Why a Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character

Academic institutes and centers have become something of a fad in higher education. The 1980s and early 1990s have seen a massive growth in the number of such entities. Typically, the purpose behind the formation of a center or institute is to concentrate the intellectual resources of a university on a particular issue or problem, such as environmental studies or the use of computers in schools. Centers grow up, as it were, between the cracks of the university's formal structure of departments and schools. They are designed to bring together a different mix of talents and energies on a target problem. By their nature, institutes and centers tend to be more flexible and innovative, and, further, tend to serve a variety of purposes.

The Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character at Boston University was founded in 1989 in connection with the university's 150th anniversary. In a nutshell, the purpose of the Center is to address the broad range of issues related to young people acquiring sound ethical values and forming good character. While this is a broad mission, to date the work of the Center has focused on the responsibilities of teachers and schools.