Description and Focus of the Plan
While ethical decision making is an implicit part of much of the university’s curricular focus as a private, Christian university, we recognize that ethics should be more explicitly integrated into our undergraduate professional and pre-professional programs. The QEP engages every aspect of our campus community, including the training and collaboration of faculty members in the development of ethics curricula across the campus, the allocation of budgets for new courses and related activities, and the reinforcement and application of ethical decision-making education through student life activities.

Rationale for the Plan
As a faith-based institution of higher learning, ethical and moral education is central to our university mission; therefore, focusing our QEP in enhancing and expanding such training in our curriculum and campus activities is appropriate. Further, given the recent, well-publicized failures of some of our society’s leaders to make appropriate ethical decisions, our QEP is timely, even critical, for the education of the next generation of our nation’s leaders. Consequently, we are developing or enhancing ethical decision-making content in all of our undergraduate professional and pre-professional programs. The proposal also calls for the university to develop a minor in ethical studies, available to all majors. The minor would be offered by the Logsdon School of Theology.

Goals of the Plan
To develop or strengthen ethical decision-making education in the undergraduate professional and pre-professional programs, the university will focus on accomplishing three goals, each with specific initiatives for achieving the goal.

• Goal I: Students will deepen their knowledge and understanding of the discipline of ethical studies.
• Goal II: Students will develop and utilize skills in ethical decision making.
• Goal III: Students’ capacity for self-examination will be heightened through learning environments that encourage critical thinking and self-assessment in matters of morality and social integrity.
• Goal IV: Students will internalize a commitment to life-long ethical leadership in their careers and communities.

Execution of the Plan
The QEP will be initiated in the spring of 2008 by planning the development of an ethics minor within the religion program. Between 2008 through 2011, individual schools and colleges will each, in turn, review its curriculum and determine the extent of ethics education within the current curriculum. The faculties of each school or college will attend summer workshops for faculty development and collaboration relating to developing and enhancing ethics education within the curriculum. Faculties will determine appropriate student outcome goals, and initiate and implement curricula changes designed to enhance ethics education for their students. They will develop and initiate appropriate assessment tools and processes to determine the success of students in meeting student outcome goals. In support of the ethical education curriculum, the university will create an organizational structure to ensure both support for and evaluation of the QEP. An Ethics Education Council will be created and will have the primary responsibility to oversee the execution and assessment of the QEP.