Activities and Events
The Ethics Minor Program participates in and supports a number of events and activities throughout the year that promote the importance of ethics and moral leadership at Fisher and in the greater Rochester community.
The Rochester Area Business Ethics Foundation Luncheon
The Rochester Area Business Ethics Foundation is committed to promoting and supporting the creation of ethical business cultures. Each fall the RBEA hosts a regional business ethics award luncheon. The Rochester Business Ethics Award or ETHIE recognizes local companies that exemplify high standards of ethical behavior in their everyday business practices and in response to crises or challenges.
In addition to the awards program, the RABEF funds an annual scholarship for business students at area colleges such as St. John Fisher College and R.I.T. and sponsors a variety of events throughout the year that promote business ethics. Fisher scholarship recipients give presentations to their fellow students on the importance of ethics in business.
World Philosophy Day
World Philosophy Day, sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Culture Organization (UNESCO), and held on the purported birthday of Socrates, is observed throughout the world as an occasion for people to reflect upon the importance of critical thinking, world peace, international cooperation, and the love of wisdom. Fisher is the only college in the United States to participate, along with colleges and organizations in Albania, Ghana, Iran, Ireland, Morocco, Slovenia, and 27 other countries.
Four Freedoms Week
The purpose of Four Freedoms Week is to engage the campus community in an examination of the Four Freedoms outlined by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his State of the Union Speech on January 6, 1941. They include: Freedom of Speech and Expression; Freedom to Worship; Freedom from Fear; and Freedom from Want.
During Four Freedoms Week, the campus community has opportunities to view displays, listen to panels and speakers, watch movies, complete readings, and, most importantly, to participate in activities that promote dialogue and discussion about the Four Freedoms themselves.
Four Freedoms Week is presented by Students With A Vision (SWAV); the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity Programs; and the Office of Student Life.
The St. Thomas More Ethics Lecture
The St. Thomas More Ethics Lecture features community leaders, teachers, and scholars that address timely issues in Ethics. The event is meant to further the study of Ethics not merely as an intellectual pursuit, but as an applied discipline in workplaces that must respond to the needs of the wider community.
The annual event is one of the activities of the St. Thomas More Center for Interdisciplinary Ethics. The event is sponsored by The William and Helen Cavanaugh Chair of Catholic Studies, Father William Graf. The Chair of Catholic Studies fosters and promotes an intellectual approach to the study of Roman Catholic thought: its history, philosophy, literature, theological underpinnings, and its contemporary expression.
St. Thomas More was a Chancellor, writer, lawyer, and active lay person at the time of Henry VIII. He was beheaded on July 6, 1535 because he chose to follow his conscience rather than submit to what he judged the illegal and immoral decisions of the King.
The Road Less Traveled
Each year the Ethics Minor Program, Campus Ministry, and the Alumni Office honor Fisher students and members of the Rochester community who have taken “the road less traveled,” dedicating themselves to peace, service, and social activism. The program includes the following presentations:
Jennifer Koon Peacemaking Foundation
The foundation supports peace and peacemaking as distinctive and active processes. Peacemakers foster and maintain positive and supportive relationships that model respect for individuals and groups and the environment that we share.
Jennifer, in whose honor and memory her parents established the foundation, was murdered during her sophomore year at St. John Fisher College in 1993. During her brief life, she exemplified the characteristics that we honor every year with student and community awards.
The Jennifer Koon Courage Awards
Recipients of the Jennifer Koon Courage Award are students from Fisher and members of the Rochester community who are committed to peacemaking and who strive to make the world a better and more peaceful place.
The Peace and Social Justice Spirit Award
The PSJS Spirit Award honors St. John Fisher College graduates who over the years have lived in the spirit of Fisher's Mission and Creed, embracing the values of "goodness, discipline, and knowledge" and dedicating themselves to lives of "intellectual, professional, and civic integrity, in which diversity and service to others are valued and practiced."
The Reverend Joseph A. Trovato Lecture
Throughout his career at Fisher, Fr. Joseph Trovato's devotion to the principles of Catholic social teaching has inspired many Fisher students to commit their own professional lives to furthering the cause of peace and social justice in the world. The Fr. Joseph A. Trovato Lecture is given by a distinguished community leader or scholar who shares Fr. Trovato's commitment to the cause of peace and social justice.