the two teams to practice before the tournament.

A demo debate will be given each year. Next one will be in Spring 2007.

UCSC Ethics Bowl Team Fall 2005.

From Left to Right: Kevin Leddy, Herman Sandhu, Leif Oines, Meredith Holland, Lauryn Terrones, Jeremiah Williamson, Jason Bennett, Ryan Wells, and Andrew Crockett.

Pictures of the 2005 Ethics Bowl Team Members

Team 1: Kevin Leddy, Jeremiah Williamson, Jason Bennett, and Ryan Wells.

Team 2: Herman Sandhu, Leif Oines, Meredith Holland, Lauryn Terrones, and Andrew Crockett.

Candid Pictures of team while trying to take group photos

http://www.csuchico.edu/phil/bowl.html

http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/philosophy/Community_Section/ethics_bowl/activities.htm