Campus Connection

UWL is a partner in exploring issues in society

  Should we build additional trails in the bluffs? Where and how should we develop sand mines? What are our goals for habitat restoration along the Mississippi?   The way you answer these questions will depend on the values you hold – for recreational access, for resources, for wildlife habitat or for economic development. Value-laden questions like these are too complex to address from a single vantage point. We believe the university is a key partner in fostering the cross-cutting discussion needed to fully and fairly explore land management issues.   The Ethical Dimensions of Land Management symposium held March 20 at UW-La Crosse demonstrates how the university can promote those discussions. We brought together faculty and students, land managers, and members of the public. Speakers represented environmental studies, political science, philosophy and recreation management.   Question-and-answer periods allowed for feedback from the audience. Topics included how to include multiple groups in land management decisions, ways to measure visitor connections to a natural place, and the different values that need to guide decision making in a national park. We learned both from discussion with community members and from the presentations themselves.   The Ethical Dimensions of Land Management symposium reflects the values of a liberal arts education. Approaches from different academic disciplines were combined in each presentation, providing new insights. [caption id="attachment_34031" align="alignleft" width="150"] Samuel Cocks[/caption] The keynote speaker, philosopher Adam Briggle of Denton, Texas, addressed the relevance of academics in local land management matters. He provided a personal account of his involvement as a “field philosopher” in the debate over fracking in his home town.   Gas well development in residential Denton caused a conflict between the values of home owners and the owners of the sub-surface rights for the same areas. Regardless of what you think about fracking, Dr. Briggle’s work provides an example of a new style of philosophy: active engagement with real-world issues, aligning a supply of academic products with society’s demands.   [caption id="attachment_51482" align="alignleft" width="150"] Meredith Thomsen[/caption] While the symposium did not answer any of the questions we posed at the start, the wide range of topics and perspectives we covered illustrates a crucial point: the university is ideally suited to promote this type of discussion — and should. The symposium also reflects our belief that academic work does not happen in a vacuum, but instead has concrete significance to society. We welcome continued engagement with our community partners.     Article authors: Samuel Cocks is an associate professor of philosophy at UW-La Crosse Meredith Thomsen is a professor of biology at UW-La Crosse