The Provost’s Office is pleased to announce that Professor Renee Cramer, professor of law, politics and society, has been appointed the Herb & Karen Baum Chair of Ethics and the Professions. The appointment to this Chair is for a three-year period. Full professors at the University whose teaching and/or research examines issues of ethics and the world of practice are eligible for this position.

The Baum Chair brings together other Drake faculty members with research and teaching interests in ethics into an on-going forum on ethics and the world of practice that will enhance their own scholarly work, their teaching and student learning, and the broader campus discourse. In the second year of appointment, the Baum Chair will organize the Baum Symposium on Ethics and the Professions, to be held on the Drake campus and which involve appropriate outside participants, as well as Drake Faculty, students and staff. Professor Cramer will work with a team of students to develop the Symposium.

Professor Cramer’s symposium will focus on the role of university education in creating the ethical leaders we need across the professions, and the university’s ethical obligation to provide access and affordability to an increasingly diverse range of students, preparing them to enter public life and the workplace with the competencies they need for success. Working with a team of students will insure that the symposium reflects student experiences in and expectations of higher education.

We congratulate Professor Renee Cramer on her selection as the Herb & Karen Baum Chair of Ethics and the Professions.

— Arthur Sanders, Associate Provost