History

About the Center

The Center is an outgrowth of the University's philosophy department and religious studies programs to address the need of ethics education that is lacking in our student body and local community. We are not alone in this need. This type of education has been identified by the state of Florida as an important objective in education, and the objective has been ratified by Florida's Board of Governors which operates the state university system. The UNF Board of Trustees of this University also strongly support this type of education in the area of applied ethics.

Humanities department lectures and symposia have been independently addressing relevant ethics issues to students for the past several years. The Florida colleges attempted to educate students with new humanities requirements, but the interrelated research and community-wide needs could not be adequately addressed at the time. Despite the need for further available resources and education in this area for Florida citizens and University students, resources had been limited to basic educational requirements.

Origin of the Center

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida made the largest gift to an academic program in the history of UNF on January 30, 2003. The $1 million gift, which qualifies for $750,000 in state matching funds, funds the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Center for Ethics, Public Policy and the Professions. The gift will fund the following components:

A distinguished professorship;
An endowed visiting professor lecture series to enable the Center to underwrite nationally and internationally known speakers who would discuss topics of ethical concern;
A Faculty Fellows' program for permanent and visiting faculty to engage in work consistent with the center's agenda; and
Endowed scholarships and fellowships to attract outstanding students to the University.

Management of the Center

Dr. A. David Kline is Director of the Center and Professor of Philosophy, and the former Provost and Interim President of UNF. Additionally, he held administrative posts at the State University of New York-New Paltz as Dean of the College of Arts and Science and at Iowa State University as Chair of the Department of Philosophy.

Dr. Kline’s undergraduate degree is in Biology from Wake Forest University; his Ph.D. is in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. His research and teaching interests are applied ethics, philosophy of science and philosophy of technology. Currently, he is working on topics in educational ethics including lying, affirmative action in admission policies and the justification of civic engagement. Dr. Kline has co-edited three books and published over 30 articles in philosophy.