Championed by Linda Sheryl Greene, Dean, College of Law, and Christopher P. Long, Dean, College of Arts & Letters/Honors College, Michigan State University is advancing and developing a major initiative in ethics that will:
- Be a catalyst for research in ethical theory and applied practice;
- Provide transformative learning experiences for students to discover values that will shape their lives;
- Nurture understanding of ethical challenges across the globe through the study, teaching, and practice of ethics; and
- Advance community-engaged activities that bring ethics intentionally into public life.
The MSU Ethics Institute will advance innovative research, pedagogy, and thought leadership in ethics. The Institute will coordinate university-wide educational and research initiatives to amplify the strengths of existing applied ethics centers and foster the growth of new centers on campus. The Institute is designed to support the growth of existing initiatives and foster the development of new college-level or discipline-based endeavors.
Building toward a focused endeavor on leading-edge research in ethical theory that shapes and is shaped by ethical practice in the world, the creation of an MSU Ethics Institute is emerging. The Institute will be positioned to put ethics at the heart of the MSU experience, from research and outreach to teaching and learning. The goal is to infuse these efforts with new intellectual energy derived from the rigorous theoretical study of ethics drawn from a diverse range of traditions from across the globe, elevate the quality of our applied work, and coordinate them toward a common purpose to establish MSU as a global leader in ethical theory and practice. This will position the MSU Ethics Institute to effectively engage students, faculty, staff, and the public in understanding and uncovering the moral standards that regulate right and wrong conduct, shape ethical habits, and establish our shared duties to one another and the communities in which we live.