Many administrators and faculty members are unaware that these events have taken place. Perhaps most shocking, though is how un-shocked or numb many of the students seem to be by their peers' experiences. Saddened, yes (especially those close to the victims); curious, maybe ("Gee, he/she never seemed the type to kill anyone"); but shocked? Not really. In the language of those who subscribe to philosophy-by-bumper sticker, "s--t happens."
Many younger students have no orienting points by which to make moral decisions. They are basically unacquainted with tools of moral discernment when they arrive at college; and in most cases, they are not taught them, nor how to use them, at Emory. Their ethical struggles seem to take place in a virtual moral vacuum. Unlike generations before them, they seem to have been left to "find their own way" by their "do-your-own-thing" generation parents. Although part of a community here, they have not had enough opportunities to create and define community moral covenants. The atmosphere of competition and individualism is pervasive, both here at Emory and in the current "quit whining and be productive" socio-political climate. Everyone has to sink or swim on her/his own, everyone is under pressure, and admitting to another that one needs help, or is afraid, or needy, is profoundly difficult.
In the face of such a cult of the individual, notions of communal morality, of right and wrong, of what President Chace calls social capital and its power to bond good thinking with civil actions, appear not to stand a chance in directing behavior. Interdependence, collective ethics and concern for the social fabric are concepts essentially absent from the common lexicon. Things happen.
But students' moral discernment skills cannot develop in isolation. They will emerge from direct observation of the ethical leadership around them. The faculty and staff of Emory must become active participants in creating a moral landscape.
When faculty and staff worked with students on the Habitat [for Humanity] house this semester, they not only built the structures of a fine home for Sabrina White and her children. They also built new bonds for Emory's common life. As students saw faculty and staff putting their time into sweat equity for another Atlanta family, they often remarked about the power of that modeling for Emory's family. Political, social and economic analyses became sore backs and committed hearts. We all learned -- that the classroom and practical moral engagement are connected.
A broad landscape of communal morality is achievable, even in the most disparate of communities. Values such as kindness, fairness and honesty can be shared across all cultures, religions or schools of philosophy. We must decide that a common moral landscape at Emory is a priority; decide that the intellectual life requires moral development. We must intentionally begin to discuss how our many religious and non-religious based moral systems can converse with one another about moral life. Such conversations will require that faculty and staff rethink their own roles as moral mentors. It will not require moral absolutism, or even precise moral clarity. It will, however, require more than mere abstract definitions of, and theories about, "Right" and "Wrong."
Forums, well-designed programs on values and the intellectual life, guest speakers on virtues and their theoretical assumptions with campus respondents and special teaching fellows are a few programs that could begin to fill our students' moral vacuum. But because communal morality best flourishes through direct experience, such programs must be connected with opportunities for practical application. Small group discussions, credited internships, opportunities for service learning, or credit courses on cross-cultural living, public scholarship or ethical citizenship would provide such opportunities while developing foundations for an understanding of the common good.
Redesigning our moral landscape would also mean not using limited resources to create leadership programs isolated in particular departments or schools. Instead our ways of living, studying and working together would be an ongoing experiment in communal moral covenant. In such an environment, time spent not publishing, not researching, not presenting academic papers, not teaching in traditional classrooms would no longer be assumed to be non-productive.
The rising use of violence to solve problems and the apathetic numbness toward violence as a solution imperils American society, and its effects are becoming all too real at Emory. It requires us to take seriously the need for providing a moral landscape in the midst of our intellectual quest. Communal morality on Emory's campus will not just "happen." It will require intention, attention and patience. It will require the shared vision of higher education not merely as a venue for cynical and alienated individuals to prepare themselves for future professions, and not merely as an arena for the accumulation of intellectual knowledge for its own sake. It also must be -- we must make it be -- about who we are, and how we individually and collectively choose to behave toward one and other.
Bobbi Patterson is the associate university chaplain, and Mary Krueger is the director of health education.