University of Mississippi alumnus Dean Douglas (second from right) talks with (from left) Ethan Davis, assistant director of The Center for Practical Ethics; Deborah Mower, the center's director; and Douglas' nephew Nick Douglas, a freshman entrepreneurship major from Collierville, Tennessee. Dean Douglas has established a fund to support the center's work. Photo by Bill Dabney/UM Foundation
Alumnus establishes fund to support university’s Center for Practical Ethics
by Bill Dabney
A recent gift from University of Mississippi alumnus Dean Douglas will support a campus organization focused on developing practical solutions to pressing and contentious moral and political issues.
The donor’s gift establishes the Dean J. Douglas Fund for the Center for Practical Ethics, which fosters civil dialogue and collaboration on a range of ethical issues through public events and programming.
“The gift is about creating the awareness that this organization exists and is a focus area for the university,” said Douglas, of Oxford. “It’s about trying to figure out how each of the schools — the College of Liberal Arts, the School of Business Administration, etc. — would embrace a set of institutional as well as personal ethics for people who are earning Ole Miss degrees.
“But building awareness will take more than just press releases. This gift stems from a desire to get real people who have a passion for or understanding of these subjects to discuss them, bringing to bear all sides of issues and having a discourse about them.”
Douglas’ gift will enable the center to establish programs that appeal to students and the community at large while providing resources for speakers to visit campus to address ethical issues.
For example, a CPE Policy Talks event for 2024 is “When Human Narratives and AI Meet: Responsible Design and User Protection.” Previous Policy Talks have focused on medical cannabis research and education and on how technology and “Big Data” affect health care in rural areas.
Policy Talks bring academics, alumni, business and industry experts, officials, and community members together to focus on the ethical issues surrounding a timely topic and to seek informed solutions from a variety of perspectives and fields.
“We are focused on pragmatic solutions to real-world policy problems and our events produce deliverables,” such as ethical guidelines, white papers, blog posts or policy proposals, said Deborah Mower, the center’s director.
Examples of such problems include the moral implications of certain technologies, the ethics of health care and medicine, the morality of war and violence, and the ethics of business and economics.
“Practical ethics is concerned with the moral problems that people face in both their personal and professional lives and how we can make moral decisions that are just and fair,” Mower said.
“We are extremely grateful for Dean’s generous gift in support of our work and mission. He is helping us give more individuals the tools to analyze complex concepts while engaging in thoughtful conversations.”
Douglas believes ethics on many levels are being undermined.
“For example, it’s difficult to know what to believe in the press today,” he said. “One group is saying one thing; another group is saying another about the same subject. Irrespective of your politics, that gets to be pretty concerning.
“On top of that, more and more folks are using a relatively loose moral compass to work through issues and ideas. There seems to be a lack of focus on personal ethos and I’m of a generation where personal ethos was essential. Having a discourse without it devolving into insults is important.”
During his career, Douglas served as CEO of the Westcon Group and LCC International, held an executive role at Motorola and lived abroad for many years, leading international business ventures for his employers. Most recently, he served as CEO and president of Syniverse, a software firm focused on telecommunications. Douglas attended DePauw University in Indiana for two years before transferring to Ole Miss.
The Dean J. Douglas Fund for The Center for Practical Ethics is open to gifts from individuals and organizations. Those interested can mail a check, with the fund noted in the memo line, to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS, 38655, or click here.
For more information, contact Angela Brown, senior director of development, at browna@olemiss.edu or 662-915-3181.
