Santa Clara University

Christina Fialho, formerly a Hackworth student fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, has just won an Echoing Green Fellowship to support CIVIC, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement. She and fellow activist Christina Mansfield, also named an Echoing Green Fellow, hope to "end the isolation of migrants in civil detention by building and strengthening community visitation programs across the United States." Prior to starting CIVIC, Fialho co-founded the first immigration detention visitation program in California.

Since 1987, Echoing reen has funded more than 500 fellowships for promising social entrepreneurs. Here is their description of Fialho and Mansfield's project:

At this very moment, more than 32,000 men, women, and children are detained by the U.S. government in jails and prisons for not having proper documentation. While lacking papers is not a crime, immigrants are often imprisoned for months--sometimes years--with little connection to the outside world. While over 80 percent of detained immigrants are unrepresented by legal counsel, many also are denied access to family and community support. CIVIC ends the isolation and abuse of persons in immigration detention by building and strengthening community visitation programs across the United States.

The Center's Hackworth Fellowships support SCU students to provide ethics programming for their peers.

Protests against a talk by Kathleen Sebelius at Georgetown University, against an honorary degree for Carlos Slim at George Washington University, and against remarks by Tony Blair at Colby College are only the highlights of this year's controversies about commencement speakers. John Degioia, president of Georgetown, addressed the issues behind these protests in an address June 1.

The Ethics Center's Big Q project takes up these issues in its biweekly case study on ethical issues facing undergraduates in their everyday lives.  The case introduces Ryan, a member of his campus' sustainability club, who is unhappy with the university's decision to invite a known polluter as a commencement speaker.  The best student response to the case wins a $100 Amazon gift certificate.

Photo by ragesoss available under a Creative Commons license.

Does the mandate to buy health insurance, which is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, violate the freedom of individual choice?  David DeCosse, director of campus ethics, explores traditional Catholic ideas about freedom and applies them to health reform in this article for the National Catholic Reporter.

Corporate directors can take action to prevent or abate major ethical meltdowns at their companies by being alert to red flags that show an organization is in trouble.  In a joint program this month with the National Association of Corporate Directors, Silicon Valley, the Ethics Center offered a panel discussion on eight signs that a company may be headed for ethical meltdown. 

Panelists included Katie Martin, partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Vince Vannelli, founder of KPG Ventures, Skip Battle, chairman of Fair Isaac and Co., and Jim Balassone, executive-in-residence at the Ethics Center.  Their presentation was informed by the work of Marianne Jennings.

Center Senior Fellow in Government Ethics Judy Nadler addressed a class of executives, wardens, and other high-level employees of local, state, and federal facilities, last week at the National Institute of Corrections workshop on executive excellence.

Nadler discusses some of the challenges facing corrections leaders on her blog Her Honor.

"While the NFL and others discuss the safety issues in football that may have contributed to [the death of Chargers Linebaker Junior Seau], I am more interested in a man who was facing an existential crisis at the end of his career, and feeling lost as to what to do next," writes Matt Savage on this blog, "Savage on Sports." 

Matt is an SCU senior and a 2011-12 Hackworth Fellow at the Center.  His project has been to involve his fellow students in conversation about the ethical issues in college athletics.  His most recent post explores how universities might help student athletes discover talents and passions that can serve them when they confront the inevitable end of their playing careers.

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson was named a "Master Teacher in Ethics" by the Society for Business Ethics and the Wheatley Institution at Brigham Young University.

The honor came at the conference "Teaching Ethics: Master Class in Business Ethics" held May 22-24, 2012, in Provo, Utah. At the conference, each of six master teachers presented one of their favorite class sessions. Hanson’s session covered the definition of ethics, a summary of five basic approaches to ethics, and a list of 20 unavoidable ethical dilemmas in a business career.

Other honorees included Joshua Margolis, Harvard Business School; Daylian Cain, Yale School of Management; and Andy Wicks, Darden School.

PowerPoint Slides from Hanson’s Presentation

Inviting all Santa Clara University poets to share their proudest Bronco moment at a Poetry Slam, Monday, May 21, 9 p.m., in the Bronco. 

The slam is the latest event inthe Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Big Q project, which encourages students to reflect on the ethical issues in their everyday lives. 

Interested in performing: E-mail jteeny@scu.edu.

Hear a podcast of a talk on immigration and ethics by Jose Antonio Vargas, an award-winning journalist, who spoke at Santa Clara University last night.  Last year, he wrote an article for the New York Times Magazine called, "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant."