While exact figures were not available, Thompson says that the program has raised less of the percentage of its goal than almost any other part of the campaign.
Thompson partly attributes this shortfall to the difficulty of finding donors with specific loyalty to the project.
"The inter-faculty initiatives don't have alumni in the same sense [that] Harvard College or Harvard Law School [do]," Thompson says.
Professional Schools
Nonetheless, during its 10-year history, the program has clearly had its greatest impact on Harvard's graduate schools.
Under the leadership of Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law David B. Wilkins, the Law School has expanded its offerings on ethics from the "Legal Professions" course which is required by the American Bar Association.
"Wilkins has invited many of us to develop portions of our courses [to reflect ethical questions]," says Professor of Law Martha L. Minow.
Minow, who was the acting director of the program in 1993-94, says the changing conception of ethics in the legal profession has aided the movement at Harvard.
"When I started teaching, [ethics] was thought to be an obligation," says Minow. "For many reasons, people now understand it to be relevant to the practice of most firms.... The conception of ethics has been broadened to include the issues of race and gender."
The Division of Medical Ethics is another addition to the study of ethics at Harvard. The division includes about 25 faculty members on its roster, and since 1993 it has sponsored a fellowship of its own.
Lynn M. Peterson, director of the division, says he agrees that the program has been a success but thinks that the cross-disciplinary field of ethics often does not get the support it deserves.
"We are hampered by a lack of funds, we have a lot of faculty interested in ethics, they need more support, because money creates time," says Peterson, who is also an associate professor of medical ethics.
In particular, the teaching in hospitals and the academic world of medicine is especially divided, he says.
"Teaching has to go across both, creates a problem for us, because we are not within either structure, we don't get enough attention from either school," says Peterson.
Thompson sees this problem as not one unique to medicine but true for the field of ethics as a whole because "ethics stands between theory and practice."
"It is frustrating because it makes it difficult to get financial support, political support, promotions..." says Thompson. "If I were sitting down there I would feel the frustrations, but that's what gives them the independence to challenge the customary way of doing things."