In the news: SPC, St. Pete Collegiate HS students help clean up Clearwater

Students with the college’s Ethics Institute and the National Honor Society at St. Petersburg College and St. Pete Collegiate High School were recognized by the city of Clearwater for their work and participation in cleanup projects in March. “With the help of volunteers, Clearwater continues to look beautiful for both residents and visitors,” the city reported online.

• SPC Ethics Institute students helped city of Clearwater staff clean out invasive Brazilian pepper plants at Cooper’s Bayou Park on March 23
• SPC/St. Pete Collegiate High School National Honor Society students from the St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus spent three Saturdays in March removing invasive plants from Moccasin Lake Nature Park

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SPC hosts workshop on civics education in Florida State College System

SPC hosted a civics education workshop in the Collaborative Labs at the EpiCenter on Tuesday, April 2.

Representatives from other colleges, universities and state organizations, as well as SPC students, met to assess the status of civics education in the Florida State College System and to identify any best practices, practical applications, incentives and impediments to the promotion and expansion of civics literacy on the state college level. They also discussed an action plan through which to accomplish these goals and help students and citizens become more engaged.

“It was a great lab,” said Jeff Kronschnabl, Instructor in Charge for the College of Policy, Ethics and Legal Studies. “It provided structure and an exciting exchange between the participants. It also provided the collaborative networking and partnership required to make this an effective initiative.”

The idea for the meeting stemmed from meetings last year with former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who served on the state’s Education Committee and has always had a strong interest in education. SPC Policy Consultant Tom Furlong, whose long-term relation with Graham goes back many years, was instrumental in helping the event come together.

“There is a renewed interest in civics education in this country,” Susan Demers, Dean, College of Policy and Legal Studies, who referred to man on the street-styled interviews where adults appear to lack an understanding of the country’s political system. “As a result, it is of particular interest to Gov. Graham that we have a civics initiative here in Florida.”

“It was a really great discussion because we had people at all levels and with all kinds of interests represented,” she said. “It provided a nice checklist of things to do and how we’re going to partner in the future.”

The discussion has led to the idea of a statewide conference that will include all 28 state colleges, Demers said. The conference will be headed up by SPC’s Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions in collaboration with Julie Alexander, Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, Florida Department of Education.

Civics Education Workshop participants included: Name Title Organization Julie Alexander Vice Chancellor, Academic and Student Affairs Florida Department of Education Paul Baumann Director, National Center for Learning and Citizenship Education Commission of the States Kasongo Butler Vice-Chancellor Florida College System Anne Cooper Senior Vice President, Academic and Student Affairs St. Petersburg College Susan Demers Dean, College of Policy and Legal Studies St. Petersburg College Christopher Denny Model United Nations student St. Petersburg College Douglas Dobson Executive Director, Lou Frey Institute of Policy and Government University of Central Florida Earl Fratus Social Science Faculty and Model UN Instructor St. Petersburg College Tom Furlong Policy Consultant, President’s Office St. Petersburg College Lisa Garcia Representative, Student Government Association St. Petersburg College Randy Hanna Chancellor Florida College System Emma Humphries Assistant in Citizenship, Graham Center for Public Policy University of Florida David Klement Executive Director, Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions St. Petersburg College Jeff Kronschnabl Lead Instructor, Public Policy and Administration St. Petersburg College Bill Law President St. Petersburg College Tara Newsom Associate Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences St. Petersburg College Anja Norman Academic Department Chair, Social and Behavioral Sciences St. Petersburg College James Olliver Provost, Seminole Campus St. Petersburg College Suzanne Preston Professor, Social Science St. Petersburg College Jackson Sasser President Santa Fe College Jacqulyn Schuett Project Coordinator, Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions St. Petersburg College Joseph Smiley Dean, Social and Behavioral Sciences St. Petersburg College Pam Stewart Chancellor, Division of Public Schools Department of Education

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One giant leap for SPC ethics students

SPC ethics students watch the Kennedy Space Center movie about man’s landing on the moon.

Few of the 27 St. Petersburg College students who traveled to the Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 15 knew they would experience a simulated launch, talk to an astronaut, stand near the space shuttle launch pad, tour the Vehicle Assembly Building or touch a moon rock … but these were just a few of the experiences made available to them during their up close and personal tour of NASA.

Student Kyle Harriot called the visit emotional. “I loved watching the space shuttle launches from my front yard at my house, and now that it is gone, it seems very quiet there,” he said. Harriot called the simulated space launch his favorite activity because “now I know what it feels like to lift off from an actual space shuttle.”

