A note about the instructor
Hello, and thanks for your interest in my class, The University of Michigan: A Moral Institution? I am Special Counsel to the President of the University, a position I have held for about 12 years. The position is that of a senior advisor to the president, and in that capacity, I am often involved in issues of University policy that have moral or social implications. These experiences, combined with my own philosophical interest in moral philosophy, philosophy of education, and the dilemmas of the modern university, prompted me to create this course.
I joined the President's Office in 1996, and I have served under Interim President Homer A. Neal (1996-97), President Lee C. Bollinger (1997-2001), Interim President B. Joseph White (2002), and President Mary Sue Coleman (2002- ). Before that, I served in the Office of the Vice President for Research (1994-1996) and as an administrator in the Department of Physics in LSA (1987-1993).
I received a B.A. in philosophy from Northwestern University in 1980 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1987. My philosophical interests include ethics and metaphysics in pragmatism, process philosophy, and the Continental European traditions of philosophy.