Bringing home hardware

Five students from Weber State University brought home a trophy after placing second in the national Ethics Bowl competition held last week in Cincinnati.
Dawn Hall, senior philosophy major from Layton; Jordan Fuit, philosophy major from South Ogden; Glenn Künzler, philosophy and computer science major from Willard; John Piccolo, philosophy and economics major from Eden and senior Kevin Willardsen, philosophy major from Roy, defeated last year’s national champs from Indiana University but lost to the University of Alabama.
Richard Greene, associate professor of philosophy and Ethics Bowl coach, said each team member worked very hard and brought different strengths to the competition.
“All five members are extremely well spoken and very hard-working,” he said, “and they did a nice job at organizing their thoughts and presenting the material.”
The Ethics Bowl program, which has been a part of WSU for nine years, teaches students different strategies on how to approach various moral dilemmas, including debating different viewpoints and how to see all sides of an issue.
“The skills students learn are good,” Greene said, “the teamwork, the public speaking and the moral reasoning skills.”
As part of the competition, teams are given 10-15 cases to prepare involving moral cases, many of which are taken from contemporary situations. They must then craft a response followed by a series of rebuttals. A panel of judges then evaluates and scores each team’s performance.
Hall said being a part of the Ethics Bowl was a great experience and working with her team was very rewarding.
“Our team works so well together because we are not of a single mind,” she said. “I have learned how to keep an open mind to more than just my opinion, to really listen to others, and to work together.”
Künzler said he had to work hard and practice in regional tournaments before he finally made it to Greene’s traveling team heading for the national competition.
“There are people on all sides of the issues,” he said, “and no matter what you argue, you are wrong in at least some people’s eyes.”
Künzler, who hopes to become a computer scientist, said his experience studying ethics would help his career when dealing with issues such as finding illegal content on a customer’s computer, employee theft, scams and other illegal or wrongful behavior.
“Many people revert straight to religion or dogmatic principles,” he said.
 Künzler suggested instead to learn about an issue, entertain different perspectives and then  rationally resolve each situation.
“The most important thing to do,” he said, “is keep your cool and use your head!”
A personal highlight during the competition for Greene was when he saw his team up on the stage of the hotel.
“I just felt sort of overwhelmingly proud,” he said. “The kids worked hard and they deserved to be there, so it was really nice to see that.”
Greene shared how, just a week before they left to go on the trip, his mother passed away unexpectedly, and his team was left on their own that entire week, unprepared, to practice and polish up all the cases themselves. When he returned, he was worried whether they would be ready to compete or not.
“It’s like a coach missing the week before a playoff game who wouldn’t know whether his team was in sync or what,” he said. “When they started doing their cases, I was just in awe that, yeah, these kids really pulled it together.”
Any WSU undergraduate can join the Ethics Bowl Team, which begins preparations every fall for the National Ethics Bowl Championship. Students interested should contact Greene at rgreene@weber.edu.