CSUB hosting California Regional Ethics Bowl on Saturday

Teams of students from 19 schools will compete in a series of debates

By California State University, Bakersfield

December 1^st, 2021

California State University, Bakersfield is hosting the California Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl for the first time ever on Saturday.

Teams of students from 19 schools will compete in a series of virtual debates on topics such as critical race theory, financial incentives for COVID-19 vaccines and environmental preservation. CSUB’s team of three students will be participating in the event.

The final round of the Ethics Bowl on Dec. 4 is open to the public and will be livestreamed at 5:45 p.m. on the Kegley Institute of Ethics’ YouTube page.

“I’m excited. I think it will be fantastic to have Bakersfield be host this time around,” said Dr. Nate Olson, associate professor of philosophy and Ethics Bowl coach at CSUB. “It brings more attention to our university and our community. I think it will help people see some of the really smart students we have here at CSUB and the wonderful community we have.”

CSUB is co-hosting the Ethics Bowl with Bakersfield College, which has a team of two students who will be competing.

“The philosophy department at BC is proud to be co-hosting this event with the philosophy department of CSUB and the Kegley Institute of Ethics,” said Professor Bryan Russell. “Organizing these events is as difficult as ever, but there are too many pressing ethical issues we should be discussing to put off hearing potential solutions from the next generation.”

The Ethics Bowl is made up of three sections: The initial rounds, the semi-final round and the final round. Each round has a moderator and three judges who will be evaluating teams based on the organization and quality of their arguments as well as how well they address objections from the team they are competing with.

One element that makes the Ethics Bowl a bit different from similar competitions is that teams don’t necessarily have to debate opposite sides of an issue.

“There is no set position you’re assigned,” Dr. Olson said. “You argue what you think is the right answer, the most ethical approach to the topic. The other side could agree with you and provide their own arguments. The Ethics Bowl is intended to be more collaborative than antagonistic.”

Organizing the debates this way forces students to learn more than one side of an issue, Dr. Olson said.

“They really have to understand the different approaches people can take, what are all the sides of an issue,” he said. “That’s something we don’t often do in our society today. We have become very entrenched in our own positions. I’m always very heartened thinking about the kinds of debates that happen at the Ethics Bowl. I always walk away excited and very impressed with the ideas students have and how well they’re able to disagree in a civil way with each other.”

Dr. Olson said one of the goals of the Ethics Bowl is to get students to think about the world around them and how we function as a society.

“The Ethics Bowl is really an opportunity for students to think about what they believe about how we should be living our lives,” he said. “It helps students become very informed citizens as they learn about all these different topics.”

An 'eye-opening' experience

Students in Dr. Olson’s Ethics Bowl class have been preparing for the competition since the fall semester began. One of those students is Jennifer VanDever, a double philosophy and psychology major who has never participated in the Ethics Bowl before.

VanDever heard about the course while taking Dr. Olson’s theories of ethics course and was interested in participating.

“My favorite part of philosophy is the study of ethics — how to apply ethics in the modern world,” she said. “I really like how this class takes a modern approach and discusses controversial issues.”

VanDever said preparing for the competition has been challenging, especially keeping all the cases they have been practicing straight in her head and not getting confused. Her teammates have helped her stay focused on the task at hand.

“I couldn’t ask for better teammates,” she said. “We help each other out so none of us feel scared and we have a good idea about a topic.”

Dr. Olson is proud of the effort the team has made this semester in preparing for this weekend’s Ethics Bowl.

“They’ve been extremely committed. I don’t think any one of them have missed a day of class all semester, and they’ve done a lot of work outside of class preparing for this,” he said. “I’m very confident in how well-prepared they are for Saturday.”

VanDever is both excited and nervous about participating in the competition. Regardless of how the team performs, she said it’s been a great learning experience.

“This whole experience has been eye-opening. I never thought I would do something like this,” she said. “This has been one of my favorite classes this semester.”