The Center for the Study of Ethics & Human Values at Washington University will be discontinued in June 2010 due to budget constraints.

A University statement cited deficits in major gifts toward the program’s endowment as a reason for its termination.

“While the university regrets the need to discontinue the center as originally conceived, we are confident that programs within the schools of the University will continue to focus on many of the issues that the center was designed to address,” Edward Macias, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, said in the statement.

The center was founded in 2003 by Ira Kodner, a professor of surgery in the School of Medicine. Kodner, who currently serves as director of the center, expressed great disappointment in the University’s decision to end the program.

“I think it’s a horrible decision,” Kodner said. “It’s a horrible image for the University at this time when we are facing greater ethical challenges than ever before.”

“We all know the economy is bad, but the implication is if the economy is bad, the first thing you do is close down your Center for Ethics & Human Values,” he added.

Up until now, the center has been funded by contributions from each of the University’s schools. Cutbacks in the schools’ operating budgets as a result of the ill economy, however, has made this multi-source financial support unfeasible.

According to Kodner, the center’s lack of a single patron made funding difficult.

“The strength of the center was that we didn’t work for one dean; we were an interdisciplinary program,” he said. “The weakness of the center was that we didn’t work for one dean.”

But Kodner still questions the University’s decision to close the program, arguing that the program’s budget was small enough to fund despite the bad economy. The program originally ran on a budget of $225,000 and could operate on an austerity budget of $150,000, he said.

“I see us writing off one of the great programs of the University for $150,000 a year,” Kodner said. “That’s a pretty cheap price for writing off an ethics program.”

Most of the program’s budget has gone toward employing Kodner, who works there part-time; Stuart Yoak, the program’s executive director; and Judy O’Leary, an administrative assistant.

The program also funds an endowed lectureship, several debates and lectures each year and a number of student and faculty research projects.

Many of these endeavors engage the broader St. Louis community. One of the program’s most successful community endeavors has been its Palliative Care Program at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The program assists medical professionals and family members in making end-of-life decisions.

Kodner cites this program as an example of the Center’s continuing relevance, given the heated debate in today’s media about end-of-life counseling.

Like Kodner, Yoak expressed regret for the loss of the center and its programs, including one particular event called Ethics Nights.

“The Ethics Night program is something where you have undergraduates and graduates from multiple schools sitting in a room planning and working on a program,” Yoak said. “Nothing in your experience as a student gives you the opportunity to do that. There is nothing at this institution which gives people an opportunity to do that kind of collaborative work together.”

Kodner and Yoak said they are looking to move the program into the Department of Surgery at the medical school, where it would concern itself primarily with biomedical ethics. While this option would allow the program to live on, Yoak said it will be “very difficult to keep the multi-interdisciplinary aspect of [the Center] going.”

2 Comments

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  On August 24, 2009 at 10:00 am Jenny Feng said

  I am saddened by this news because this center is one of the greatest strengths of this University. I used to work at the center and have attended many of its enriching programs. As a student here, I feel privileged to have such unique learning experiences outside of the classrooms. The closing of the Ethics and Human Values Center is an underirable loss to both the University and the St. Louis community.
  I hope that the administrators can seriously reconsider this decision.

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  On August 25, 2009 at 9:52 pm no name said

  To be honest, I’ve always had the impression that the Center was more concentrated on the Medical School campus. As someone working and studying on the Danforth Campus, I was not aware of the Center until hearing about its closing this summer. Although, in light of the Jeff Smith scandal, it doesn’t seem like the message was being conveyed with the money and programming it had.

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Tags: budget cuts, Center for Ethics & Human Values, washington university

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