The Faculty Senate and the Institute for Practical Ethics are joining in a scientific endeavor designed to achieve one of the Senate's main goals this year - fostering an intellectual community.
In the past, finding an issue with which to approach such a daunting goal may have been difficult. But both groups agree that the media frenzy surrounding stem cell research has provided the perfect issue.
"A topic like this brings everyone together in an intellectual community," Senate Chairman Robert Grainger said.
Grainger described an intellectual community as a place where interdisciplinary lines are crossed and all members of the University community are engaged in and work together on a particular topic.
The Senate and the Institute for Practical Ethics are working together to raise awareness of important scientific topics including stem cell research across Grounds.
Together they have created a five-week course entitled "Genetics, Ethics and Society," designed to help members of the University community better understand scientific issues related to human biology and genetics.
The course, which some students may take for academic credit, will provide participants with adequate background to effectively discuss and understand timely topics which require some degree of scientific knowledge, said Ruth Gaare, executive director of the Institute for Practical Ethics.
The course's sponsors hope that after learning the basics of biology and genetics, both undergraduates and faculty will be better equipped to understand and enjoy the issues discussed in the year long lecture series "Science and Society," which also is co-sponsored by both groups.
"The Institute for Practical Ethics is very interested in encouraging interdisciplinary research of ethical issues," and the lecture series and five-week course will "pull together these issues across Grounds," said James Childress, director of the Institute for Practical Ethics.
Rather than promoting certain scientific procedures, the program's purpose is to elevate scientific discourse across Grounds and help people form their own opinions of issues of human biology and genetics, Childress said.
All members of the University community are invited to attend the course lectures on Tuesday evenings this fall.
The lecture series will kick off Sept. 19.
with a presentation entitled "Understanding Heredity - Chance in the House of Fate." Guest lecturers in the lecture series will include Nobel Prize Winner David Baltimore and Human Genome Project director Francis Collins. The lecture series will be held in the Jordan Conference Center Auditorium.
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