OC Ethics Team competes at Nationals in California

The Oklahoma Christian University Ethics Team competed in the 19th annual National Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in Costa Mesa, California on Feb. 22.

About 30 teams from across the country competed. Oklahoma Christian won against Clemson University and the University of Michigan until the University of Arkansas at Little Rock bested them. The loss disqualified the team from advancing.

The Ethics Bowl focused on ethical dilemmas in different fields such as business, engineering, journalism, law, medicine and social work.

“I know they are very well prepared and will represent Oklahoma Christian very well,” Jeff Simmons, faculty sponsor of the team, said prior to the competition. “They are intelligent students. I am proud of the work that the students have put in. They have put a lot of time and effort into this and no matter what happens, I am proud to work with them.”

The National Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is similar to a debate in the fact that teams are given an ethical dilemma to discuss and take turns presenting their argument. However, the Ethics Bowl allows teams to agree on an issue and the judges to ask questions to the active team.

Simmons said the ethical debates allow students to broaden their viewpoints and see issues from a different perspective.

“This is my third year doing this competition, so I have really learned a lot about ethical philosophy and how to solve ethical problems,” senior Chas Carter said. “It has opened my eyes to a new field of study that I would have not have known about otherwise.”

Teams are given materials before the competition to analyze and research but are not allowed to bring anything with them to the table.

“I feel like I remembered the material,” Freshman Megan McKinley said. “It is a matter of looking back and thinking ‘Oh, that argument – I forgot to bring that up,’ and all these different things. Overall, it was a really good time and I feel good about it.”

Freshman Sean Vandyke said the competition was a good way for teams to talk about ethical issues without conflict.

“One thing that I took away was the realization that there are people who are devoted to ethical issues that are willing and have a desire to resolve them in a civil manner,” Vandyke said. “Some previous competitions that I have been at were a lot more confrontational and almost hostile tenor. I appreciated the civil tone of the discussion here and the round-table like discussion format.”

The discussion requires teams to learn how to critically think about an issue and understand the root of the issue.

“One of the biggest things that business ethics has taught me is you can approach an issue from a lot of different angles and you do have to do that to really understand it,” McKinley said.

McKinley said the hardest part of the competition is thinking on your feet under pressure.

“I think that the biggest thing we could do as a team is to be sure that we are always answering the question that the judge is asking,” McKinley said. “Occasionally, we would miss the point of the question and try to explain something else. I think we should always make sure we are on point with exactly the question is and make sure we communicate it, too.”

Oklahoma Christian was among the top runners in many ethics categories.

“I really think we all did the best we could,” Carter said. “There is always room for more research and things but there is a lot of elements of surprise in the rounds and luck issues with who you get to debate and what your judges think.”

Teams are judged on how well they understand the facts of the case, how they articulate the ethical principles in the case, how they present their argument on how the case can be resolved and how efficiently they respond to the opposing team.

“That is very hard to do when we are dealing with ethical issues that people already have a lot of opinions formed about,” Vandyke said. “It is always important in these types of situations to try and find judges who can bring basically an unbiased viewpoint and make their decision based on that.”

The Ethics Bowl is a tiered competition and will compete again in regionals in November and December.

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