John Chamberlin will serve as founding director of the new Center for Ethics in Public Life, an initiative that will promote teaching, research and public discourse about ethical issues confronting the University community, the nation and the world.
The appointment is effective July 1 for a three-year term.
“Professor Chamberlin’s experience in interdisciplinary work and his broad connections across campus will enable him to build a Universitywide center focused on timely ethical issues,” says President Mary Sue Coleman, who first articulated U-M’s interest in and concern about ethics in public life in 2004.
Chamberlin holds faculty appointments in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and in the Department of Political Science. His research and teaching interests center on ethics and public policy, legislative redistricting, methods of election and representation, and non-profit management.
“John Chamberlin brings a wealth of expertise and experience to this new position,” says Provost Teresa Sullivan. “His research includes significant study of ethical issues in government and policymaking, he is a highly regarded teacher of courses that examine ethics and values, and he has worked with organizations such as Common Cause, that focus on ethics, transparency and openness in government.”
As director, Chamberlin says he looks forward to working with faculty, staff and students in setting the center’s agenda. He notes that the University has many strengths related to ethics, including the distinguished ethics faculty of the Department of Philosophy, the important attention to professional ethics in its professional schools and its tradition of campus debates about critical matters facing society.
Chamberlin, who served as co-chair of the Presidential Task Force on Ethics in Public Life in 2004-05 and as co-chair of the Ethics in Public Life Initiative in 2005-06, says the center will focus initially on three priorities identified in the task force report:
• Increasing the opportunities for undergraduate students to think and to talk about ethical issues inside and outside of class;
• Supporting faculty research on ethics-related issues; and
• Creating frequent opportunities for public discourse about important ethical issues.
Chamberlin holds a Bachelor of Science from Lehigh University and doctorate from Stanford University. He joined U-M in 1970.
His most recent administrative role has been as director of the undergraduate program at the Ford School, where he also has served as associate dean and interim dean. He has held positions as associate dean at LSA and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies.
Coleman launched the Ethics in Public Life Initiative in 2005-06 based on recommendations by the task force. Initiative activities include a forum series on ethical issues, support for a new course in applied ethics offered by the Department of Philosophy, a Web site that provides information about ethics-related events on campus and courses, discussions with student governments and organizations concerning academic integrity, and a conference on research in ethics scheduled for fall 2008.
The new center will be located in Weill Hall.
