A team of DePauw students flew to Jacksonville, Fla., this past weekend to participate in the Ethics Bowl national competition. With one win, one loss and a tie, the Tigers did not advance to the quarter-finals.
Students on the Ethics Bowl team received a list of fifteen cases, all dealing with different moral or ethical issues, on Jan. 6. For approximately two months afterwards, they worked for two hours a day, six days a week, to come up with a ten-minute speech for each case that could answer any question that might be asked of them during the competition.
To attempt to anticipate any possible questions, the students talked through each case thoroughly, drafted at least three outlines that discussed the moral or ethical issues of the case and held mock debates.
According to philosophy professor and faculty supervisor for the Ethics Bowl team, Marcia McKelligan, the students did not know what questions regarding what case would be asked of them until the competition began. "In competition, you're asked a question about the case, and you don't know ahead of time what that question is going to be," McKelligan said. "We really have anticipated just about any objection anybody could make."
At the national level, McKelligan explained, there are three rounds, and every team participates in all three rounds, regardless of whether they win the previous round. The DePauw team was scheduled to compete against Duke University for the first round, but the Duke team never arrived.
At first, the team received a bye, meaning that the students did not have to compete in the first round. They then competed against San Jose State University in the second round.
After they beat San Jose State, they learned that they were to compete against Colgate University to make up for the round that was a bye.
"Our second round was just this extra round that was held during this time when everyone else was having lunch," McKelligan said. "They got another team to compete twice, and they just kind of made up an extra match."
DePauw lost this round, and tied Villanova University for the third round. The team did not advance to the quarter-finals as they had hoped. Last year, the team won nationals.
With such high expectations to live up to from last year, many on the team felt the pressure to win.
"It's scary," said senior Kristina Mulry. "You don't want to let the team down."
Retired DePauw philosophy professor Robert Newton explains that the team that advanced to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the finals to win the whole competition was composed mainly of students who are no longer on the team. According to Newton, the inexperience of many current team members may have contributed to the loss.
"The fact that we were composing a relatively new team may have had a factor there," he said. "This year our team was not as experienced."
The team put in long hours from the moment they received the cases in January up until the competition, but Winter Term posed some challenges in getting the whole team together to practice.
"If you have students who are not going to be here during the Winter Term," Newton said, "then it is very difficult for them to participate."
One student, who was abroad over Winter Term, had to Skype into a few of the meetings over Winter Term so that he would not fall behind.
Mulry describes the time commitment of Ethics Bowl as "adding at least an extra class, maybe even more."
"We'd been working on the cases for about two months," senior Luke Miller said. "We also spent about two to three months preparing for the regional competition."
Despite all of the hard work that the students put into the competition, many are frustrated that they did not go as far as they had hoped.
"Three rounds and its over?" McKelligan said. "It just seems like such a let down."
While Miller was disappointed as well, he is happy with how well the team performed.
"We all put a lot of pressure on ourselves," he said. "We were kind of disappointed, but of course we were just glad that we were able to get there."
Mulry believes that the team did all that they could, and, for that, she is happy with the results.
"I don't think we could have prepared anymore," she said. "I was disappointed, but you know, you can't change it."
Regardless of the loss, McKelligan believes that the best part of the competition is the relationships that are formed in the process.
"It builds up a wonderful camaraderie among the students," she said. "I'm very proud of the students who competed, and all the ones who've helped us all year."