Nov

28

New Affirmative Action Cases

Posted by: | November 28, 2011 | 2 Comments

[Editor's Note: This month, faculty members are posting on upcoming judicial decisions of particular interest. This is the second post in the series.] It seems almost certain that the Supreme Court will again take up the issue of affirmative action in higher education, as two highly controversial cases separately make their way up the appellate ladder. On two [...]

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Sep

19

Father Pilarz: Promoting Marquette’s Responsibility for Milwaukee’s Well-Being

Posted by: | September 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In a down-to-earth and sometimes self-deprecating way, Marquette University’s new president, the Rev. Scott Pilarz, S.J., offered a vision Monday of a university that simultaneously strengthens the quality of its academic programs and its research while becoming more involved with addressing Milwaukee’s needs. Speaking during an “On the Issues” session with Mike Gousha, distinguished fellow in [...]

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Jan

6

Rofes Receives Kutulakis Award

Posted by: | January 6, 2011 | 3 Comments

It was a privilege today to attend the lunch of the Section on Student Services at the Association of American Law Schools’ annual meeting. For our colleague, Professor Peter K. Rofes, received the section’s Peter N. Kutulakis Award. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions of an institution, administrator, or law professor in the provision of [...]

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Aug

15

New Study Shows Regional Disparity in African-American College Performance

Posted by: | August 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Racial disparities in education has been one of the central legal and cultural problems in post-World  War II America.  A recent study published by The Education Trust reveals yet another example of the problem of African-American underperformance, although the data compiled has a fascinating regional twist. The Education Trust study focuses on comparative graduation rates [...]

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May

17

John McDill Fox and the Idea of Catholic Legal Education

Posted by: | May 17, 2010 | 3 Comments

John McDill Fox was the first member of the Marquette Law School faculty to have attended Harvard Law School and the first to be hired as a dean at another law school.  With his colleague Carl Zollman, he founded the academic field of aviation law, and unlike his faculty colleagues at Marquette, he believed that [...]

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Mar

22

The Native American Mascot Issue Will Just Not Go Away

Posted by: | March 22, 2010 | 15 Comments

WISCONSIN.  In Wisconsin, the legislature is considering a bill that would give Native Americans the right to formally object to the use of a disparaging nickname by a high school in their school district.  Under the Democratic-sponsored bill, anyone who objects to the use of a race-based team name, mascot, symbol, or logo in their [...]

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Sep

23

SAT Scores and Affirmative Action

Posted by: | September 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment

In her majority opinion in the landmark civil rights case Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 342-44 (2003), Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote: Enshrining a permanent justification for racial preferences would offend this fundamental equal protection principle. We see no reason to exempt race-conscious admissions programs from the requirement that all governmental use of race [...]

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Sep

11

Constitution Day

Posted by: | September 11, 2009 | 1 Comment

Some portions of the Constitution are the subject of frequent discussion. Concepts like “due process,” “equal protection,” “freedom of speech,” and the like are headline-grabbers. Phrases like “Commerce … among the several States” do not resonate quite as much with the general public, but are certainly familiar to lawyers. A glance at the Constitution reveals [...]

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Feb

17

Ask God What Your Grade Is

Posted by: | February 17, 2009 | 1 Comment

This morning I have mostly questions. A student has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles City College, claiming that he was giving a class-assigned speech on same sex marriage (which he apparently opposes) and his instructor interrupted him calling him a “fascist bastard.” The instructor then dismissed the class without allowing the student to finish and, on [...]

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Feb

13

Academic Freedom and Academic Anarchy

Posted by: | February 13, 2009 | 1 Comment

Stanley Fish’s most recent column in the New York Times (The Two Languages of Academic Freedom, Feb. 8, 2009) is a good read. Fish tells the story of Denis Rancourt, a tenured full professor of physics at the University of Ottawa. Professor Rancourt is (or perhaps, was) a serious scientist, at least if his profile page [...]

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Dec

31

Lessons for Law School Deans Regarding Catholics in Political Life

Posted by: | December 31, 2008 | 12 Comments

Let me again extend my appreciation to Deans Kearney and O’Hear for the opportunity to serve as December’s guest alumnus blogger of the month, and to all of you who joined the conversation in the comments section. I’ll be right there with you starting tomorrow. Let me also take advantage of my month’s unique position [...]

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Dec

15

Careful Whom You Email!

Posted by: | December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Want to email professors asking them to take a stance on a particular college-related issue?  Not a safe idea if you attend Michigan State University.  The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (“FIRE”) reported last week that a member of the student government at M.S.U. was found guilty of violating the university’s “spam” policy, which [...]

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