Yadira Sierra said the visit to the Space Center was emotional, inspiring and educational. She said she had “this huge sense of pride … because I am an American; I’m a citizen of such a savvy and intellectual nation, and one day one of my kids could be the one building these rockets … what a wonderful feeling!”

St. Petersburg College ethics students stand in front of the space shuttle launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. Students are Chelsea Carrington, Chelsea Luna, Jared Dehn, Kyle Harriott, Brooke Buckle and Yadira Sierra.

Bobby Finn was fascinated with “expansive, gorgeous Cape Canaveral” but pointed out the student camaraderie was perhaps the best part of the field trip. He said he noticed during the trip home from NASA that “the jocularity, banter and eager communication among the birthing of new friendships formed was a stark contrast to the silence of the pre-dawn trek across state. It is activities such as these that last a lifetime in the memories of our young … leaders of tomorrow.”

“If I were offered to go on this trip again, I would immediately say yes and register,” Harriott said. “This trip was so much fun and I learned so many different things. This is by far my favorite field trip ever in college.”

The NASA field trip was organized for ethics students by Dr. Adeniji Odutola, Chair of the Ethics Department, and sponsored by the Ethics Department. Dr. Odutola organized the trip based on his experiences traveling with SPC education students. He hopes to offer the field trip to ethics students during future fall and spring semesters.

For more information, visit Kennedy Space Center. For a video about the space center, visit Youtube. For more information about the future of NASA space exploration, visit How to get to Mars.

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Naval Academy takes top spot in Ethics Bowl at EpiCenter

The top five teams from nearly 20 colleges and universities have advanced to the nationals next year following Saturday’s regional ethics bowl at the EpiCenter.

The United States Naval Academy took first place. Second went to Samford University followed by the University of North Florida, the University of Tampa and The Citadel. The Southeast Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is one of several regional competitions held every fall throughout the United States.

SPC wasn’t able to compete after two of its members had family emergencies at the last minute.

Susan Demers, Dean of Policy, Ethics and Legal Studies at SPC,challenged students in her welcoming remarks ”to compete with honor and remember the lessons that you learn here today.”

In the Ethics Bowl, a moderator poses questions to teams of three to five students. Questions may concern ethical problems on wide ranging topics, such as the classroom (e.g. cheating or plagiarism), personal relationships (e.g. dating or friendship), professional ethics (e.g. engineering, law, medicine), or social and political ethics (e.g. free speech, gun control, etc.) Each team receives a set of ethical issues in advance of the competition, and questions posed to teams at the competition are taken from that set. A panel of judges evaluates answers; rating criteria are intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant considerations, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness.

The Southeast Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is held annually in Pinellas County and gives students a chance to enter an academic competition in the areas of practical and professional ethics. The Applied Ethics Institute at St. Petersburg College hosts the regional ethics bowl every year along with Eckerd College and the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.

The National competition is scheduled at the Seventeenth Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl^sm Feb. 28, at San Antonio, Texas, as a part of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics 22nd Annual Meeting. The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) is a comprehensive, international organization advancing scholarship, education, and practice in practical and professional ethics.

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Super Bowl of words Saturday at SPC

Twenty colleges and universities will be competing Saturday at the Intercollegiate Southeast Regional Ethics Bowl at the EpiCenter at SPC. The event, hosted by SPC, Eckerd College and the University of South Florida, is free and open to the public. Competition starts at 9 a.m.

“This is not debating where individuals are combative or teams have to disagree with their opponents. There’s one key difference,” the University of South Florida News reported. “Competitors in this match of wits can actually agree with the opposing team, if they so choose. And if they do, they simply have to best the competition by being better at presenting and defending the position they take.”

SPC and USF are just two of the institutions competing. Others participating are:

• Auburn University
• Barry University
• The Citadel
• Eckerd College
• Florida State University
• Georgia Military College – Augusta
• Georgia State University
• Palm Beach Atlantic University
• Samford University
• University of Alabama
• University of Alabama at Birmingham (2010 IEB Champion)
• University of Central Florida (2011 IEB Champion)
• University of Florida
• University of Miami (2007 IEB Champion
• University of North Florida
• University of South Carolina Aiken
• University of Tampa
• U.S. Naval Academy

The top teams in the regional bowl advance to the ethics championship competition in February, which will be held in San Antonio, Texas.

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Grant for ethics bowl will broaden competition

A $4,990 grant from the Silverberg Endowment for Academic Excellence will help raise the level of competition and serve a larger number of Pinellas County high school students who compete in the Southeast Regional High School Ethics Bowl. The SPC Applied Ethics Institute will receive the grant on behalf of the ethics bowl group, formerly known as the Pinellas County Ethics Bowl.

