Speakers at Marquette – Page 73 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

New Basketball League Will Mean Marquette Can “Control Our Own Destiny,” Williams Says

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:January 24, 2013
Post category:Public Speakers at Marquette Sports & Law

Larry Williams says his life is “about using athletics to grow as a person.” The commitment at Marquette University to that approach to its athletes is what convinced him to become Marquette’s athletic director a year ago, and it is the centerpiece of the philosophy guiding major decisions on Marquette’s sports future, Williams said during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session at Eckstein Hall on Thursday.

The foremost of those major decisions is the recently-announced move to withdraw, along with six other Catholic universities, from the Big East conference and form a new conference. “At the end of the day, we’re really excited about the opportunity to control our own destiny,” Williams said of the move.

Williams said Marquette leaders were aware of the risks of starting a new league, but he was confident that the future would bear out the wisdom of the decision. In the Big East, as it is shaped now, “our destiny was being determined by a sport we didn’t even participate in,” Williams said, referring to football. “We wanted to align with schools that have the same objectives we have” when it comes to athletic excellence and development of athletes as individuals.

Health Commissioner: Milwaukee Must Deal with Race and Poverty Issues

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:January 17, 2013
Post category:Health Care Milwaukee Public Speakers at Marquette

If Milwaukee is to become a healthy city in both broad terms and in terms of specific issues, it must deal with issues in an honest, constructive way with poverty and race, City of Milwaukee Health Commission Bevan Baker said Thursday during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session at Eckstein Hall.

“Milwaukee will not be the greatest, most relevant, healthiest city in America until we deal with our dirty linen,” Baker, health commissioner since 2004, told an audience of about 150.

“To do that,” he continued, “we have got to do what other cities have done, and that is to address race, to address poverty, to look at these issues, and say, it is tough, it is unimaginable, it makes me sick, it is ugly, but to be great we have got to do the unimaginable thing, and that is to once and for all say, and in true fashion, to take our spiritual and moral compass and say, Milwaukee will not be the healthiest, greatest, most relevant city in America until we deal with our dirty linen. That’s what New York has done and that is what Miami is trying to do and that’s what other cities in this nation I have lived in have done.”

Sessions on politics and character wrap-up a big year for policy programs

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:December 21, 2012
Post category:Education & Law Political Processes & Rhetoric Public Speakers at Marquette

A central goal of the public policy initiative at Marquette University Law School has been to provide and encourage serious, level-headed, and provocative consideration of major issues. As we come to the end of 2012, it doesn’t seem presumptuous to say that this has been a very successful year in pursuing that goal.

The Marquette Law School Poll provided insightful, in-depth, and accurate readings on public opinion in Wisconsin throughout a historic year of election after election. The candidates for governor and senator held debates in Eckstein Hall that were televised live across Wisconsin. “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” offered a rich series of programs, free and open to the public, in which newsmakers and consequential figures shared their thoughts. Academic conferences, major lectures, conferences on mental health law and Milwaukee’s future in the Chicago “megacity,” the annual Restorative Justice Initiative conference on civility in public discussion, and two education policy events were all components of a year of thoughtful forays into major issues.

Let us end the year with some highlights of the last two major public policy events of 2012 which we have not reported on this blog previously:

Wisconsin 2012: The voters have spoken. What did they tell us?

December 6, the Appellate Courtroom, Eckstein Hall

To wrap-up an epic year in Wisconsin politics, an array of experts gathered to talk about what happened, with Mike Gousha, the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, moderating.

Charles Franklin, visiting professor of law and public policy and director of the Marquette University Law School Poll, presented a county by county analysis showing dramatic differences in the voting in the June recall election for governor and the November presidential race. The map was predominantly red in June, strengthening arguments that Wisconsin was becoming a more Republican state. But in November, the map was much bluer, and many deep-red counties had turned light red. “That’s just stunning in five months to see that much difference,” Franklin said. The biggest shifts between the two elections came in counties that voted Republican each time, but with much smaller margins for presidential candidate Mitt Romney than for Gov. Scott Walker. The smaller margins amounted to a gain for President Barack Obama of 158,000 votes, Franklin said. In other words, Obama’s stronger performance in Republican areas, compared to the showing of Democrat Tom Barrett in the governor’s race, was a central aspect of Obama’s victory in Wisconsin. In counties that voted Democratic both times, Obama ran up a margin that was 135,000 votes larger than Barrett had.