Center for Ethics' Mission
We are here to stimulate dialogue, encourage awareness, and promote critical thinking about ethical issues at Webster University and beyond. We bring people together who are usually separated by disciplinary boundaries and encourage thoughtful reflection regarding ethical dilemmas among them.
As our University community creates high-quality, transformative learning experiences for all, the Center serves as a collaboration resource that urges participants to identify their responsibilities as global citizens. Contact Us to learn more about how to get involved.
The Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility
I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organization for which I work.
In a sense, the Pledge operates at three levels: students making choices about their employment, schools educating about values and citizenship rather than only knowledge and skills, and the workplace and society being concerned about more than just the bottom line.
Taking the Pledge is a voluntary decision, and likewise you must determine what constitutes environmental and socially responsible behavior.
Issues and Problems in Ethics
This 1000-level course is a great opportunity to discuss today's ethical concerns and develop critically thinking around them. Issues and Problems in Ethics is a one-credit-hour course in applied/practical ethics and may be repeated two times for a total of 3 credit hours. Talk to your academic counselor about upcoming class topics today!
Additional Resources
Business for Social Responsibility
This site contains recent articles and resources on a variety of topics (including
human rights and environmental issues).
Ethics Center
This site, hosted by Colorado State University's College of Business, contains ethics-related
articles.
Institute of Business Ethics
This UK-based site aims to be "the leader in knowledge and practice of corporate business
ethics."
International Business Ethics Institute
The Institute's website has information on corporate responsibilities' programs and
educational programs.
Center for Professional Responsibility
This site contains current news in legal ethics, various codes of professional and
judicial responsibilities and conduct, the Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct and a variety of related legal ethics resources.
The National Organization of Bar Counsel
The National Organization of Bar Counsel enforces the ethical conduct of lawyers in
the United States, Canada and Australia. The organization's website offers a compilation
of cases involving legal ethics (although the collection is presently off-line).
LegalEthics.com
This site contains up-to-date articles on various issues surrounding legal ethics,
as well as an extensive database covering state lawyer ethics, advertising rules,
confidentiality, ethics opinions and state government ethics.
ACLU's Death Penalty Site
The ACLU's site contains a plethora of articles that argue against the death penalty.
Death Penalty Abolition News and Updates From Amnesty International
This site contains up-to-date information and news flashes about the death penalty
as well as information pertaining to international human rights standards, racial
prejudice, military death penalty and international issues.
Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation
Founded by families of people who were murdered, this site offers articles from the
perspectives of those who have been affected by violent crimes, yet still hold anti-death-penalty
convictions.
ProDeathPenalty.com
This popular pro-capital punishment site uses facts, statistics and sentiment that
support the death penalty.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
This site offers a critical look at the media, focusing on how prejudice and sexism
influence bias reporting.
Freedom Forum
The Freedom Forum aims to preserve First Amendment rights and to promote newsroom
diversity.
National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA)
The NLGJA aims to develop fair coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
issues in the media.
Poytner
The Poytner Institute is an institute for the education of journalists. The Institute's
site offers an array of current and archived articles in media ethics and lends a
journalist's perspective on the issue.
Society of Professional Journalists — Ethics in Journalism
This site includes the ethics codes for journalism developed by Society of Professional
Journalists, as well aesthetics' news, an ethics hotline, and an ethics listserv.
This site offers many current articles about key issues in bioethics, as well as conference announcements and information on jobs in bioethics.