Staunton student part of VMI ethics team competing in national championship
LEXINGTON — The Virginia Military Institute ethics team recently competed at the Association for Professional and Practical Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championship in Portland, Oregon. The team qualified for the event by placing fourth in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition last November, per a press release.
Staunton's Riley Malone, a graduate of Fishburne Military School, was part of the team, joining Harris Burton. Riley Shultz and Gabriele Woodward. They were sponsored by the Center for Leadership and Ethics, and coached by Dr. Duncan Richter, the Charles S. Luck III ’55 Institute Professor in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies.
The two-day, multi-institutional collegiate competition included 36 teams, the release said. During the preliminary round, VMI scored three wins beating teams from the United States Military Academy West Point, Rollins College, and William & Mary.
Advancing to the quarterfinal round, VMI fell by two points to the United States Naval Academy, which went on to win the championship. According to Richter, the scores of every round were close.
“VMI made it to the last eight in the nation, and lost only to last year’s champions, which was the team from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and this year’s champions, USNA,” he said.
A few of the questions posed to the VMI team to discuss were: Is it morally permissible for the panda to be the poster child for the World Wildlife Fund? Is providing medical screening for persons who likely cannot afford to treat their conditions morally permissible? What moral obligation, if any, do private universities have to promote free speech on their campuses? Do free speech zones actually serve this purpose?
Burton, the cadet-in-charge, said, “We had an excellent time discussing a variety of complex issues such as bioethics, social issues, and challenges facing our legal system with accomplished students from across the country.”
The team’s next competition will be the Military Ethics Case Competition held at the USNA in Annapolis, Maryland, in April.
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— Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Staunton student part of VMI ethics team competing in national championship
