MVLC Receives Two Awards for Service to Low-Income People

Through efforts such as the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic (MVLC), “we are chipping away at poverty by bringing greater access to justice,” says Angela Schultz, Marquette Law School’s assistant dean for public service.

The documentable record of the clinic in providing thousands of low-income people with access to legal help earned honors at two events this week.

On Tuesday, Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki presented a “Treasures of the Church” award to the clinic in recognition of the success of the Mobile Legal Clinic, which was launched in 2014 as a joint project of Marquette LMobileLegalClinic-noblueaw School, the Milwaukee Bar Association, and Milwaukee County. The recognition came as part of Archbishop’s Lenten Luncheon. The Treasures of the Church awards recognize those who have shown steadfast commitment in response to the needs of poor people.

On Thursday, the United Community Center, a large social service and education provider on the south side, recognized the MVLC as its “group volunteer of the year.”

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Metcalfe Fellow Calls for Renewed Pursuit of Martin Luther King’s Goals

A grim assessment of current realities in central cities and some optimism about how things can and ultimately will get better.

That is what Sheryll Cashin, a professor of law at Georgetown University and Marquette University’s 2016 Ralph Metcalfe Fellow, offered in a talk last Thursday in the Appellate Courtroom of Eckstein Hall. The session was part of Marquette’s observance of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday.

“The thing I liked about Dr. King is that he always appealed to our betters angels. I believe there are a lot of better angels out there,” Cashin said in response to a pessimistic question from an audience member.

“Change is inevitable,” she said. “Nothing is permanent.”  She urged people not to limit their imagination of a better future for the nation and for those whose lives now are shaped by “a nasty othering” at the hands of those with power and wealth.

Cashin, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, focused on a set of lectures that Dr. King delivered in 1967 on Canadian public radio. She compared what King said then to circumstances now, saying little has improved in central cities, and some things have gotten worse.

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Urban Poverty Conference Offers Insights and Some Bits of Hope

“Urban Men in Poverty: Problems and Solutions” – that was the name of a morning-long conference at Eckstein Hall on Friday. Not surprisingly, the content of the gathering, which featured presentations from five professors from four universities, shed more light on the problems than the solutions. The problems are large and urgent, and good research illuminates them. The solutions are much more difficult to identify and implement.

That gave the conference a lot of content but a sobering tone. On the other hand, hope was present too.

For one thing, the fact that such a gathering occurred was a promising sign, Marquette University President Mike Lovell told the audience of more than 200. This was the first collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs and Marquette Law School. Lovell suggested this was an example of the kind of partnerships that are needed to create change.

“The only way we’re going to face and overcome the problems of urban men in poverty is by working together,” Lovell said. He said there are no easy answers. The problems related to urban men in poverty are rooted in events of decades. Solutions will not come quickly.  But, he said, he was excited so many people with serious interest gathered to show commitment to pursing solutions.

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