With the goal of fostering discussion in a field of inquiry he valued, Carrol O. Buttrill ’38 established a fund through which the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research promotes on-going investigations into ethical questions of significance to the Texas A&M community. The Carrol O. Buttrill ’38 Endowed Fund for Ethics supports annual lectures, roundtables, special events, and course activities. 

In Fall 2008, Michael A. Olivas, William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Houston Law Center, addressed the question “Is College Finance Ethical?” before a large audience in the Memorial Student Center.  The following Spring, the Glasscock Center hosted two roundtables entitled, “How Do We Teach Ethics: Teaching Ethics in Disciplinary Contexts.”  Participants from across the University included Marian Eide (English), Colleen Murphy (Philosophy), L. Murphy Smith (Accounting), Cynthia Werner (Anthropology), Ashley Currier (Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies), Jonathan Smith (Geography), Chris Townsend (Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications), and Gary Varner (Philosophy). Panelists discussed cutting edge ethical questions in their professions. One of the central issues that emerged from the roundtables was the distinction between ethical codes of conduct within disciplines and ethics as a series of open questions requiring continual formulation and examination of new questions.  Students
in the audience raised the issue of an instrumentalist approach to the world and the idea of a consistently
ethical self.

On March 3, 2010 at 4 p.m. in the Glasscock Center Library (311 Glasscock Building), David Zarefsky, Owen L. Coon Professor of Communication at Northwestern University, will speak in conjunction with the College of Liberal Arts Civil Dialogue initiative.  Professor Zarefsky is an expert in the history and criticism of American public discourse.  His current projects are a book-length study examining President Lyndon B. Johnson's speech announcing his departure from the 1968 Presidential contest and a second study exploring the effects of the controversial annexation of Texas in the 1840s upon the slavery debate.

The Buttrill Fund also supports faculty as they integrate investigations of ethical concerns directly into their classes.  In 2007-2008, Professor Scott Austin in the Department of Philosophy undertook a semester-long investigation of the ethical issues raised by the College of Liberal Arts’ “Common Ground” text, Cathy Small’s My Freshman Year, in his Contemporary Moral Issues course. He also worked with the Philosophy Club and the philosophy honor society Phi Sigma Tau in an ongoing discussion of Small’s study. 

The initial effort in 2007-2008 has now become an annual award for curriculum development, the Buttrill Course Enhancement Grant.  Under this new program, made possible by the endowment, Dr. Cynthia Werner in Anthropology funded Professor Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban of Rhode Island College to present “Ethics and Anthropology in America’s Declining Imperial Age,” focusing upon the ethical dilemmas that confront anthropologists undertaking fieldwork in the modern world.  In 2009-2010 Buttrill Course Enhancement Grants will fund ethics related courses in the departments of Hispanic Studies, English, and Communication.