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Institute for Ethics in Public Life

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Institute for Ethics in Public Life

Colloquies at the Ethics Institute are open to all members of the SUNY Plattsburgh community.

Guided by a belief in education's role of fostering informed discourse, the Institute promotes the idea that citizens should make sound choices based on free speech and that those in public life should lead in humility and govern for the public good. The Ethics Institute Fellowship program is generously supported by gifts to the Plattsburgh College Foundation.

02/21/2025

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life invites you to join us for "Local Politics and National Political Polarization", with special guests Matthew Veitch, Vice-Chair of the Board of Supervisors, City of Saratoga Springs, and David Rodriguez DeCancio, Senior Advisor for New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and member of the Bethlehem Town Board.

It is hardly newsworthy to point out that the United States is very politically polarized. Partisanship has been increasing in Congress over the last 50 years, according to Pew Research. The electorate has similarly become more polarized, with a significant increase in antipathy towards members of the other party. As citizens and residents, we are used to seeing this manifest in conflict and dysfunction in Washington, and many of us are alienated from politics as a result.

What few of us consider, or understand, is that the vast majority of politics and government in the U.S. takes place at the local level. Of all the elected officials in the U.S., over 96% are at the local level (only .1% are at the national level). Similarly, while there were some 3 million federal government employees in 2024, there were roughly 5 million state government employees and 15 million local government employees. There are far more Americans involved in local politics and working for local governments than there are at the state and federal levels.

How has the political polarization we’re seeing at the national level affected local politics, and our communities? Join local elected officials Matthew Veitch, ’94, and David Rodriguez DeCancio, ’93, as they share their experiences navigating today’s divided political landscape and how these issues are playing out in their communities.

Matt Veitch, ’94, earned a B.S. in Secondary Education with a minor in Music. He also earned an A.S. in Applied Information Technology degree from Pace University in 2005. He has served as the Saratoga County Supervisor representing the City of Saratoga Springs since 2008 and was elected by his peers to be Chairman of the Board of Supervisors in 2015. He is currently the Vice-Chair of the Board of Supervisors, in his second year in that role. Matthew serves in a variety of public roles including as Chair of the Saratoga County Capital Resource Corporation, and Chair of the New York State Association of Counties Public Safety Committee. It is also notable that both of Matt’s parents are graduates of SUNY Plattsburgh, and all of his siblings (4) and two of his in-laws are as well, as well as his niece. The latest Veitch, Matthew's nephew is currently a Freshman at Plattsburgh.

David R. DeCancio is an accomplished public policy and communications strategist who currently serves as Senior Advisor to New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. David has held various senior-level positions for three NYS Assembly Speakers and in the Office of the Governor. David was elected to the Bethlehem Town Board in January 2021, becoming the first Latino to serve on the board. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Bethlehem Youth Court and the Bethlehem YMCA Advisory Council. David earned his B.A. in Political Science from SUNY Plattsburgh.
Please join us in person at the E. Thomas Moran Seminar Room, Institute for Ethics in Public Life (Hawkins 233) or on Zoom (below).

Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Local Politics and National Polarization
Time: Feb 26, 2025 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/87930909903

Meeting ID: 879 3090 9903

05/05/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life presents "The Ethics of AI," a hybrid forum at 3:30pm on Wednesday, May 8.

Recent improvements in AI include big gains in performance from new large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's GPT series. These new models are far faster and more capable than earlier AI models, triggering a huge surge in interest in the use of AI.

The particular nature of these AI models and their capabilities raises important ethical issues, due to their requirements and to their capabilities. These new AIs require major investments in new data centers. This is causing the total energy consumption of global data centers to more than double between 2022 and 2026, from 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) to more than 1000 TWh. These data centers generate a lot of waste heat and require a lot of fresh water for cooling. The newest data centers require up to 5 million gallons per day (the same as a town of 50,000 people).

The new AI models also require a lot of data to train on, whether it be text, images, or sounds. Much of the data used is protected by copyright laws and thus its use for training AIs is questionable ethically.

