Course Objective
The goal of this course is to help the student understand the fundamental concepts of ethics, such as the concept of the good life, egoism, the relationship of religion to ethics, and consequence-based and duty-based ethics. Second, through confronting ethical issues and case studies, the student will have an increased understanding of how to analyze ethical issues and cases and make more informed ethical decisions.

Textbooks
Barbara MacKinnon. Ethics: Theory and Contentporary Issues. San Francisco, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. ISBN 0-534-2-3.10

Assignments

1. Review Exercises for each unit, due the date posted for the assignment.

2. One Final Exam

3. An ethics position paper. A 5-10 page, double-spaced, keyboarded paper in which you take a position on an ethics issue. More will be posted on this assignment later.

4. You may do a service learning project instead of doing a position paper. Information about this project will be posted under the service learning page.

Service Learning
Service Learning or academically based community service is a way of learning that involves students applying what they are learning in the class room through community service. In this course if you do the service-learning option, you will need to do 20 hours of service at one of two sites. In addition, you will need to write a reflection paper in which you answer/cover some questions that I will be posting to you. This paper will be less arduous than the alternative ethics position paper.

While theoretically you could select your own service sites, for the purposes of this course, you have two options. If this is not workable, you will need to discuss alternatives with me, and I must approve it. The two options are as follows:

The Community School Project
We are working the Aurora Public Schools and the City of Aurora to help develop a community or extended day school at North Middle School, located at Peoria and Montview in Aurora. We are planning the program. We have three coordinators working on this project. The modules (or learning activities to be offered after school) will not start until late October. You would need to plan on spending 4 hours a week working in modules. The modules are two hours a day from 2:30-4:30 p.m. each day. So beginning in late October, you could get in 5 weeks on this project.

You can serve as a mentor or tutor. Modules will include boys' and girls' clubs, computer club, homework club, a drama project focusing on reclaiming multicultural art, and job club (in which middle-schoolers will be making art products to sell. There will be teachers in charge of each module. We will focus on 6th grade. We anticipate a full house of 100-150 middle schoolers every afternoon. It is an exciting project.

The University of Colorado/Community College of Aurora project at NEWSED. (Near-West Side Economic Development Corporation)

This is a not-for-profit community development corporation that has as its primary goal to develop projects and programs that address the persistent economic programs of impacted communities by:

Creating jobs for neighborhood residents
Securing and coordinating resources for neighborhood revitalization
Providing employment and training services that promote self-sufficiency
Developing needed shopping areas and services
Fostering minority and neighborhood business ownership
Increasing home ownership and affordable rental opportunities
Hosting a variety of special cultural events and activities that showcase the neighborhood's predominant Latino culture and promotes economic development.

As part of a grant the University of Colorado and Community College of Aurora have being coordinating some activities involving UCD and CCA students. The UCD students involved are enrolled in a course titled, The Urban Citizen, team taught by Jerry Jacks and Tony Robinson, professors in political science. The students take the course on site at NEWSED and then do a variety of projects, such as helping host cultural events and work on neighborhood rovement, including some home repairs. CCA students can work with UCD students, provided we can coordinate schedules. Otherwise, we will set up some alternative activities at NEWSED that will accommodate CCA students. Plans are underway to schedule at least one Saturday meeting between CCA and UCD students to discuss the work at NEWSED and social issues. I will participate in this meeting as well. I will announce the meeting(s) date for this to those of you who opt to do this project. Please contact Paula Bonell for information regarding placement at NEWSED.

Immediate placement possibilities:

A block organizing party on September 26 from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. The purpose of this party is to celebrate NEWSED community work, the Palacio Inca Apartment Complex project (new low-income housing), and to use this event as a community organizing tool to get neighborhood residents to participate in the development of a grant proposal to the City of Denver for a community beautification project, which the UCD students will work on (possibly CCA students as well). Such an event was held last year and it was a lot of fun. It also was very educational to learn how community organizing occurs.

Home repair jobs. On October 27, the UCD group will do three home repair jobs.

Community Research. UCD students also will do an action research project concerning how New York, Atlanta, San Antonio, and Detroit are developing low cost housing. The students will compare this with what Denver does and then consider legislative action/social awareness to help the City to realize that they are not spending enough in this particular area. We are discussing have CCA students coordinate a similar research on Philadelphia, using the Web, library research, and phone calls (to be paid for out of my office, which is where you would do the phones). We will have an initial meeting with Tony Robinson and some UCD students, 10: 00 a.m. – 12: 00 p.m. October 17 at NEWSED. Then the CCA students will have to coordinate this work as a team, and then we will have another meeting with UCD students on another Saturday in which information will be shared. If this does not work out, we will endeavor to work with NEWSED to find other meaningful activities.

One of the challenges is that other than these special activities, home repair, block party, Saturday is not a good day to work at NEWSED. So, if you opt for this project, you will need to stay in touch with Paula to determine how to proceed. But it should not be difficult to get in 20 hours. The proposed 2-3 hour meeting with UCD students on a Saturday will count as part of your hours.