Ethics Bowl

By Gregory Wright

On February 28, 2021, Snow College completed its most successful year ever in Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) competitions. The team, comprised of Makenzie Lamb, Kevin Gonzalez, Aubrie Turner, Arieanna Parra, and Daniel Hancock, participated in three competitions: the Wasatch/Rocky Mountain Regional, the Two-Year College National Championship, and the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championship.

Snow College students competed against mostly four-year colleges and universities at the Wasatch/Rocky Mountain Regional. They placed first in the standings above 14 other schools, including the University of Colorado, the University of Oklahoma, and Utah State University. No two-year college had ever won a regional IEB competition. Along with the satisfaction of this historic win, Snow College received an invitation to compete in the prestigious IEB National Championship as one of the top 36 teams in the nation.

In 1993, Dr. Robert Ladenson developed the ethics bowl concept with the intent to provide students the opportunity to develop the “capacity for ethical understanding, relative to complex, ambiguous, and difficult to resolve issues” outside of the classroom. The competition differs from traditional debate competitions, as teams of students work together to discuss difficult issues. Instead of being adversarial, ethics bowl frequently leads to teams agreeing on the same solutions to an ethical dilemma. A panel of three judges then pushes students to think more deeply about their arguments. Judges evaluate teams on their ability to identify the complexity of moral issues, formulate a clear and logically consistent position, and respond to differing views. The team with the majority of judges scoring in its favor wins the match.

After winning its region and finishing second in the Two-Year College National Championship, the Snow College ethics bowl team entered the IEB National Championship, which was held via Zoom on February 27-28. Students prepared to discuss 17 extremely complex ethical cases with topics such as the allocation of limited, life-saving resources during a pandemic or what limits, if any, should be placed on social media corporations. In the first round, they faced Yale, outscoring the Ivy League university on points yet losing on the number of judges. Over two days, Snow College also faced Stanford, West Point, and Seattle University. Despite not advancing to the quarterfinals, Snow College students left knowing that they can compete against the very best institutions and students in the world.

The ethics bowl is a special competition that helps students develop the moral compass needed for success in all facets of their lives. As team captain Makenzie Lamb asserts, the ethics bowl is the place where we can “have the conversations that change the world.”

Photo Caption: Ethics bowl team (from left to right): Coaches Gregory Wright and Michael Salitrynski; Team members Aubrie Turner, Makenzie Lamb, Kevin Gonzalez, and Daniel Hancock.