| |  | | ABOUT THE INSTITUTE Promoting opportunities for ethical reflection and debate at Sacred Heart University since 1993
The Hersher Institute started in 1993 with a generous endowment from local businessman Kurt Hersher and named in memory of his father, the Hersher Institute for Applied Ethics promotes ethical reflection and education across the curriculum. Several of its programs are directed to the faculty, preparing them to incorporate ethical analysis more effectively into their courses. The Institute also promotes conversations around the campus about the pressing ethical issues of our time, all with the goal of helping Sacred Heart students develop a sound moral foundation to take into their careers and their communities. Brian Stiltner, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Religious Studies, has been director of the Institute since September 1998.
The Hersher Institute sponsors a variety of programming to meet these goals. Its public forums featuring SHU faculty have addressed President Clinton's impeachment crisis, the ethics of world religions, and military intervention in the Balkans. The Institute has organized a number of faculty roundtable discussions. It has sponsored or cosponsored major speakers, such as HIV-specialist and author/essayist Abraham Verghese, MD; former boxer and prison reformer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter; and bioethicist Thomas Shannon.
To provide practical assistance in teaching ethics, the Hersher Institute sponsors stand-alone roundtable discussions and readings groups. It also administers a grants program, in which faculty apply for a summer grant of to create course-units on ethics. Dr. Stiltner and Dr. Frances Grodzinsky of the Department of Computer Science) co-facilitate a two-day workshop for the recipients. Over the past three summers, twenty SHU faculty have received grants and developed ethics units. Hence, SHU students are increasingly encountering moral issues and ethical reasoning across the curriculum.
For more information, please contact the Directors of the Hersher Institute:
Dr. Frances Grodzinsky
Department of Computer Science
(203) 371-7776
GrodzinskyF@sacredheart.edu
Dr. Michael Ventimiglia
Department of Philosophy
(203) 371-7965
VentimigliaM@sacredheart.edu | |