Mission and Vision

Although the mission and vision of the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics has evolved since its inception in 1995, its basic self-understanding remains constant. The Center exists to increase the moral awareness and ethical skills of professionals, students preparing for one of the major professions, and faculty members based in one of the professional schools. More generally, the Center exists to provide ethics education to the general public, for there is scarcely a topic of note that does not require a morally reflective person to consider questions about what makes a society and the individuals within it good. If the Center has any vision that inspires it, it is the vision of enabling the University to bring its intellectual and moral resources to the diverse communities it serves. The Center counts itself as successful to the degree it helps UNC Charlotte faculty and students create the kind of open and free democratic society in which individuals fulfill their responsibilities to each other, respect each others rights, celebrate each other's diversity, and meet each other's basic needs as fairly and compassionately as possible. Specifically, the five-fold mission of the Center is:

1. To serve as a focus point where university students can examine the ethical issues embedded in the professions for which they are being trained.
2. To help develop ethics-related curricular initiatives, particularly interdisciplinary ones among the professional schools.
3. To increase ethics-related research collaboration and conference/seminar/workshop interactions among the faculty.
4. To involve regional and national members of the professions in the Center's activities, both for their own growth as morally-aware persons and the sharing of their moral concerns, dilemmas, and experiences with students and faculty.
5. To offer ethics-related services to local and regional professionals who express a need for ethics consultations or education.

Center for Professional and Applied Ethics
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
9201 University City Boulevard
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
http://www.uncc.edu/ethics
704-687-2850
FAX 704-687-6943
rotong@email.uncc.edu
Rosemarie Tong, Director