Ethics Bowl team places at regional competition

Morgantown, WV, May 30, 2006: The first-ever West Virginia University Ethics Bowl team competed in the Northeast Regional Ethics Bowl this spring, earning 5th place overall.

The Ethics Bowl is a debate competition in which teams of students analyze cases and present arguments regarding ethical issues that come up in those cases. The cases are released to the students approximately one month before the tournament, and students spend that time before the competition preparing their arguments.

Team members included Jonathan Nichols, a philosophy major from Morgantown; Anne Mutashi, a political science and philosophy student from Morgantown; philosophy major Doug Crouse of South Charleston; Ben Saunders, a biology major from Charleston; and Tom Schreiber of Huntington.

The competition was held at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. The WVU squad faced seven other teams from the Northeast Region including Marist, Dartmouth College, Manhattan College, Union College, Franklin Pierce College, and two teams from Williams College. Williams College was named the winner based on number of matches won, but the WVU team finished with more points overall than the winning school.

The team is coached by Andrew Cullison, visiting assistant professor of philosophy in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. Cullison competed in Ethics Bowl as an undergraduate at DePauw University, where he served as team captain, and as a graduate student, he coached the University of Rochester’s Ethics Bowl team.

The next regional competition will be held during the Fall 2006 semester. Students interested in participating should contact Cullison by the beginning of the fall semester.

For more information about Ethics Bowl, contact Andrew Cullison at Andrew.Cullison@mail.wvu.edu or at 304-293-3641.

W-V-U