For most men and women in Greek chapters, flower-ins were a part of their first experiences in Greek life. The purpose of a flower-in is, in general, to allow new member classes from each fraternity and sorority to meet each other and bond. This is supposed to unite the Greek community as a whole, but … Continue reading "What’s the deal with flower-ins?"

Back when Microsoft Windows XP and Intel’s Pentium 4 Processor were technology du jour, not much was known about the origins of the raw minerals integral to the technology we depend on daily or about the horrendous labors that made possible the innovations of the day. Ethical concepts of blame and praise did not make … Continue reading "Look Inside: The Moral Implications of Personal Choice"

As the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa continues to make headlines in world news, and while  health workers from across the world unite to contain and treat the disease, CBS’s award winning chief foreign affairs correspondent, Lara Logan, traveled to Liberia to report on Americans working on the frontline of the Ebola outbreak. In … Continue reading "Ebola: Deconstructing Racist Narratives"

Explaining the social justice movement that is #DearDePauw.

Last month, Prindle sponsored a visit from Conflict Kitchen, a restaurant in Pittsburgh that exclusively serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is currently in conflict. So far, Conflict Kitchen has featured cuisine from Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela, North Korea and now, Palestine.

On Monday, President Obama announced that “a free and open Internet was as critical to Americans’ lives as electricity and telephone service” and should be regulated as such. This approach, called net neutrality, will prevent companies from slowing down certain content and allowing companies to pay for a fast lane to get data to consumers. If … Continue reading "A Free and Open Internet"

It must be something in the air. Indiana is not known for its air quality or green policies, and the state’s capital is no exception. Despite a bill passed this year to increase Indiana’s recycling to fifty percent, the current Indianapolis recycling proposal doesn’t look like it will conform to this new goal.

Hometown: Crawfordsville, IN Major: Political Science Year: 2017 (Sophomore)

In honor of tonight’s “Motherhood in Prison” panel discussion at Prindle, as well as my own mother’s birthday later this week, it seems fitting to discuss the one code of ethics that most individuals seem to have in common: The “Mom Test.” Often manifested in the question “Would your mother approve?”, this test reveals a hidden … Continue reading "The “Mom Test”"

Former CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson is either a paranoid kook or victim of one of the most heinous government abuses of a reporter in American history. Either way, the rest of the journalism community should be jumping into action to determine the truth. Sadly, it is not. Atkisson claims in her new book that the … Continue reading "Is Sharyl Attkisson a victim of Obama administration?"

We have all heard it before: the kid out on the baseball field shouts, “you hit like a girl.” Adults do it too. In fact, just last fall my sister’s soccer coach yelled to his son, “you’re running like a girl,” upsetting many parents in the crowd. To many, to be “like a girl” means … Continue reading "‘Like a Girl:’ A cultural context"

Continued education, especially college, has long been seen as a positive and transformative experience, changing those who enroll and readying them for the world after graduation. But what happens when unhealthy competition enters the mix? Columnist and mother Lucy Clark knows all too well. In her piece, strikingly titled, “My daughter, my beautiful failure,”  Clark details … Continue reading "“My Beautiful Failure” and Competition in Higher Education"

Apple’s new iWatch, expected to hit markets early in 2015, advances time keeping to a whole new level. Not only does the iWatch keep accurate global time, automatically adjusting to different time zones via satellite, it also tracks daily fitness and provides a way to respond to messages, calls and notifications more easily than we … Continue reading "WARNING: Technological Invasion"

In honor of this week’s Kids for Ca$h documentary screening, it might be good to revisit a school policy with the potential to land misbehaving children in jail: zero tolerance policies.

“I’m not a scientist” is the most common response made by Republican Party members when discussing climate change. New York Times “Political Memo” by Carol Davenport humorously discusses this rather banal avoidance of the issue. But what comes across at first as a simple political mechanism actually raises an interesting question: should politicians — or law-makers, or … Continue reading "What Do Politicians Actually Need To Know?"

By Erik Kwakkel This post was originally posted at Medieval Books, and is posted here with Dr. Kwakkel’s permission.  Old furniture, broken cups, worn-out shoes and stinky mattresses: we don’t think twice about throwing things out that we don’t need anymore. And books? Here things are a bit different. Apart from the fact that you may find … Continue reading "Destroying Medieval Books – And Why That’s Useful"

I was listening to this NPR story today that presented two rebuttals to the claim that voter restriction laws make it difficult for historically disenfranchised people to vote. They both strike me as bad rebuttals, and I’d like to consider them in turn. (You can listen to the story above). The first is that it claimed that activists … Continue reading "How Not to Defend Voter Restriction Laws"

Come out to Prindle on Tuesday, November 4 at 7 PM for a screening of the film Kids for Ca$h, a riveting, non-fiction thriller about a judicial scandal that shocked America when it catapulted to the headlines in January of 2009, and lead to the wrongful jailing of over 3,000 kids.  The issue of zero tolerance policies … Continue reading "Kids for Ca$h Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion"

I am very happy to announce the beginning of the annual Prindle Institute High School Essay Contest. Each year, the Prindle Institute will award high school students for the best essays on a topic of ethical concern. This year, we will award five (5) high school students $300 each for the best essays on this year’s … Continue reading "Announcing the Prindle Institute High School Essay Contest"

One would certainly hope that, as far as environmental regulation goes, we are better off than we were fifty years ago. We would hope that novels like Rachel Carson’s ground-shifting Silent Spring, a work chronicling the dangers of the U.S. chemical industry, have made enough of an effect to prevent the author’s dystopian predictions from becoming a … Continue reading "Politicizing a Tragedy, 30 Years after Bhopal"

As the outbreak of Ebola enters its seventh month, the ethical dilemmas facing the world continue to increase. While the issue of experimental treatments remains unresolved (see my previous post on the topic), new problems have entered onto the stage. Treatment of Ebola in America, the media’s response, and the treatment of health care workers … Continue reading "The Ethics of an Epidemic"

From trick-or-treating to carving silly faces into pumpkins, Halloween was always my favorite holiday as a child. But my joy in dressing up as my favorite super hero and going to haunted houses inevitably diminished once I started college. Halloween’s driving force suddenly transitioned from getting the most candy to getting the most intoxicated, and … Continue reading "What Halloween costume choice says about our ethics"

These days, it seems that everyone is trying to “eat clean.” As I browsed the news this week, I clicked over to the “Healthy Living” page of the Huffington Post and found a myriad of “Eat Clean: Fall Edition” articles like this one about 6 high-fat foods you should be eating, and this one about … Continue reading "Stigmatizing Food Choice to People Without Choices"

Should one be allowed to choose his or her death date? Bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel’s recent post in The Atlantic explains why he hopes to die at what many would consider the young age of 75: an age he has chosen to refuse medical treatments meant for prolonging life unnaturally. Openly opposed to legalizing euthanasia and … Continue reading "The Mortal Code Paradox"