UA/Stillman Presidents To Join Impressive List Of Speakers Addressing Innovative Honors Class

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ­ How do you handle ethical dilemmas? Find fair and effective solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems?

One answer is to ask the experts, and a select group of honors students at The University of Alabama and Stillman College this fall have had a chance to do just that.

Judge Susan Weber Wright, the U.S. district judge from Arkansas who handled the Clinton trials, joining the class by speaker phone, headlined a list of well-known guest speakers who shared their insight into ethical and effective problem solving with students in an innovative honors course. Other speakers have included a Nobel Prize winner, a former ambassador, and leaders in business and academia.

On Tuesday, Nov. 21, UA President Andrew Sorensen and Stillman President Ernest McNealey will team up to teach the class.

The course ­ the first honors course offered jointly to students at UA and historically black Stillman College ­ is the brainchild of UA Law Professor David Epstein, who steps out of his legal education role each year to teach an undergraduate honors course.

“We spent the first half of the course studying logic, reasoning, cognitive science and ethics in a more traditional sense using assigned readings and discussion. Then we brought in the speakers to involve the students in discussion of real problems,” Epstein said.

Each speaker has presented problems that he or she has encountered, what approach was taken to solve the problems and whether the solutions were effective and why, Epstein said. Speakers have brought a wide variety of experience ranging from law and diplomacy to science, business and educational leadership.

Epstein has taught a similar course at UA for the last two years, but this fall’s class is the first to be offered to Stillman students as well. The seminar-style classes meet twice a week alternating between the two campuses.

In addition to Wright, speakers have included Nobel Prize winner Steve Weinberg, professor of physics at the University of Texas; Jim Laney, former U.S. ambassador to Korea and former president of Emory University; Keith Walton, secretary of Columbia University; Robert Mead, president of the international public relations firm of Gavin Anderson & Co.; and Tom Johnson, chief executive officer of Chesapeake Paper, a “Fortune 500” public company.

A nationally recognized legal educator and expert on bankruptcy and commercial law, Epstein holds the Charles E. Tweedy Jr. Chair of Law at UA.