Spring Break
Ethics Center won't get $400K
by Jillian Wagner
News Editor
News | 1/13/09
Posted online at 6:09 AM EST on 1/13/09
The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life will not receive $400,000 of a grant from the Justice, Equality, Human Dignity and Tolerance Foundation, which was forced to shut down in December due to its investment in Bernard L. Madoff's Ponzi scheme, according to Director of the Ethics Center Daniel Terris.
JEHT awarded the Ethics Center two grants of $600,000. The first, which was given to the Ethics Center in 2004, was completely paid off, Terris said. It was used to support a series of programs related to the Brandeis Institute for International Judges, which "provides international judges with the opportunity to meet and discuss critical issues concerning the theory and practice of international justice," according to the Ethics Center's Web site.
The second grant, which was originally intended to be for $600,000, was going to be used for a "continuation of the same project with a few extra wrinkles," Terris said. "It was also going to include more focus on educating the U.S. public about international courts and tribunals."
Terris explained that both grants from the JEHT Foundation were designed to be given over a three-year period. The Ethics Center had already received $200,000 of the second grant in 2008 before the Foundation collapsed, Terris explained, but it will not receive the money for the other two years.
"I was dismayed on behalf of the Center because the work that they have funded is important," Terris said. "We had big plans for the next years under this grant. Obviously we will have to rethink some aspects of that very quickly. … It's sad to see a major foundation that's supporting a lot of good institutions and a lot of good work simply vanish," he said.
However, Terris stressed that the Ethics Center had not committed any of these funds. "We are not out any money," he explained. "We won't be able to do the projects to the extent that we would have with the JEHT funding, but it isn't as if we now have to come up with that kind of money."
JEHT awarded the Ethics Center two grants of $600,000. The first, which was given to the Ethics Center in 2004, was completely paid off, Terris said. It was used to support a series of programs related to the Brandeis Institute for International Judges, which "provides international judges with the opportunity to meet and discuss critical issues concerning the theory and practice of international justice," according to the Ethics Center's Web site.
The second grant, which was originally intended to be for $600,000, was going to be used for a "continuation of the same project with a few extra wrinkles," Terris said. "It was also going to include more focus on educating the U.S. public about international courts and tribunals."
Terris explained that both grants from the JEHT Foundation were designed to be given over a three-year period. The Ethics Center had already received $200,000 of the second grant in 2008 before the Foundation collapsed, Terris explained, but it will not receive the money for the other two years.
"I was dismayed on behalf of the Center because the work that they have funded is important," Terris said. "We had big plans for the next years under this grant. Obviously we will have to rethink some aspects of that very quickly. … It's sad to see a major foundation that's supporting a lot of good institutions and a lot of good work simply vanish," he said.
However, Terris stressed that the Ethics Center had not committed any of these funds. "We are not out any money," he explained. "We won't be able to do the projects to the extent that we would have with the JEHT funding, but it isn't as if we now have to come up with that kind of money."
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