The Ethics Across the Curriculum (EAC) program, which is directed by Lawrence M. HInman, seeks to provide support for the development of ethics-related components in all aspects of the curriculum. It does this through sponsoring a two-day curriculum-development workshop and public lecture by a visiting scholar, on-campus lectures on matters of moral concern, the acquisition of ethics-related instructional materials, and support for faculty attendance at ethics-related conferences.

In 1997, the Ethics Across the Curriculum initiative, funded by a grant from the E. L. Wiegand Foundation, sponsored a week-long visit to USD by Professor Carol Gilligan, the first recipient of an endowed chair in gender studies at Harvard. The author of In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, she became a founding member of the collaborative Harvard Project on Women's Psychology and Girls' Development and over the years worked with her colleagues on a series of books reporting and extending the work of the project: Mapping the Moral Domain; Making Connections; Women, Girls, and Psychotherapy: Reframing Resistance, Meeting at the Crossroads; and most recently, Between Voice and Silence: Women and Girls, Race and Relationship. Her work on voice and the development of the Listening Guide Method comes out of a lifelong love of music and language. With Kristin Linklater, Gilligan directs the Company of Women, an all-women theater company devoted to freeing women's voices, strengthening the voices and the courage of girls, and using the power of theater to transform purposes, passions, and perceptions

In 1998, the EAC program sponsored a Faculty Workshop and public lecture by Professor Tu Wei-ming. Dr. Tu is currently Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy at Harvard University, where he teaches and writes about Confucianism, the ancient Chinese system of ethics, and its relation to the modern world. He is known for his attempt to reconfigure a contemporary, critical version of Confucian humanism as East Asia emerges as a powerful force in world culture in the late twentieth century, a period he has called Confucianism's "third epoch." Tu is a leading figure in Confucian developments in East Asia, where he travels regularly as speaker, visiting professor, and consultant to governments. He is especially concerned in his research and writing these days with questions of the cross-cultural dimensions of human rights and environmental ethics. Dr. Tu is also deeply involved in issues of inter-religious dialogue, and has participated actively in scholarly dialogue with Christians (including meetings sponsored by the Vatican), Muslims, and members of other faith traditions.