The ethics bowl is a joint event between Pinellas County Schools and the college and is coordinated by Ethics instructors George Sherman, of the Clearwater Campus and Laurie King, of the Seminole Campus. The event, held at the Seminole Campus each year, includes 14 teams representing 12 Pinellas County high schools. The competition is based on the college ethics bowl protocols featured in the Southeast Regional Ethics Bowl, which is also cosponsored by the SPC Applied Ethics Institute. Through the event, students debate ethical issues and compete in forming arguments that shows logical, reasonable and rational thought.

Ethics Bowl competitions are similar to debate competitions, but concentrate on argument structure and its logical or rational qualities. Teams can agree on conclusions but differ in their arguments, as judges want to see students demonstrate a keen ability to reason and form logical arguments.

“As a trial lawyer and law school mock trial coach, I have always been a strong advocate for forensic competition as a way to strengthen critical thinking and presentation skills,” said Susan Demers, Dean of the College of Policy and Legal Studies. “I was completely unprepared for the level of analysis, rhetorical skills and dedication I witnessed in the high school students who competed last year.”

The $5,000 annual Silverberg Endowment Grant was first awarded in 1982. The grant goes to support, enhance, enrich or develop programs of benefit to SPC, its students and the community. This year’s grant award will take the place of funding from the Character Grant from Pinellas County Schools, which began in 2006 and ended in 2010 when the federal program that provided the funds was terminated.

“A Silverberg Grant gives the Applied Ethics Institute the opportunity to raise the level of competition and serve a larger number of Pinellas County high school students,” Demers said.

The day-long ethics competition is a formal forensic event that requires months of team building, research, analysis, strategizing and polishing of communication skills. High school team members learn theoretical approaches to ethical problem solving and apply them to 12 case studies adapted from the national College Ethics Bowl.

In spring 2013, the ethics bowl will become a regional qualifying event for the newly initiated National High School Ethics Bowl competition. The event will be sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics and will be held in Durham, N.C.

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Radio talk show host Dennis Prager to speak at Palladium April 4

Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager, international lecturer, author and radio talk show host, will speak at St. Petersburg College’s Keith Goree Applied Ethics Lecture Series on April 4 at 7 p.m. at the Palladium Theater.  His topic is “Happiness is not a feeling: It’s a moral obligation.”

The event, sponsored by SPC’s Applied Ethics Institute and Student Government Association, is free for SPC students and faculty with ID. A limited number of tickets are available to the public for $20 through the Palladium ticket office.

Prager is host of the “Dennis Prager Show,” he is a nationally syndicated columnist, bestselling author and worldwide lecturer on a variety of topics including personal and social issues, morality and religion. Television appearances include “Larry King Live,” “Hardball,” “Hannity & Colmes,” “CBS Evening News,” “Today” and many other programs. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and has lectured on all seven continents, in 45 states in the U.S. and in nine Canadian provinces.  In addition to lecturing in English, he has lectured in Russian in Russia and in Hebrew in Israel.

About his topic, Prager says, “Happiness is not merely a selfish pursuit. Acting happy, or at least not inflicting one’s own unhappiness upon others, is no less important in making the world a better place than any other human traits such as honesty, integrity, moral courage or acts of altruism. The pursuit of happiness is noble. It benefits everyone around the individual pursuing it, and it benefits humanity. And that is why happiness is a moral obligation.”

The Keith Goree Applied Ethics Lecture Series is designed to provide thought-provoking presentations on ethics issues that are important to the SPC community. The series was created in honor of Keith Goree, the institute’s former director who died in 2009. Goree taught ethics at the college for more than 20 years and co-authored the ethics textbook that has been used by more than 100,000 students at six universities.

“Keith Goree’s daily life modeled the ideals of compassion, wisdom, justice and humor and, most importantly, courage,” said fellow professor Jane Till.

The mission of the Applied Ethics Institute is to promote the teaching of ethics at all levels of education, in business, in the community at large and on the Internet. Visit the Applied Ethics Institute website for more information about the institute or to schedule a speaker for your organization. For more information about Dennis Prager, visit the Dennis Prager Show website.

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Public forum on ethics of global citizenship set for Feb. 29 at Seminole Campus

Benjamin Barber

We are all citizens of the world. What does that mean in terms of good citizenship? Are there obligations to our fellow global citizens – ethical behaviors that determine our citizen-worthiness on Planet Earth?

