Villanova hosted the Northeast Regional Ethics Bowl last Saturday.  Seven schools participated, including Dartmouth, Franklin-Pierce, Manhattan, Marist, SUNY-Fredonia, Union and Villanova.  Dartmouth, Manhattan and Marist fielded two teams apiece, making it a 10-team field. 

Villanova won one morning round and lost two.

“We put up a good fight throughout,” said Dr. Mark Doorley, chairperson of the ethics program. “We had our struggles.”

Doorley also said that two team members, Aishat Mohammed and Anthony Giresi, had last-minute conflicts that meant missing the competition. 

“The remaining four picked up their cases and represented Villanova quite well,” Doorley said.

 The ethics bowl involves debate of ethics cases prepared by a team of faculty from around the nation.  The teams get the cases six weeks in advance to prepare their arguments.  This year’s Villanova team was made up of Arts and Sciences students Giresi, Whitney Hadley, Jack Loehr and Mohammed; Engineering student Kevin Schoenberger; and VSB student Justin Koleto.  The coaches were Doorley and Dr. Darlene Weaver of the theology & religious studies department.  Judges for these rounds were pulled from Villanova’s faculty in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the Villanova School of Business, as well as several professionals from the greater Philadelphia region.

There were three rounds in the morning, each against a different team, consisting of a thorough debate of two cases.  At the end of the morning, the top four teams went on to compete in the semi-finals, and then the final round determined the winner. 

On Saturday both Dartmouth teams, Franklin-Pierce and one of the Marist teams made the semi-finals. 

Dartmouth won and faced each other in the final, and Dartmouth walked away with victory.