Students win national ethics bowl

The tensions were high at the National Ethics Bowl. Senior ethics bowl team member Catherine Perrault checked her pulse; it was at a constant 80 BPM. She knew she was ready. An hour and a half filled with arguing and critiquing had passed and after discovering the judge’s scores, the team discovered they had won.

This year marks UCF’s first national victory. In the past three years, UCF has qualified to be in the competition and last year it placed second in the Southeast Regional Ethics Bowl.

“It feels great to win, each year we’ve gotten a little bit better and honed the delivery, focus and research that we’ve done,” said senior philosophy major and team member Alexander Kaplan.

The competition took place at the Hilton Netherland Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio, as part of the meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.

According to the UCF College of Arts and Humanities website, the team consisted of Perrault, Kaplan, Jessica Fears, Stephen Oldham, Kevin Dupree and Ramon Lopez. All members of the team are part of the Burnett Honors College and five of the six members are taking the Case Studies in Ethics honors class at UCF.

The team was coached by Nancy Stanlick, associate professor and assistant chair of the department of philosophy; Michael Strawser, an assistant professor in the philosophy department; and Madi Dogariu, director of student services at the Burnett Honors College.

Read the rest of the article at the Orlando Sentinel.