The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) held its official launch event on Monday, September 9, at Foley's in O'Neill Hall. The celebration provided an opportunity for ECG's University partners—faculty, staff, and students—to become better acquainted with the institute and its work. Formerly known as the Institute for Advanced Study, the transformed, expanded institute plays an essential role in advancing the University-wide Ethics Initiative emerging from Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework.

Meghan Sullivan, Director of ECG and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative, told attendees, "It is my greatest hope as director that the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good is going to be an engine for growing your dreams—a place where together we can build Notre Dame into the top destination for students and scholars and leaders who feel called to take on some of the most complex ethical issues of our time."

Sullivan outlined many of the ways in which ECG is investing in this effort: through grants and fellowships for scholars, both at Notre Dame and at universities around the world, who focus on ethical research and signature course development; support for Notre Dame doctoral students who study important ethical questions; and, working through the Ethics Initiative, support for University schools and departments in the process of hiring new faculty and launching new postdoc programs.

Leadership in ethics, Sullivan said, is deep in Notre Dame's DNA—and is desperately needed in a world confronting crisis after crisis.

"It's critical that the research that we do, the courses that we teach, and the programs that we build here at Notre Dame remind the world that there is a deep good out there that we can understand and we can help them to see."

University President Emeritus Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., was the event's guest speaker. The new Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics, which honors his legacy, is a key component of ECG. The institute is also home to the Notre Dame—IBM Technology Ethics Lab.

"This effort will succeed if the people in this room put their arms around it in, in their own particular roles, with their own particular contributions, and move it forward," Fr. Jenkins said, underscoring Sullivan's comments about the collaborative and connective nature of the institute. "I believe this institute and the efforts of all of you will make this place a powerful center not only for the people here, but a distinctive voice—a powerful voice—in a world that really looks to us."

At the end of the evening, attendees received gifts of plants created by the Botany Shop, a locally owned business in South Bend's Near Northwest neighborhood.  The blue planters brimming with pothos, philodendrons, and other hardy greens emphasized the metaphor of interconnected growth and flourishing. 

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The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG) facilitates interdisciplinary research in foundational and applied ethics, coordinates projects that cross departments and units, and supports ethics-related education and public engagement efforts. ECG is a signature element of the Ethics Initiative, one of several University-wide strategic efforts that draw on expertise from multiple colleges, schools, centers, and institutes in order to make the most meaningful contributions to questions of national and international concern.

Originally published by Laura Moran Walton at ethics.nd.edu on September 10, 2024.