Ethics Bowl
In Ethics Bowl, students think and learn about current moral and social issues, develop important skills of public speaking and teamwork, and represent Salisbury University at the regional and national level.
Students come to ethics bowl from a range of different majors and academic backgrounds. Recent team members have majors and minors in Philosophy, Environmental Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Communication Arts, Cognitive Science, Public Health, and Business.
15 cases are published at the beginning of the fall semester for intercollegiate competitions across the US. See this year’s cases here.
Students study the cases and meet weekly to discuss and debate them. SU has two teams—a Gold Team and a Maroon Team. The two teams have weekly scrimmages to prepare for a competition at the end of the semester.
In December, we travel to participate in a regional competition with teams from many other colleges and universities. Schools finishing at the top of the regional competition are invited to a national competition in the spring (with all new cases).
SU’s ethics bowl teams have been quite successful in competitions with top-ranked academic schools. SU has qualified for the national competition three times since we started in 2014. In 2021, our team finished 12th in the United States—higher than any other team on the East Coast! In 2022, our Maroon Team defeated Yale’s team!
Many students have considered ethics bowl a highlight of their college career. It is exciting and fun, and excellent preparation for law school, graduate study, and professional work.
Ethics Bowl is a major commitment, but you can get academic credit for being on the ethics bowl team through a class or an Independent Study.
New teams are created every September. If you are interested or would like to learn more, please contact Grace Clement, Ethic Bowl Coach and Professor of Philosophy: gaclement@salisbury.edu.