Students earn 2nd place in Ethics Bowl

A team of IU students competing in the ninth Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl finished second in the nation over the weekend. Over 40 collegiate teams competed in the tournament in Charlotte, N.C.\nIU's team, sponsored by the Poynter Center for Ethics, won $1,000 for its second place finish. The U.S. Naval Academy took home first place honors.\nEach team was asked to settle a hypothetical ethics scenario in debate format, with topics ranging from how to treat patients who have accepted organ transplants from executed Chinese prisoners to the Indonesian military's human rights record.\n"We were thrilled," member Valerie Aquila said. "It was really exciting."\nAquila said the tournament tested her ability to weigh moral judgments on "some very complicated issues."\nIU's six-member team began preparing for the competition in January. The students received a package of 16 scenarios before the tournament that the judges would question them on. Aquila said she and her teammates spent close to six hours a week in preparation.\nThe tournament lasts six rounds, with two teams facing off during each round. The judges announce the topic, and then the first team gives a prepared ten minute presentation on how it would respond ethically to the dilemma. The presentation is followed by a five minute rebuttal from the opposing team. Then the first team is allowed a response. Last, a panel of judges asks the first team questions.\nThen the teams switch roles and are scored.\nIU's team went undefeated until the last round.\n"It was extremely exciting," Summer Johnson, a philosophy and bio-ethics major, said. "Everything seemed to be going our way." \nThis year is the third year in a row the team has competed.\n"They are a tremendously gifted group," coach Mark Wilson said. \nThe competition gives students experience with deep reflection on ethical issues and in the development of interpersonal relationships under tense conditions, he said. \nGlenda Murray, an adviser from the Poynter Center, said the competition places students in scenarios where they are forced to make hyper-rational, quick decisions.\n"We were very pleased for them to come in second," she said.\nThe majority of the teammates are philosophy and religious studies majors, Aquila said.