Hampshire College formally launched the Ethics and the Common Good Project with a public presentation entitled Ethics and the Common Good: What Kind of World Do You Want to Live In? on February 12, 2015. The launch also included a series of workshops facilitated by author and Commons activist David Bollier and choreographer, performer, and educator Liz Lerman.
The Ethics and the Common Good Project will provide a model for integrating a deliberate focus on ethics within the academics and culture of an educational institution, with a distinctive focus on contributing to the common good.
The Ethics and the Common Good Project will provide courses, paid internships, research support, and other resources for students from all academic disciplines who want to apply critical thinking skills to both problems and values, who want to understand core ethical beliefs that guide their own actions as well as the actions of organizations and institutions, and who want to develop practical leadership skills.
The Ethics and the Common Good Project will also be a resource for exploring new ideas and models of communities, organizations and institutions that have adopted ethical core operating principles that focus on the common good.
The Ethics and the Common Good Project is being established by a $2,085,000 grant over five years from SHIFT, a private family foundation dedicated to advancing the culture of common good. The project will include new interdisciplinary academic offerings in applied ethics and practice-based leadership initiatives.