An Ethical Education

This book considers the ethical basis of fundamental university policies with special emphasis on how issues of community and diversity influence education. Students, faculty and administrators must seek to maintain a sense of community as diversity increasingly characterises university campuses. This raises four central questions which are addressed in this volume:
What should the aims of universities be, given their changed demography?
How should university curricula reflect multicultural society?
Does the new environment require special treatment of campus speech?
What role should affirmative action play in promoting diversity or community in the academy?
The shared premise of these essays, presented from a variety of perspectives, is that university administrators, teachers and academic ethicists will all benefit from examining such issues together. The contributors approach academic ethics from very diverse institutional roles and ideological positions, and this provides a broad and provocative basis for classroom and institutional discussion of the aims of the university, the curriculum, campus speech and affirmative action. These essays will help to give pluralism meaning and establish the common purpose and community of good will that make academic discourse possible.