2011-2012 Selected Ethics Findings

Emerson College Ethics Curriculum (2011-2012)

1. Emerson College offers both free-standing (12) and partial (68) ethics courses constituting about 10% of the overall curriculum.
2. Free-standing ethics courses constitute 2% of the curriculum while partial ethics courses (as described in course catalogs) comprise 8%.
3. The undergraduate program offers a much higher number (63U/22G) and somewhat higher per cent (11U/10G) of ethics courses than graduate courses. Only 1 per cent of graduate courses are free-standing courses compared to 2 per cent of undergraduate.
4. The School of Communication (SOC) offers far more ethics courses (47 SOC/24 SOA/6 IN), free-standing ethics courses (8 SOC/4 SOA/0 IN) and partial ethics courses (39 SOC/20 SOA/6 IN) than the School of the Arts (SOA) and Institute (IN).
5. All courses fulfilling the Ethics and Values Perspectives course requirement (6) are taught in the Department of Communication Studies (SOC) excepting one Honors course taught in the Institute.
6. The academic units with the highest number and percentage of total (free-standing plus partial) ethics courses, ranked by per cent are Comm Studies (28/35%), Journalism (14/18%), VMA (19/26%) and Marketing (9/11%).
7. Those with the lowest, if ranked by per cent, are the Institute (6/ 8%), WLP (5/ 6 %), CSD ( 4 / 5%), and PA (1 / 1%).
8. Those academic units with the highest number and percentage of free-standing courses are CS (6/8%), JOUR (2/3% ), VMA (3/4%) and WLP (1/1%)
9. The other four academic units – Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD), Performing Arts (PA), Marketing Communication (MC) and the Institute (IN) -- do not have any free-standing ethics courses, unless the honors course taught in the Institute is counted.
10. Almost all of the partial ethics courses (68) seem to focus upon applied ethics, whereas almost half (6) of the total (12) free-standing ethics classes describe a greater focus upon “pure” ethics (cf. moral philosophy).

NOTE: All findings based upon analyses of 2011-12 graduate and undergraduate course catalogs and faculty correspondence. Findings do not represent unreported and unlisted ethics instruction. See the 2011-12 Ethics Data for more information.