Finally, there are ethical issues raised by the use of AIs. The current generation of AIs are very good at pattern recognition, but it is often difficult (or impossible) to tell how they came to their conclusions. The capability to notice patterns that humans will normally miss is extremely useful in many fields, but the "black box" process by which the AIs operate and the potential for error raises real ethical issues when these AIs are used. For example, while we can probably agree that using an AI to screen medical imagery and identify possible problems for a doctor to follow up on is good, police or military use of AIs is more problematic.

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Delbert Hart, Chair of the Department of Computer Science, as a special guest for this discussion.

Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Institute forum on the ethics of AI
Time: May 8, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/94248691820

Meeting ID: 942 4869 1820

04/28/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life presents "America's Trash Problem" a hybrid (online and in-person in Hawkins 233) forum.

Americans generate an astonishing amount of waste, about 4.4 pounds per day per person in 2013 according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That would put the annual total at over 1600 pounds per year for each of us, or just over a third the weight of a base model Ford F-150 pickup truck.

What can we do about the millions of tons of garbage we throw away? We already recycle or compost more than a third of it, but that still leaves over 150 million tons of trash going into landfills every year. Here in the Northeast part of the U.S. many landfills are filling up, creating a big problem since people rarely want to have a new landfill opened near where they live.

Please join us as we welcome Sean Lukas '12 (B.A. Environmental Planning and Management), General Manager of Clinton County Solid Waste and Recycling (Casella Waste Systems), to discuss the challenges of dealing with trash we generate, what is being done to bring it under control, and the ways we can do better.

Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Institute Forum on America's Trash Problem
Time: May 1, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/91963779023

Meeting ID: 919 6377 9023

04/22/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life Presents "How should social media be regulated?" a hybrid forum at 3:30pm on Wednesday, April 24. Please join us in-person at the Institute (Hawkins 233) or via Zoom (see below) for this discussion.

With Dr. Ben Medeiros, of the Communications Studies Department.

On April 20, as part of the bills passed by the House providing aid to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan there was also a requirement that TikTok be sold or shut down within nine months. While there is no guarantee that particular policy will make it to President Biden's desk for signature, it is still a significant step towards more regulation of social media. That also is only one of many recent efforts to regulate social media in the United States and in Europe. While efforts to regulate social media platforms in the U..S. have been limited due to the Constitutional protections for speech and the press found in the First Amendment, there are still steps that platforms can take voluntarily, and courts have entertained the possibility that platforms can be forced to reveal or even change the way that they recommend content to users and make content moderation decisions.Beyond that, though, our question for this discussion is not whether we can regulate social media, but whether we should, and how.

Social media is blamed for a variety of ills including contributing to the rise in diagnosed mental illness among young people observed in recent years, undermining our ability to focus, violating our privacy, and spreading extremism, misinformation, and disinformation.

This forum will examine various issues associated with social media and consider ways those could be addressed through regulation if Constitutional concerns could be addressed.
Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Institute Forum on Regulating Social Media
Time: Apr 24, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/91516377402

04/14/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life presents "Is the Mainstream Media Failing America?" a hybrid forum at 3:30pm on Wednesday, April 17. Please join us at the Institute office (Hawkins 233) or via Zoom (see below) for this discussion.

With Professor Emeritus of Public Relations (and Director Emeritus of the Institute) Jonathan Slater.

Mainstream media organizations (MSM) are increasingly being criticized for their coverage of American politics. Issues raised include focusing on the "horse-race" dynamic rather than the meaning of the election, a related fixation on meaningless (and often misleading) polls, normalizing violent and extreme rhetoric, failing to challenge disinformation and outright lies, and uncritically accepting stories planted by political operatives.

In some ways, this problem is not new. Conservatives began attacking the MSM as "biased" decades ago, though that was as much a political strategy as a sincere critique. To some extent those attacks did help create the current moment, since they conditioned MSM organizations to frame everything in equivalencies even when the two sides are not equivalent. In addition, the well-staffed and funded newsrooms that were able to conduct serious investigative reporting and develop real expertise in politics and political issues have been largely eliminated due to the search for profits.

