Hazen White Center

The John Hazen White Sr. Center for Ethics and Public Service

206 Washburn Hall

University of Rhode Island Phone; (401) 874-2183

Kingston, RI 02881-0817 Fax: (401 874-4072

The John Hazen White Sr. Center for Ethics and Public Service offers Ethics and Public Service programs for elected and appointed officials, public managers, graduate and undergraduate students and citizen groups.

Located at the University of Rhode Island, the Center is a critical component of a vision for learning that assumes public universities must play a leadership role in creating a culture of ethical and civic responsibility among students and the larger community.

The Center for Ethics and Public Service draws its mandate from the O'Hara Ethics Task Force Report, which envisioned an institute at the university which "would promote effective ethical leadership in state and local government (and) revise school curricula to emphasize government accountability, ethics awareness, and citizen responsibility." Our programs in education, research and public service are founded on that mission.

ETHICS AND LEADERSHIP SEMINARS FOR PUBLIC MANAGERS

The Center has developed on-going workshop programs for public managers, providing them with a non-partisan forum to consider ethical issues, devise strategies and programs appropriate to their respective departments, and assist them in creating a supportive environment for dedicated public officials who often do not receive the credit and recognition they deserve for their efforts to improve the culture of government service.

These efforts have also yielded common research projects. A book of case studies entitled Ethical Dilemmas in Public Administration, which was jointly written by Rhode Island public managers and academics, should enhance ethics education and have a wide audience among practitioners, instructors in ethics courses, and interested citizens.

ETHICS AND PUBLIC SERVICE IN THE GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM

A critical component of the Center's vision of learning at the University of Rhode Island includes a general education curriculum deigned to prepare graduate and undergraduate students for their role as responsible professionals and citizens. One goal is to broaden their understanding of the responsibilities and obligations for citizenship and to enhance their awareness of the necessity of ethical behavior in public life. The Center sponsors workshops and selective academic seminars wherein faculty link issues of citizens responsibility and community service with academic-based learning

The Center is also developing a workshop program for faculty from URI and other colleges and universities. These programs explore ways to develop and integrate ethics and public service components, across a range of disciplines, into the graduate and undergraduate curricula.

FACULTY FELLOWS

The Center appoints faculty fellows from the University of Rhode Island and other institutions of higher learning for one-year appointments. These teachers and scholars, whose fields of expertise include a wide range of disciplines, participate in program development, seminar workshops and research and writing on issues related to ethics and public service.

INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

The Center annually recruits students with outstanding academic and service records to be John Hazen White Sr. Interns. These interns participate in and manage public service projects at the university and in the community which are part of our academic-based service learning curriculum. Other interns assist in ethics training workshops and intern at various levels of state government.

CITIZEN FORUMS

The Center for Ethics and Public Service holds public forums to consider issues related to the individual citizen's ethical and civic responsibilities toward the quality of public life. Drawing on the expertise of the Center's faculty and other invited guests, these programs provide a public forum wherein citizens can explore ideas about the nature of representative democracy and consider their role in enhancing the political process and the quality of public life.