Stanford University Finished Second at National Ethics Bowl Competition

ethics team

GREENCASTLE, IND. (Feb. 26, 2025)—Undergraduate students from Stanford University and Macalester College competed in the national championship for the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (APPE IEB)®, February 22 and 23 in Norfolk, Virginia. The final match featured cases about space weaponry and term limits for federal judges. In the end, the team from Macalester College took home the trophy.

In the final, the students discussed the following questions:

  • If you were tasked with outlining the United States’ policy with respect to the use of space weaponry, what would that policy look like?
  • If you were tasked with producing a policy regarding the term lengths for federal judges (up to and including lifetime appointments), what would that policy look like?

Over two days, 36 teams of undergraduate college students from across the country wrestled with these and other thorny issues using a set of cases that were drawn from real-life ethical challenges in education, business, life, and politics. The teams participating in the APPE IEB®, were judged not by their answers to specific questions, but by their ability to identify and analyze the ethical dimensions of each case in a clear, focused, and thoughtful manner and with an appreciation for varied perspectives.

“Like in life, the cases are complex, difficult to resolve, and sometimes polarizing,” said Michael Jordan, APPE IEB® Council Chair. “Unlike debate, in Ethics Bowl, teams are not assigned ‘pro’ and ‘con’ sides of an ethical issue. Each team’s goal is to identify the various ethical considerations, analyze the importance of those, and engage in civil discourse with another team that expands the conversation based on its position. Our goal is to help students see the value of continuing to engage with others despite difference, to understand more about views that differ from their own, and to help students think of collaborative solutions to solve societal problems.”

Download the full set of cases.

Watch the recording of the final match.

Semi-finalists in the competition were teams from Seattle University and Youngstown State University. Quarterfinalists were teams from University of Arizona, University of California—Santa Barbara, University of Colorado—Boulder, and U.S. Military Academy, West Point.

“In some ways, the conversations during Ethics Bowl rounds are the antithesis of what most of us have come to expect when picturing conversations about really difficult topics,” said Kristen Fuhs Wells, executive director at the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. “Although the students are dealing with controversial questions and often opposing viewpoints, they listen and empathize. They discuss and reason with each other. They present positions based on just and ethical considerations. I can’t help but imagine the types of solutions we could come up with if we all practiced the same approach to talking with people about our disagreements.”

The 36 qualifying teams were:

  • Baylor University
  • Cabrillo College
  • Coastal Carolina University
  • DePauw University
  • Duke University
  • Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
  • Georgia Southern University
  • Harper College
  • Indiana University
  • Loras College
  • Loyola University Chicago
  • Macalester College
  • Northeastern University
  • Oklahoma State University
  • Rollins College
  • Salisbury University
  • Seattle University
  • Seton Hall University
  • Stanford University
  • Taylor University
  • United States Military Academy at West Point
  • University of Arizona
  • University of California, San Diego
  • University of California, Santa Barbara
  • University of Central Arkansas
  • University of Central Florida
  • University of Colorado-Boulder
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  • University of Minnesota, Morris
  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
  • Utah State University
  • Utah Valley University
  • Virginia Tech
  • Whitworth University
  • Youngstown State University

The national competition is held in conjunction with the annual international conference of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE). APPE is an international non-profit membership organization founded in 1991 dedicated to advancing scholarship, education, and practice in practical and professional ethics. 

About the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics

The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) is an international nonprofit membership organization that supports research, training, and education in practical and professional ethics. It was founded in 1991 to encourage interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching among educators and practitioners. APPE hosts an annual conference and the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl® each February. Since 2017 APPE has been housed at the Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Learn more at www.appe-ethics.org.