About the Mudd Center

The Mudd Center was established in 2010 through a gift to the University from award-winning journalist Roger Mudd, a 1950 graduate of W&L. When he made his gift, Mudd said that “given the state of ethics in our current culture, this seems a fitting time to endow a center for the study of ethics, and my university is its fitting home."

In addition to enhancing the University’s ethics curricula and sponsoring symposia, lectures, conferences, and other public events, the Center will also continue the tradition of hosting professional ethics institutes in the areas of business ethics, legal ethics, medical ethics, and environmental ethics. 

Mission Statement

The Roger Mudd Center for Ethics is committed to fostering serious inquiry into, and thoughtful conversation about, important ethical issues in public and professional life. It seeks to advance dialogue, teaching, and research about these issues among students, faculty, and staff across all three schools – the College, the Williams School, and the School of Law. By facilitating collaboration across traditional institutional boundaries, the Center aims to encourage a multidisciplinary perspective on ethics informed by both theory and practice. Its ultimate goal is to provide the tools and resources necessary for thinking freely, critically, and humanely about the complex ethical questions we face in an increasingly diverse yet interdependent world.

In Memoriam: Roger H. Mudd ’50

Read More About Roger Mudd’s Life

• Washington and Lee University obituary
• The New York Times obituary
• The Washington Post obituary

Watch

• Roger Mudd on Ethics: On the eve of the inaugural lecture for Washington and Lee University’s Roger Mudd Center for Ethics, Angela Smith, inaugural director of the Mudd Center and the Mudd Professor of Ethics, sat down with Mudd to discuss his views on ethics and the role of the center at his alma mater. 
• Roger Mudd Receives Individual Philanthropy Award: In 2015, Mudd was honored by the Council of Independent Colleges for his contributions to independent higher education.
• Roger Mudd Receives The Washington Award: Mudd received The Washington Award, W&L’s highest honor, from President Kenneth P. Ruscio during the Opening Assembly of Alumni Weekend 2011 in University Chapel (then Lee Chapel).