The CSE was established in 1992 and was the first center of its kind in the State of Utah. At the time of the center’s formation, UVU (then UVSC) had developed a national reputation for its campus-wide Ethics Across the Curriculum programming. The EAC program was built on the idea that ethics is an extraordinarily effective curriculum enrichment vehicle. It started in 1986 with the addition of a core humanities requirement in our General Education Program. This interdisciplinary course was named Ethics & Values, the design of which was to integrate ethical issues informed by philosophy, history, literature, and religion. Gratifyingly, Ethics and Values remains as a required GE course and has been a distinguishing feature of the UVU curriculum. Funding for early EAC programming was provided by multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Fund for Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and the U.S. Department of Education.
The success of these efforts led to the formation of the Center for the Study of Ethics in 1992 under the leadership of Elaine Englehardt—then Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs. Under her leadership, the CSE became increasingly involved in the EAC and was awarded a two-year grant from FIPSE (1998) to disseminate EAC programming at four colleges and universities (Loyola University of Chicago, Rochester Institute of Technology, Chaffey College, and the University of Utah). The program was so successful that it led to further funding and the addition of two institutions (SUNY Plattsburg and Miami Dade Community College). To date, the CSE has consulted with over 40 institutions across the nation in the development of their EAC programming.
The growth of EAC activities across the country created the conditions for the establishment of the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum (SEAC) in 2000. UVU was one of four founding institutions of this organization, and the CSE was selected to house and edit the society’s journal Teaching Ethics. Brian Birch, David Keller, Elaine Englehardt, and Michael Pritchard served as successive editors from 2001 until 2015.
