On Campus: Duke Code of Ethics
DURHAM — In the convocation ceremony last fall, hundreds of
Duke University freshmen publicly promised never to lie, cheat or
steal during their academic careers. Their signed pledges were
later framed on parchment to be posted in the East Campus
Student Union, for everyone to see.
Moral leadership and civic involvement were the subject this month
of Duke student-faculty panel discussions. And starting with the
2000 freshman class, students are required to take two courses
with an element of “ethical inquiry,” in which they analyze the
consequences of personal and political decisions.
Matthew Baugh, a senior from Raleigh and co-chairman of the
undergraduate judicial board, sees
all this as evidence of an evolving Duke — a campus at which
academic integrity and ethical conduct really matter.
“We recognize clearly we’ve got a long way to go, a lot of work ahead
of us,” said Baugh, who has joined with other student leaders to
emphasize the university’s 8-year-old honor code.
The evolution on campus is no accident. Baugh attributes much of the
change to Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics.
Five years ago, a $2 million gift from the William R. Kenan Jr. Fund
for Ethics got the program started. Last year, a $10 million endowment
from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust established the
institute permanently.
It was the dream of the late Frank Kenan, a Durham businessman and
philanthropist who envisioned a program that would pay attention to
the practical application of ethics.
“He wasn’t interested in some insular program that would promote
ethics scholarship of a highly academic kind,” said Elizabeth Kiss,
a human-rights scholar and director of the Kenan Institute since 1997.
“He wanted to see something that would really make a difference across
the university and beyond.”
Since 1995, the Kenan Institute has expanded the number of classes
that require community service. Last year, it helped create a course
in which students analyze moral choices in fields such as journalism,
public health and the environment.
– Jane Stancill