Those issues will be explored in depth by Dr. Benjamin R. Barber, internationally acclaimed scholar, political theorist and lecturer, at the second Ethics Speaker Series event at St. Petersburg College’s Seminole Campus on Feb. 29. The forum, entitled “The Ethics of Global Citizenship: Does It Affect You?”, is jointly sponsored by the SPC’s Applied Ethics Institute, College of Policy and Legal Studies, and Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions, in partnership with the Tampa Bay Times and WUSF Public Media. It is free to SPC students and the general public.

Dr. Barber is the ideal authority to address the issues of global citizenship. He is founder and president of CivWorld, a global interdependence initiative based in New York at Dēmos, a policy, research and advocacy center dedicated to generating new ideas and catalyzing social change to help everyone achieve the American dream. At CivWorld, Dr. Barber oversees projects aimed at raising awareness of the interdependence of global society and fostering transnational and interdependent solutions to global challenges.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he joined a group of intellectuals, political leaders and artists from a dozen nations who wrote a “Declaration of Interdependence” and founded Interdependence Day, observed each year on September 12 to seek alternatives to terrorism. The Declaration opens by stating, “We, the people of the world. . . do pledge ourselves citizens of one CivWorld, civic, civil and civilized,” . . . we recognize our responsibilities to the common goods and liberties of humankind as a whole.”

In addition to his international work, Dr. Barber is a professor of Political Science Emeritus at Rutgers University and former Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland. He is a frequent commentator in the news media, is the author of 17 books, and has written for several TV series, including the 10-part PBS/BBC series “The Struggle for Democracy.”

The Feb. 29th forum is from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Digitorium at the SPC Seminole Campus, 9200 113th Street N. Advance registration is encouraged to ensure adequate seating. Please register online if you are interested in attending.

For more information, call 727-394-6942.

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Forum on ethics of citizenship draws large crowd, viewers via broadcast

From left: Panelists Diane Nelson, Keith Fitzgerald, Mike Bilirakis; moderators Laurie King, David Klement and Jeffrey Kronschnabl. The forum will air on SPC-TV at 8 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 27.

More than 260 students, faculty and members of the public attended the forum “The Ethics of Being a Citizen: Is It More Than Voting and Paying Taxes?” on Wednesday, Nov. 9 at the Seminole Campus.

The event, the first in a series sponsored by the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions and the Applied Ethics Institute, discussed the responsibilities of U.S. citizens and the public officials whom they elect to represent them from local, state and national levels. Panelists included Diane Nelson, Pinellas County Tax Collector; Keith Fitzgerald, former State Representative for District 69; and Mike Bilirakis, former U.S. Representative for District 9. Moderators included Laurie King, Instructor, Applied Ethics; David Klement, Executive Director, Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions; and Jeffrey Kronschnabl, Instructor in Charge, Public Policy and Administration.

The panelists took questions from the moderators as well as written questions from the attending audience. Additional viewers tuned in to the live broadcast from various other locations around the college.

The next event in the series, “Solving the National Debt Crisis: It’s Not Rocket Science,” will be Wednesday, Dec 7 at 6 p.m. in the Conference Center in the library at the Seminole Campus. It will feature Joshua Gordon, Director of Policy at The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to educating the public about federal budget issues and their consequences for the future. Gordon also served as Research Advisor for the film “I.O.U.S.A./Solutions.”

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Ethics team qualifies for national tournament with fourth-place finish

The college’s Ethics team finished fourth out of 26 teams in the Southern Regional Ethics Bowl at the EpiCenter Saturday, Nov. 12 to qualify for the national tournament March 1 in Cincinnati. The region is among the largest in the country.

Team members Nick Pizanias, Michele Grice, Sarah Pemberton, Kevin Healy and Dylan Lunsford, led by coaches Eric Carver and Maureen Mahoney, stood up to stiff competition from schools such as the Wake Forest University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, The Citadel, University of Florida and more.

“The team really stepped up with an outstanding performance,” Mahoney said. “We were all very proud of their performance and look forward to going to nationals.”

The team would like to thank JoAnn Hopkins, Eric Tucker, George Sherman, Gloria Hobson, Susan Demers and the rest of the St. Petersburg College family who volunteered to make this competition a huge success.

The UAB defeated Wake Forest in the final round to take the first place trophy. The competition was co-hosted by SPC, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and Eckerd College.

Other teams advancing are Eckerd College and the University of Florida. The day-long competition included three preliminary rounds, semifinals and the final round debating a range of current ethical issues including topics ranging from the regulation of puppy farms to the reduction of pensions.

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