This forum will examine the role being played by MSM in the current election and consider whether or not it is failing to keep the American electorate informed.

Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Institute forum on the MSM and American politics
Time: Apr 17, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/92781247327

Meeting ID: 927 8124 7327

04/08/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life presents "Can Capitalism Be Ethical?", Wednesday, April 10 at 3:30pm.

With special guest Prof. Wanda Carroll, Lecturer in Supply Chain Management and International Business.

Capitalism as an economic system is often critiqued on ethical grounds. From Karl Marx or Charles Dickens pointing out the human suffering endemic to early industrial capitalism in Europe, through Thomas Piketty arguing that increasing inequality of income and wealth are inherent to capitalism, to Occupy Wall Street and beyond, it is not hard to find critics who consider capitalism itself at best suspect on ethical grounds, if not inherent unethical and impossible to reform.

For this discussion, we will critically engage with this critique of capitalism and consider whether it is fair to consider capitalism itself unethical, or whether the real issue is how capitalism is implemented rather than what it is.

Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Hybrid forum on the ethics of capitalism
Time: Apr 10, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/99137594347

Meeting ID: 991 3759 4347

03/19/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life presents "US arms exports and military assistance," a hybrid (online and in-person) forum.

Most Americans have paid little attention to US arms sales and foreign military assistance programs since the end of the Cold War. During the Cold War there was more controversy over US arms exports and military assistance programs because some recipient governments were brutal and repressive dictatorships, but the end of that conflict also ended most of those relationships (along with many of those regimes).

The war in Ukraine started to raise awareness about the US role as a major arms exporter, but the issue had little political salience because the vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum supported military assistance to Ukraine. While some isolationist and/or pro-Russian members of Congress have been able to delay a new aid package to Ukraine, they represent a relatively small minority of Americans.

The war in Gaza has changed this dynamic. Until 2022, Israel had been the #1 recipient of US foreign aid for decades, receiving $3.3 billion in foreign military assistance (far more than any other country until Ukraine). Israel also imports a significant quantity of US ordinance (shells for artillery and tanks, bombs for aircraft, anti-tank missiles, etc.). This has become a significant political issue in the US in the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas. In response to those attacks, Israel has waged full-scale war against Hamas in an effort to completely destroy the organization. Israel's counterattack against Hamas has destroyed most of the buildings and infrastructure in Gaza and killed 10s of thousands of Palestinian civilians. The extensive use of American weapons to do this has raised many important questions about US foreign military assistance and arms exports.

Topic: Hybrid forum on US foreign military assistance
Time: Mar 27, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/92208343515

Meeting ID: 922 0834 3515

03/08/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life presents "Age and Ageism in American Politics," a hybrid (online and in-person) forum.

Quite a bit of media coverage of the 2024 Presidential race between President Biden and Former President Trump has focused on the issue of the candidates' age, and often in quite ageist ways. This is not a new issue, as we saw the same dynamic play out during the 2020 Democratic Primary with regard to the candidacies of President Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. It has also arisen with regard to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections, and more recently with regard to several instances of Senator Mitch McConnell seeming to lose awareness while he was speaking.

This is connected to a broader critique of the US as a "gerontocracy", even though the average age of Representatives and Senators has dropped in recent years. It is also somewhat perverse, since young people are often judged as unready for public service based on the notion that they have inadequate experience. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elise Stefanik both were criticized on those grounds when they ran for and won election to the House.

This dynamic raises questions about whether age is a relevant consideration for elected officials, and if so, when, how, and why? Is the focus on the ages of Joe Biden and Donald Trump simply ageism in the form of discrimination against the elderly, or is there an underlying substantive critique that is being masked by the focus on age?

Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Institute forum on age and ageism in American Politics
Time: Mar 13, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/92601609084

Meeting ID: 926 0160 9084

02/28/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion present "America's Undemocratic Elections."

