Memories of Sensenbrenner Hall (Part 2)

I first walked into Sensenbrenner Hall on August 1st, 1966.  I was a newly appointed Associate Professor and the Director of the MU Law School Institute on Poverty and the Law.  The federal Office of Economic Opportunity had smiled on the MU Law School with a grant to the tune of about $250,000. 

Alas, even then our beloved Sensenbrenner Hall lacked sufficient office space, and the Institute on Poverty was outposted to rooms on the third floor of the Varsity Theater Building (a couple of blocks west on Wisconsin Avenue).

However, I was not completely cut off from the rest of the faculty.  Dean Robert Boden, who had hired me out of Texas Southern University Law School, urged me to meet with the faculty at its daily 10 a.m. coffee hour in a tiny room in the basement of Sensenbrenner Hall.  There, four or five out of the seven-member law faculty would opine on the latest fortunes of the MU Basketball Warriors or the Green Bay Packers (depending on the season).  One beloved professor, Ray Aiken, would desperately try to turn our attention to the latest effort by either the U.S. or Wisconsin  Supreme Court, but usually with little success.

I remember the interesting faculty meetings, held sitting around the desk of Dean Boden.  I remember the Law Library and its loaded stacks on the third floor of Sensenbrenner Hall.  I also remember Room C on the second floor, where the freeway construction noise came through the open windows on warm spring days and competed with my Corporations class.

We all loved Sensenbrenner Hall back then and we wish it continued good luck as we leave it behind . . . . .

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Mike McChrystal

    As Ray notes, faculty coffee at 10 a.m. was an important daily event year-round. While Marquette basketball was often on the agenda, gossip about lawyers and judges in the city and state was topic number one. The gossip was not mean-spirited. It showed a strong interest in the big cases and big deals that were occurring, in who the players were and what they were doing. Not surprisingly given the usual presence of Bob Boden and Jim Ghiardi, there was lots of discussion about state bar issues and personalities. The connection to the bench and bar could not have been more evident.

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