As many of you likely know, in Spring of 2022 the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition organized a graduate workers strike across Indiana University’s Bloomington campus. What started as a group of around one to two hundred organizers quickly grew into the largest collective action event on campus in years, with around 2000 graduate workers participating in the strike in some capacity.
The graduate students in the philosophy department were proudly involved in these efforts. The philosophy department also led the way on how departments and the new union were engaged, with the philosophy department being one of the first departments both to expressly adopt an official neutrality policy and to integrate union representation into our internal structure via the Graduate Association of Students in Philosophy.
Particularly worthy of praise among the graduate students is Zara Anwarzai, who during that strike was one of the core organizers of the rapidly expanding union. She truly served as a model leader for graduate students across campus. Also worthy of special mention are Katrina Haaksma, Luke Capek, Savannah Pearlman, Elizabeth Williams, Quinn Cannon, and Ricky Mouser, all of whom were involved in some capacity as organizers during or before the strike. Not enough can be said about the real and significant impact that philosophers had on the organizing efforts that directly led to the minimal stipend at IU being raised to $22,000: a monumental and life-changing difference in the lives of so many in our community.
I myself got involved primarily as a rally captain during the strike. It is interesting how philosophical training continues to inform how I think about messaging about union-related matters. What is wrong? Who is to blame? How can I most clearly communicate that? A lot goes on behind a simple “Union woo!”
And philosophy continues to lead the way. I write this as a proudly elected member of IGWC’s leadership, following a line of philosophers before me. I believe we could not have done what we have done so far without such a rich, vibrant, and supportive community.
I thank everyone that was involved and everyone that continues to be involved in our efforts.
Last year, IU Bloomington’s Ethics Bowl team took first place at the APPE Upper Midwest Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl. The Ethics Bowl encourages philosophical discussion rather than the debate-style exchange practiced in high school civics courses. Opposing teams do not have to disagree—the point is to develop well-thought-out moral positions on controversial contemporary moral topics. Team members Josh Bogner, Michael Clark, Carter Hanefeld, Summer Myers, Abby Swift, Ava Truman, and Summer Voorhies excelled with great teamwork, original arguments, and careful consideration of opposing perspectives.
The win came as somewhat of a surprise. The Regional consisted of four matches with four different teams, each match with a different set of questions and cases. At the end of each match, the teams received their scores. The IU Bloomington team won their first two matches, but the results for the third match showed that IU lost. The tally going into the awards ceremony appeared to be three wins and one loss.
The third- and second-place teams were announced, each with three wins and one loss. Neither was IU. The announcer then turned to reveal the first-place team, who had zero losses. To the surprise and shock of everyone involved in the third match, IU Bloomington was announced as the winner. It turned out, upon further inspection of the results, that one of the judges had added his scores wrongly and IU had won the match! With an undefeated track record at the Regional, IU Bloomington took first place, beating other strong teams who regularly made it to the top three.
As coach Elizabeth Williams emphasized, the point of the Ethics Bowl wasn’t to win, it was to challenge students to think more deeply about complex ethical issues and improve their critical thinking and public speaking skills. But, it was nice to have that hard work recognized.
Best of luck to this year’s Ethics Bowl team!
I had the privilege to be Undergraduate Activities Coordinator from 2020 to 2022, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a strange, unpredictable time, with more delivery-catered Zoom calls and socially distanced in-person events than I care to count. But I’m happy to report that in the end, both Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) and Philosophy Club not only survived but thrived!
Here are some of our highlights:
I’m proud of the work done by Philosophy Club Presidents Andrew Russell and Tom Pais to make this challenging time a success, and I’d also like to thank Adam Leite for helping me manage key administrative duties. Here’s to an even better future!
The College of Arts