Anne Arundel Community College won first place in the recent 11th Annual Community College Ethics Bowl Competition.
Representing AACC were William Moynihan of Arnold, majoring in Health, Fitness and Exercise Studies; Cameron Smith of Glen Burnie, majoring in Engineering; and Zach Yokel of Greenbelt and Samuel Edwards of Severna Park, both of whom are Transfer Studies majors. Team Coach was Kevin Murphy, assistant professor in the Philosophy department.
“I am very proud of all your enthusiasm, hard work and especially courage for taking on tough intellectual challenges,” Murphy told the team after the competition.
The members of the winning team, affectionately referred to as the Warriors, brought honors to the college at the event sponsored by the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics at the University of Baltimore.
The Ethics Bowl challenges community college students to explore the same cases that are used in national competition by four-year institution teams. Many cases reflect current events. Some of this year’s topics included: whether failing to attribute sources is always plagiarism; whether rape jokes are ever ethical; whether mothers and fathers should be entitled to paid maternity/paternity leave; whether the death sentence should be challenged on purely statistical evidence of racism; whether teachers have professional responsibilities in posting to and accessing social media; and whether drug legalization is the ethical solution to controlling violence in the production and trafficking of heroin and cocaine.
Assisting in the coaching were Monna Clark, professor of Legal Studies, and Mark Ripka, adjunct faculty of English and World Languages, who volunteered many hours to prepare the team for the competition.