Week 3: Choose Topic

The Contemporary Ethical Issues Project allows you to explore a contemporary ethical issue and recommend an ethically informed solution to it.

There are several parts to the Ethics and Contemporary Issues Project.  Check out the specific Week assignment for particulars!

1. Topic Selection (Week 3): Choose your topic from the list provided in the section below. Explain why you have chosen it, why it is important to you, and why other people should care about it too. Locate and summarize one good source related to your chosen topic.
2. Academic Research (Week 4): Locate and summarize three high-quality academic sources and/or news articles, related to your chosen topic. Assess the quality of the sources and note key similarities and differences among them.
3. Introduction, Background, and Ethical Challenges (Week 5): Compose the first three sections of your Ethics and Contemporary Issues Paper. The introduction will emphasize the importance of the issue, the background will focus on the historical development of the issue over time, and the ethical challenges will dig into what make the issue controversial.
4. Solutions and Conclusion (Week 6): For each ethical challenge, you will propose one ethically supported solution. The conclusion will include a call to action with specific recommendations for reader involvement. The References page will include complete bibliographic information in APA style for at least three sources cited in text.
5. Final paper (Week 7): Provide the final paper, with all changes suggested within the grade book.

You may choose from among the following topics.

• Changing the names of schools or taking down statues named after controversial historical figures
• Using race or ethnicity as a factor in hiring decisions or college admissions
• “Canceling” people or organizations who have made controversial or insensitive remarks
• Encouraging businesses to become more politically active
• Allowing people who have undergone gender reassignment to participate in competitive sports
• Providing people with disabilities reasonable accommodations in the workplace
• Teaching critical race theory or the 1619 Project in schools
• Compelling private businesses to serve customers they do not wish to
• Debating the merits of various immigration policies, such as open borders, the building of walls, and so on
• Doing away with “cash bail” for many criminal offenses
• Eliminating harassment in the workplace
• Reallocating money from the police to other city agencies and services
• Reforming or eliminating the Electoral College
• Implementing a wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires who pay little or no income tax
• Forgiving student loans or making college tuition free
• Giving everyone a universal basic income
• Requiring voters to provide identification

If you can think of a topic that is not on this list that you feel passionately about and would be appropriate to the assignment, please check with your instructor to make sure it is ok.