The Ohio State Center for Ethics and Human Values (CEHV) has developed a biennial series of events called Conversations on Morality, Politics, and Society (COMPAS). The aim of the COMPAS program is to promote a vibrant university- and community-wide dialog on important and controversial issues of public concern.

The center has selected the theme of Sustainability for the 2015-2016 COMPAS program.

“Perhaps the greatest cultural, economic and technological challenge facing modern democracies and global development groups is how to respond to the depletion of natural resources and the effects of climate change,” said Don Hubin, CEHV director and emeritus professor of philosophy. “The health of the planet as well as the future shape of human society is at stake.”

The issue of sustainability engages each of the university’s Discovery Themes: Energy and the Environment; Food Production and Security and Health and Wellness. The Sustainability COMPAS will be distinctive in that it will set aside technical questions about the causes and extent of environmental degradation to focus instead on the moral and political questions that it raises, including:

• The meaning of ‘sustainability’: What are we trying to sustain? A certain level of production and consumption? A certain way of life? A certain level of well-being?
• Sustainable institutions: What political, economic, and legal structures are needed to pursue sustainability at both the national and international level?
• The demands of global justice: How should the costs of developing sustainable global systems be divided between different countries and regions of the world?
• The demands of intergenerational justice: What sacrifices should current generations be willing to make for the sake of future generations?
• The individual’s role in promoting sustainability: What obligations do we have as individuals to develop and promote sustainable ways of life?

The Sustainability COMPAS will adopt a different focus for each semester of the academic year. In fall 2015, the focus will be on “Thinking Globally,” addressing large-scale and long-term questions having to do with the meaning of sustainability and the necessary means for achieving it.

In spring 2016, the focus will be on “Acting Locally,” addressing the ways in which we can promote sustainability in our own lives and as members of the campus, local, and national and international communities.

Each semester will kick off with a COMPAS Conference highlighting fundamental ethical issues related to that semester’s focus. COMPAS will also produce several colloquia each semester which address specific topics related to that semester’s theme.

The Sustainability COMPAS will encompass dozens of other events, including interdisciplinary academic symposia and conferences, as well as educational, artistic and outreach events in partnership with already existing programs at Ohio State.

“The COMPAS program provides a terrific channel for university outreach and engagement and presents Ohio State to the broader community in the role of leading civil and informed discussion on current controversies, a role it is uniquely qualified to play,” said Hubin.

Faculty, administrators, and program officers interested in participating in the 2015-2015 Sustainability COMPAS should contact Don Hubin at hubin.1@osu.edu.

COMPAS is a program of the Ohio State Center for Ethics and Human Values. Don Hubin, professor emeritus, philosophy, is director of center. In organizing the Sustainability COMPAS program, Hubin is joined by Gregory Hitzhusen, lecturer, School of Environment and Natural Resources; Eric MacGilvray, associate professor, political science; Michael Neblo, associate professor, political science and Piers Turner, assistant professor, philosophy.