Listen Here
By Morgan Wissinger, WissingerM@Findlay.edu
The University of Findlay’s Ethics Bowl team is gearing up for another exciting season with hopes of making a splash on the national stage. Co-head coaches Chris Caldwell and Matthew Stolick are leading the charge as they prepare to tackle real-world ethical dilemmas in a competitive setting.
“We look at relevant, big-hitting issues that are pertinent to everyday people that largely go unconsidered or unseen. Not everybody thinks about different avenues of the world,” Caldwell said. “The Ethics Bowl has a wide variety of cases from art to science to comprehension of The Ethics Bowl team participates in Regional competitions and were only two points away from making it to Nationals last year. Caldwell and Stolick have high hopes to put The University of Findlay on the map.
“We have these Regional competitions, three rounds, two cases per round. Then the top 14 get into the Nationals which is held usually at the end of February,” Stolick said. “We would put the University of Findlay on the map big time if we were to go there and win that. We’re competing against some of the biggest colleges and universities – and we’re beating them.”
The Ethics Bowl is a competition held in multiple regions across the U.S. with over 160 teams participating annually.
“Ethics Bowl is life,” Caldwell said. “The Regionals tournaments take place over the month of November, and then Nationals tend to take place at the end of February, beginning of March. We are a very large conference with 24 teams.”
The Ethics Bowl team, as of September 20th, 2024, only has three members. Each team consists of five members. Caldwell and Stolick are hopeful for growth.
“We want more people. We could have more than one team. I’m starting to learn that people who have debate backgrounds love Ethics Bowl,” Stolick said. “It’s different from debate because you’re not trying to defeat the other team. In Ethics Bowl you can actually agree with your other opponent. It’s refreshing.”
Ethics Bowl hosts meetings every Friday from 3-5 p.m. in CBSL room 250 to prepare for the competition.
“I joined the Ethics Bowl because I did not have an extracurricular purpose that I was really interested in. I had been a football player at a Division III school. I knew that I wanted to be good in my academics. I wasn’t always the best actor, but at my core, I’m a theater kid,” Caldwell said. “I joined the Ethics Bowl because I wanted purpose – when I joined the Ethics Bowl, one thing I immediately found was that my grades got exponentially better. I went from being around a C+ student to a 4.0 student in the matter of a semester. I only got stronger because of my Ethics Bowl time.”
