In our society, we no longer think of education as something that only lasts until you're 18 or 22. It's something we continue throughout our lives. This is one opportunity to offer a kind of education without requiring people to attend classes or make a daily or weekly commitment. We also have in our society a real dissatisfaction with the lack of opportunities for meaningful dialogue with one another. These institutes all over the country try to provide a place for this.
Ethics is a very general term, which just means a set of values.
But Viterbo University, where the Institute is housed, has a particular set of values and the principal values are those of humility, hospitality, love, joy, and respect. Those are Franciscan values. The Institute has to act on the basis of those values. But those values aren't exclusively Franciscan or Catholic. I expect a great number of people who are neither Franciscan nor Catholic identify with those values and embrace them.