C OCVOEVRE SR TSOt oRr y Y
2011
“A larger purpose of liberal education is to develop in our students an ethical sensibility,” President David C. Joyce said at Commencement May 15. “Doing this is crucial to our contribution to the greater social good and to the development of responsible citizens.”
2011:
AClass Act “Ethics” was the theme as Commencement was held under clear and cool skies as Joyce challenged the graduates to make the world a more positive and better place. He said it is inevitable that the graduates, in their personal and professional lives, will face difficult questions, be required to make hard choices and to take action based on those choices. “Ripon graduates will be asked to discern correct paths when none may appear clear, and to make right choices amid complexity and ambiguity,” he said. “More than that, they will, over the course of time, observe and be exposed to the choices of others, which they will, in
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turn, be required to evaluate using knowledge and perspectives that combine their education with their experiences and their values.” Honorary degree recipient and commencement speaker Kenneth R. Feinberg expanded on these thoughts. Feinberg has been key to resolving many of our nation’s most challenging and widely known disputes, including administering the 9/11 Fund and, currently, administering the $20 billion fund for claims following the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “In my chosen profession – the law – and, especially, when it comes to the various assignments I have accepted over the past decades,
I confront ethical dilemmas every day,” Feinberg said. In compensating victims of tragedies, it is a time-honored principle in American law to compensate more for those who earn more, he said. And while some victims of recent tragedies have been generously compensated, others have received nothing at all. “What is life worth? And why should some victims receive more money than others?” he asked. “These are not easy issues, and there are no easy answers. What is important is that we appreciate the underlying subject of ethics in the work that we do.” He offered the graduates a valuable