Ethics Competition
The Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University and the Department of Philosophy participate in the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl.
Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl
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The Ethics Center and the Department of Philosophy partnered to send an interdisciplinary team to the Ethics Bowl regional qualifier November 15, 2025, at Northeastern Illinois University. The students’ record was 1-2-1, and they finished 14th out of 20 teams.
Students prepared for the competition as part of PHIL 3140: Ethics Bowl. The course instructor and faculty sponsor was Jon Milgrim. The course’s teaching assistant was Emily Alberty. Fellow Philosophy graduate student Michael Brook assisted with coaching the team.
This year's team members were: Lily Anderson, a senior majoring in history; Hyeon Jun Jang, a junior double-majoring in flight science and aviation management and operation; Nate Spitzley, a junior majoring in mathematics; Bryce Wanstead, a senior majoring in political science; and Kennedi Wheeler, a junior double-majoring in theater and arts administration. Jang, Spitzley and Wanstead were enrolled in the course; Anderson and Wheeler were volunteer participants.
The top three teams in the Upper Midwest region qualified for the national championship: the University of Missouri, Northwestern University and the University of Iowa. The region includes Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri.
The national championship will be held March 7-8, 2026, in St. Louis as part of the annual conference of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE).
The APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (APPE IEB) provides students with an opportunity to practice applying the moral theories and argumentation principles that they learn in their ethics classes. Students receive a set of case studies in advance involving ethical issues in a number of practical contexts, including engineering, law, medicine, personal relationships, school and politics.
During a round, each team takes turns presenting its position on a case and critiquing the other team’s position on a different case. Teams must answer questions about their positions from a panel of judges. Judges assign scores based on logical consistency, clarity, focus and thoroughness.
WMU has competed in the bowl contest every year since it expanded from an intramural event at the Illinois Institute of Technology to a small regional contest involving a handful of colleges in 1994—an event WMU won. The competition went national in 1997. The national championship takes place every spring at the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. WMU’s best national showings were third out of 14 teams in 1998, fifth out of 26 teams in 2000, and ninth out of 32 teams in 2007.
The bowl became a tiered competition beginning in 2007, with practices and regional contests taking place every fall. WMU’s team won the 2006 regional qualifier at Harper College and the 2007 qualifier at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Join the team
If you are interested in representing Western Michigan University in the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl competition in 2026, sign up for PHIL 3140 in Fall 2026!