Senator Feingold on Civility

Last week in honor of ABA Mediation Week, the DR Society here hosted former Senator Russell Feingold for a talk on Civility in Public Discourse. We had a wonderful off-the-record hour (so I can’t tell you all the good stories!–here is me cracking up at one) but what I can say is heartening in terms of supporting our students. Feingold noted that the most persuasive negotiators in the Senate were those who were passionate and had conviction and would also know when to work out a deal. You could trust that they would keep their word. When I asked him about the “argument culture” that seems to pervade Washington, Senator Feingold urged our students to fight against this mentality–stay civil, be humble, keep your word. In reflecting about his long-term interactions with Senator McCain on the campaign finance reform bill, Senator Feingold pointed out that these cross-cutting relationships are crucial–after all, you don’t need to make a deal with those who already agree with you. Over his 18 years in the Senate, he noted how the atmosphere had changed where a senator was part of a joint enterprise with an honored history and esprit de corps–these days politicians get elected by running against the idea that you need to work together. In focusing on Wisconsin–which has been an incredible battleground in the last year over labor rights, the Supreme Court, and other issues–I will note at least two state senators that seem to be taking a page from Senators Feingold and McCain. Dubbed the Common Ground tour, these two senators are touring their respective districts stumping for common issues.  (For more on the Common Ground tour and to hear directly from these state senators, you can click here to watch our own Mike Gousha interviewing them as part of Marquette’s “On the Issues” series.)

Cross posted at Indisputably.

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Will Allen: A Fascinating Life, a Bold Vision

A descendent of sharecroppers, a former professional basketball player, a man hailed nationwide as a visionary – you could make an hour listening to Will Allen fascinating if you stuck just to his personal story.

But in an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session at Eckstein Hall on Tuesday, Allen went beyond his own life and his pioneering work on urban agriculture to a broader and intriguing matter: His vision for creating a major economic base in Milwaukee around urban agriculture, and particularly commercial growth of fish in industrial sized tanks. 

“I think we’re going to create thousands of jobs,” Allen told Gousha, Marquette Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy. “We’re the leading city in the nation in terms of food and water.” He added, “Fish today, that’s a huge opportunity.” 

Allen said two commercial aquaculture firms are planning to develop operations in the city and Growing Power, the urban agriculture operation he heads, is including tanks for cultivating fish in an unusual  five-story building it is planning for its home base along W. Silver Spring Dr., west of N. 51st St. 

Allen said if he had a million pounds of lake perch fillets today, he could sell them all by tomorrow.  

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Ombuds Perspective on Whistleblowing Laws

Last week, we had wonderful talk entitled Blowing the Whistle on Whistleblowing Laws.  Attorney Charles L. (Chuck) Howard is one of the few attorneys in the U.S. with extensive expertise in the legal issues of ombudsmen. Howard has a national practice in representing organizational ombudsmen at universities, multinational corporations, and research institutions.  His new book, entitled The Organizational Ombudsman: Origins, Roles and Operations–A Legal Guide, was just published by the American Bar Association (ABA) and is the nation’s definitive resource book about ombudsmen, mediation, and their impact in the workplace.

In this presentation, he explored how fear of retaliation limits the effectiveness of whistleblower laws and policies. There are hundreds of whistleblower laws in the United States that provide incentives for people to report misconduct and prohibit retaliation against them for doing so. While recoveries from laws like the False Claims Act are significant, the perception — and often the reality — of what happens to whistleblowers who do come forward is that they pay dearly for their actions. In addition to trying to reward whistleblowers, why are we not also looking for better ways to help people address workplace conflict or misconduct without having to be a whistleblower? Howard argued that an organizational ombudsman can help an organization address this gap between encouraging the reporting of misconduct and protecting those who raise issues.

Several of my students’ comments about the talk are below: 

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