Contrary to what most Americans think, our democracy is often categorized as a "flawed democracy" by scholars and non-governmental organizations due to barriers to voting and the use of gerrymandering to skew election outcomes. Many of the most significant issues with voting rights and access have a discriminatory impact against Black and Latino/-a voters, as does some of the gerrymandering.

For this forum, we'll be discussing the ways voting rights are abridged in America as well as other common practices that undermine the quality of American democracy by reducing participation in elections or biasing the outcomes, with particular focus on those with a discriminatory impact.

You are welcome to join us in person at the Institute for Ethics in Public Life (Hawkins 233) or on Zoom.

Daniel Lake is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Institute and ODEI forum on voting rights and elections
Time: Mar 6, 2024 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/93595332778

Meeting ID: 935 9533 2778

01/28/2024

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life invites you to a hybrid forum on the purpose of public higher education in the United States at 3:30pm on Wednesday, January 31.

In the United States today, the purpose of public higher education is contested. Prospective students and their parents seem increasingly likely to view higher education in narrowly transactional terms, as preparation for the students' careers. Cuts in public funding have made universities highly dependent on tuition and fees for revenues, so administrators often respond to student and parent demands by focusing on the "value proposition" offered by different programs and shape curricula to emphasize programs in high demand.

At the same time, public colleges and universities are buffeted by competing demands to serve ends beyond career preparation. These include promoting social change and mobility, spreading culture through the arts and humanities, and preparing students to be citizens. Of course all of these are contested by those who see little value in or are actively hostile to those goals.

The purpose of this forum is not to resolve these debates, but rather to shed some light on these issues by sharing our thoughts on how we can reconcile these seemingly incompatible demands and which of these we as members of university communities and our society value and support, and why.

You are welcome to either join the conversation in-person in the Thomas Moran Seminar Room of the Institute for Ethics in Public Life (Hawkins 233) or via Zoom.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/j/97199265391

Note the new time. Institute events will normally be held at 3:30 on Wednesdays until further notice.

Also, please make plans to join us next week for a discussion of free speech on campus. Details to follow.

11/17/2023

We had a great discussion on the politics of philanthropy and the problems with philanthropy last night. From L to R, Dr. Amy Schiller, author of "The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong and How to Fix It", Dr. Colin Read, Professor of Economics and Finance, Ms. Anne Hansen, VP of Institutional Advancement, and Dr. John McMahon, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science.

Thank you Amy, Anne, Colin, John and all who attended!

10/30/2023

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life and the Department of Political Science are pleased to welcome Dr. Amy Schiller to campus to discuss her new book on the politics of philanthropy, The Price of Humanity (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720859/the-price-of-humanity-by-amy-schiller/). Philanthropy brought us the Statue of Liberty via the first crowdfunding campaign, as well as gardens, hospitals, and museums. At the same time, philanthropy often legitimizes injustice and reinforces the power of the wealthy. Spanning the ancient world of St. Augustine to some of the most influential donors of today, The Price of Humanity confronts philanthropy's contradictions and proposes a vision for how it can fulfill its meaning, "love of humanity."

Dr. Amy Schiller is a journalist, academic, and consultant. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College in the Society of Fellows. She previously held fellowships at Stanford University and Bard College. Her writing has been published in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The Daily Beast, among others. She has also had a 15-year career in major gift fundraising consulting in a wide range of settings, from a major New York City dance company to international humanitarian nonprofits.

Joining Dr. Schiller to discuss her book are:

Ms. Anne Hansen, Vice-President for Institutional Advancement at SUNY Plattsburgh, Dr. Colin Read, Professor of Economics and Finance, and Dr. John McMahon, Associate Professor of Political Science.

Dr. Schiller's visit will take place on Thrusday, Nov. 16, at 5pm, in the Mowry Conference Room (Redcay 130).

The Institute for Ethics in Public Life is supported by the Plattsburgh College Foundation; this event is also sponsored by the Department of Political Science

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