Hollins University’s Ethics Bowl team competed on February 7, in the 25th annual Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges (VFIC) Applied Ethics Bowl. The seasoned team of philosophy majors Jenna Johnston ’25 and Merritt ’25, and Zoe Simotas ’25, a Spanish major who takes several philosophy courses, participated in lively debates on the applied ethics on this year’s timely theme: “Ethics and Artificial Intelligence.”
Entering the 2025 competition as the returning champion, Hollins earned two wins and two losses for a solid showing. The University of Richmond team, which was also this year’s host institution, was named champion.
The Hollins team—hand-picked for their logical reasoning and presentation skills by team advisors James Downey, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of philosophy and Charles Lowney, visiting assistant professor in philosophy—researched and debated complex real-world dilemmas. After receiving the cases from the Ethics Bowl two months prior to the competition, they analyzed the cases and practiced in the exact match format.
One case involved a CEO initiating a software program to help find and screen potential job candidates. While working well and helping save corporate resources, occasionally the software was discriminating based on race, age, and socio-economic status. The dilemma for the CEO? The company had limited funds and resources to try to fix the software.
The team reviewed the arguments: The mistakes being made were few and so might not be considered a large enough problem to take on; however, if even one case of discrimination could become known outside the company, it could in fact pose a huge problem, perhaps bringing lawsuits against the company. The question for Ethics Bowl teams: Should the company head make the problem known to her board and supervisors? Perhaps she should just stop using the program.
“The Ethics Bowl encourages our students to practice logical reasoning about ethical dilemmas that can occur in real life,” notes Downey. “They also get to network with business leaders who comprise the judges.”
