Speakers at Marquette – Page 43 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Address Evictions to Address Poverty, Author Tells Law School Audience

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:March 1, 2016
Post category:Milwaukee Prisoner Rights Public Speakers at Marquette

When he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Matthew Desmond searched for research on the impact of evictions on low-income people. He found close to nothing written by academics, policy makers, or journalists.

No more. Almost a decade later, Desmond has written a book that is already attracting major attention nationwide and changing the conversation about evictions and related housing issues for low-income people.

The book, which was officially released on Tuesday, is set in Milwaukee and is based on Desmond’s emersion in the lives of renters and landlords in 2008 and 2009 and on his research into tens of thousands of records on evictions.

And he chose an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Marquette Law School on Tuesday as the first event on a national book tour.

MATC President Describes a Tuition-Free Promise That Could Change Milwaukee

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:February 25, 2016
Post category:Education & Law Public Speakers at Marquette

Vicki Martin was at a national conference of community college leaders and set out to attend a workshop. But she walked into a different session than the one was looking for. That worked out well — it triggered a change in her thinking that may trigger a change in the education and job prospects for large numbers of low-income Milwaukee young adults.

Martin is president of Milwaukee Area Technical College and the session she walked into was about a program called the Tennessee Promise, which offers two years of community and technical college education with no tuition cost for high school graduates in that state.

“It really caught my imagination,” Martin said during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Eckstein Hall on Feb. 23. She decided, “This is very doable. . . . We just have to do it.”

Senator Johnson Is “More Panicked” About State of the Nation Now Than Five Years Ago

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:February 9, 2016
Post category:Political Processes & Rhetoric Public Speakers at Marquette

Ron Johnson says he gets a big smile on his face when the airplane he is aboard lifts off from Reagan National Airport in Washington and he knows he’s heading to Wisconsin.

So why not leave a place Johnson calls a frustrating center of dysfunction, stay in Wisconsin, and go back to the life he loved as a businessman in Oshkosh? Mike Gousha, the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, posed that question during an “On the Issues” session Feb. 5 at Eckstein Hall with the Republican senator who is in the last year of a six-year term in office

“I can’t quit, much as I’d like to go home,” Johnson answered. “The bottom line is this nation is on the wrong course and we’ve got to correct it. This nation is worth preserving.”