The Hot Seat!

At Smith, ethics game show is putting students, profs and even the President on the Hot Seat. Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA.

Is it ethical to take a summer job for a web site that sells “model” research papers to students for “reference purposes”? Can I burn a CD if I know the artist is already rich and famous? Should I date the friend of an ex-partner?

With the slogan “All Things Moral and Immoral Considered: From the Classroom to the Bedroom,” and with promotional posters reminiscent of pulp fiction novels, Smith College’s “Hot Seat” series addresses questions like these in a format that students and others find compelling: a lively lunchtime quiz show-style event at which no topic is off limits.

Begun in 2003, “Hot Seat” was initiated by the Smith Interreligious Center as a way to generate discussion of social and personal ethics on campus. Interfaith Program Coordinator Hayat Nancy Abuza, who organizes the series, says the monthly sessions have been very popular.

“Learning how to navigate tough moral terrain is a life skill,” Abuza said. “We want students to see that panelists can disagree openly, honestly and civilly.”

Dean of Religious Life Jennifer Walters says, “The intention is to demonstrate ethical problem-solving. How you arrive at the answer is just as important as the answer itself. Hot Seat is a light environment for heavy questions.”

Faculty panelists have come from a range of disciplines--economics, philosophy, chemistry, religion--and student panelists have included the Student Government Association president and other student leaders. Smith President Carol T. Christ was a recent featured panelist.

Walters and Abuza try to bring together responders who reflect a range of opinions. “It works best,” Walters says, “when people who don’t agree sit on the panel together.” Smith students say they like hearing their favorite professors express opinions outside the classroom.

Each monthly event begins with a “Lightning Round” of quick and fun questions to get everyone warmed up. Then audience members (mostly students, but also including staff, faculty and community) then submit their own ethical dilemmas to the panel on slips of paper. A lively discussion usually ensues, with members of the audience offering their own opinions too. Lunch is served and the atmosphere is informal.

A spin-off program called Moral-i-Tea brings together faculty, chaplains and small groups of students in residential living rooms for tea and in-depth discussion. Hayat Abuza and Ernie Alleva from the philosophy department want students to have a chance to develop ethical literacy using moral dilemmas that are real and not hypothetical. “We can help students,” Alleva says, “to understand moral disagreement and to distinguish it from factual disagreement.”

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Smith College is consistently ranked among the nation’s foremost liberal arts colleges. Enrolling 2,800 students from every state and 60 other countries, Smith is the largest undergraduate women’s college in the country.