Proposed Activities:

A. Research Support and Enhancement.

    1. Coordinating grant-writing for research and/or teaching projects.

    2. Sponsoring speakers that were of more technical interest, i.e., of interest mainly just to
    people teaching and doing research in applied and professional ethics, and to philosophers.

    3. Hosting conferences.

    4. Faculty discussion groups. There are a number of possibilities here:
            a. relatively informal brown-bag lunches
            b. seminars where faculty would present ongoing research
            c. reading groups
            d. discussions arranged by topic: i.e., have a topic or question set ahead of time, and invite
                participants to air and defend their views on it.

    5. Funding a grad student or post-doc.

    6. Coordinating joint research project(s).
 

B. Teaching support:

    1. Coordination of applied ethics courses. This would include:
            a. providing support and advice to faculty in developing syllabi for applied ethics courses
            b. conducting workshops for people wanting to teach applied and professional ethics.
            c. compiling copies of syllabi and text book selections
            d. compiling recommendations of various sorts (textbooks, etc.)
            e. compiling student evaluations of textbooks.
            f. maintaining a central location for obtaining and storing samples of applied ethics texts
            g. making this information available to faculty via a website and newsletter.

    2. Inviting speakers of broad interest to the university community, accessible to
        students.

    3. Instituting student discussions/debates about contemporary moral issues. This could be
        similar to, and perhaps connected with the philosophy club meetings, heavily advertised in the
        applied and professional ethics classes, and designed to be lively.

    4. A student essay prize. A modest monetary award and print winning essays in the newsletter.

    5. A website for students. This could be linked to our center's page, and could contain all sorts
        of useful references, suggested readings, lecture notes, etc.

    6. Assisting in the production of teaching materials, either for in house use, or for
         publication.

    7. Producing a newsletter to faculty teaching and doing research in applied ethics. This would
         contain much of the material I have detailed above. It would also allow people affiliated with
         the Center to communicate about their research interests and thus foster communication and
         collaborative work by members of different departments.
 

C. Community Service and Outreach.

    1. Public lectures and discussions on topics in applied and professional ethics. We could also
        make ourselves available to civic organizations, schools, etc., for

    2. Making information available to local media, including PBS.

    3. A website.