As reported by the university yesterday, I am delighted to announce that the Dispute Resolution Program at Marquette continues to receive national acclaim. With over ten years of dispute resolution programming and curricula at the Law School, we continue to grow by leaps and bounds. In any given year, we have close to 150 students in our various dispute resolution classes and clinics. Two years ago, we created the Client Skills Board, a board mirroring the traditional Moot Court Board, that oversees law student participation in the non-moot-court competitions, including the ABA Client Counseling Competition, ABA Negotiation Competition, ABA Representation in Mediation Competition, and the invitational ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition held in Paris. Marquette students can now participate in two different intramurals (in negotiation and in mediation advocacy) to be selected for one of the two teams representing the Law School at the regional ABA competitions. In addition to our past history of winning teams in mediation competitions, in the last two years we won the regional competitions in the ABA Client Counseling Competition.
Students participating in the Dispute Resolution Program have internship opportunities in mediation advocacy at the EEOC and Wisconsin FACETS, a nonprofit organization serving Wisconsin children and adults with disabilities, their families, and those who support them. Students also work with the Dispute Resolution College for Kids, a program sponsored by the Law School and the MPS Violence Prevention Project. Since February 2007, the DR College for Kids has trained more than 175 MPS students in basic communication skills, conflict resolution, advanced mediation techniques, creative problem solving, restorative justice concepts, and basic negotiation. That program led to the development of the Conflict Resolution in Education Consortium (CREC), a partnership between Marquette University Law School, Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, Marquette University Department of Educational and Policy Leadership, and the Milwaukee Public Schools Violence Prevention Program. The proud recipients of a $100,000 grant from Milwaukee’s Brighter Future’s Initiative, CREC is currently developing peer mediation programs in area elementary and middle schools and piloting a peer jury program, thereby addressing the grant funder’s goals of reducing teen violence and other delinquent behavior.
Our nationally regarded Restorative Justice Initiative (RJI) continues its clinical program, which includes a prison program, victim-offender dialogues in crimes of severe violence, restorative justice anti-bullying work in middle schools, and a role as community coordinators in the $2.5 million Department of Justice Safe Streets Grant. (See http://law.marquette.edu/cgi-bin/site.pl?2130&pageID=1831 and http://law.marquette.edu/safe-streets/.) And today, April 24th, the Milwaukee County Executive will be recognizing RJI’s work by giving us a “Rebuilding Lives Service Award” at a ceremony at the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
RJI also just launched a new website: http://healingcirclegroup.com/ to feature our new restorative justice documentary on sexual abuse by clergy. The Healing Circle video brings the viewer face-to-face with the victims of sexual abuse by clergy and their pain. As part of a restorative justice process, the video helps us to develop an understanding of the ripple effect of the scandal as it explores the impact on the victims, their families, other believers, and those working in institutional church settings. Ultimately, the video helps us examine the ways the scandal has created a crisis of faith and helps us grapple with the complexity of the healing process. Produced in three segments, the video shares the stories of victims, an offender priest, other clergy and lay ministers, and members of the faith community. The video is intended for use as a tool for dialogue by faith communities, victims’ organizations, seminaries, and other community based organizations.
While I know that reputation is an imperfect measure at best, I do believe it reflects the extraordinary commitment Marquette has made to this program. We have a great team!