In the late 1990s, the wild hope of the Lilly Endowment was that a set of American higher education institutions would respond to the call for an exploration of vocation, giving a portion of their precious institutional lives to explore this question with undergraduates. Through projects on multiple campuses, the intent was to learn whether and…

Ethical leadership is the critical appropriation and embodiment of moral traditions that have shaped the character and shared meanings of a people (an ethos). Ethical leaders speak authoritatively and act responsibly with the aim of serving the collective good. They are, therefore, leaders whose characters have been shaped by the wisdom, habits,…

Recognition of the importance of outcomes related to moral and ethical development, other dimensions of personal development, and civic engagement is a result of decades of educational reform. But have colleges and universities succeeded in helping students achieve these outcomes? In this article, the author shares his personal reflections on…

According to a study of student religiosity conducted by the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), 80 percent of students express a strong interest in spirituality. They are not only spiritual, but they are also religious. Over half of all students attend religious services at least once per month. Indeed, according to the UCLA study, eight…

Discusses changes in ethics' role in public life: (1) many people who live morally are insisting that institutions do the same; (2) while ethics have been used to humanize power, ethics now are power; and (3) private values that provided moral strength at the dawning of nation states must be transformed into public values for an interdependent…

Suggests that the relationship between higher education institutions and their students is the fiduciary relationship of professional to client, not vendor to customer. Identifies distinctive responsibilities of academic administrators, among them the firm articulation of institutional goals, seeing that students are taught well, and contributing…

As long as humans have found ways to commit to posterity their concerns about what we are and what that means, they have dealt with the issue of leadership. Training leaders is only one objective of a liberal arts education, whose main purpose is to educate individuals in moral values and their scrutiny. (MSE)

Several nationally visible institutions--e.g., Harvard, Duke, and Stanford--have made ethics an integral part of their degree requirements. Their high profile commitments reflect a broader trend, discernible across the academy, toward articulating ethics and values and the cultivation of personal and social responsibility as important outcomes of…

The teaching of ethics and values is a concern of American education. Scientific and technological developments and the responsibilities of professional life and of personal morality are discussed. Steps to a quality program in ethics, and the need for a theoretical framework are also addressed. (SW)

It is suggested that the American liberal arts college, more than any other institution, claims to be what Alasdair MacIntyre calls a "community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life is sustained." This view is discussed within the context of MacIntyre's philosophical framework. (MSE)

The overall military ethic, which suggests that the military exists to serve to protect national values in accordance with the Constitution and the government it established, is examined. Also considered are the military's internal ethics, which influence how well the military as an institution does its job. (JMF)

Discusses the opportunities college and university presidential leaders have to contribute the resources of their institutions to public service. Leaders in higher education must keep the balance between free speech and civility and maintain the small world that is the university as a model of what the greater world should be. (SLD)

Educating for personal and social responsibility, from the perspective of moral cognition, involves promoting students' cognitive development. The literature suggests several approaches as successful in promoting cognitive development. Though Kohlberg views this development as primarily facilitated by dialogue with individuals in more advanced …

Liberal arts scholars can make good academic administrators because their disciplines develop the necessary skills, including the abilities to see things whole, to identify intellectual excellence, to know the moral dimensions of behavior, to envision how life may be bettered, and to be sensitive to minorities. (Author/MSE)

Asserts that an intellectual community is called upon to educate students to become morally sophisticated and to take their moral reasoning capacity into a society with complex pressures. Explores key questions that must be addressed to create a space where such learning can happen. (EV)