Washington and Lee University
Established in 2000 at Washington and Lee University by a generous endowment from the class of 1960, the Institute for Honor held its eighth annual weekend seminar, "Sports in America: Playing Fair," on Jan. 23-24, 2009. This year's symposium posed the question, do honor and fair play still matter in the arena of sports? We addressed this and several other related questions through an informed examination of several different American sports, assessing ways in which revenue from advertising and broadcast media, performance-enhancement technologies, and new regulatory agencies may be changing the game. Among the topics considered were commercialism's influence on athletic competition, the line between amateur and professional sports and how the increasing ambiguity has affected college athletics and the virtues of amateur competition, and whether we can reasonably expect professional athletes to subscribe to-even to embrace and espouse-the principles of honor and fair play.
Our keynote speakers were noted journalist and author Jeffrey Toobin, NCAA Vice President Wallace Renfro, and former General Manager of the Washington Redskins Charley Casserly. Toobin also moderated two distinguished panels including Travis Tygart of the United States Anti-Doping Agency; Dawn Riley, America's Cup Yachtswoman; Jeremiah Bishop, champion cyclist; and Ken Ruscio '76, president of Washington and Lee. Institute discussions included members of the W&L student body and faculty vitally concerned with these issues.
The objective of the Institute is to promote the understanding and practice of honor as an indispensable element of society. Its mandate is to provide an educational and resource management facility dedicated to the advocacy of honor as the core value in personal, professional, business, and community relations.
The topic for the ninth annual Institute for Honor in 2010, scheduled to coincide with the Class of 1960's 50th reunion, is currently under development. Look for an announcement in the fall.
