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Faculty Pioneers and University President Honored

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(L-R): Stetson Law pioneering educators Professor Dorothea Beane, Ruth Thurman, and Luz Nagle.
(L-R): Stetson Law pioneering educators Professor Dorothea Beane, Ruth Thurman, and Luz Nagle. Click for high-resolution image.

On Feb. 26, Professors Dorothea Beane, Luz Nagle and Ruth Fleet Thurman were honored for being pioneering educators at Stetson University College of Law. Outgoing Stetson University President H. Douglas Lee and First Lady Margaret Lee were also honored for their commitment to social justice.

Professors Beane, Nagle and Thurman represent a series of faculty firsts at Stetson Law. Thurman is the first tenured female professor, Beane is the first tenured African-American professor and Nagle is the first tenured Hispanic professor. A bronze relief, commissioned by Stetson Law Vice-President and Dean Darby Dickerson, was unveiled during the ceremony.

Professor Beane, co-director of the Institute on Caribbean Law and Policy at Stetson Law, works on matters involving international criminal law and human rights and has lectured extensively on the role of international tribunals. She is a past recipient of the Stetson University College of Law Teaching Excellence Award.

 

 

(L-R): Stetson University First Lady Margaret Lee and President H. Douglas Lee.
(L-R): Stetson University First Lady Margaret Lee and President H. Douglas Lee. Click for high resolution image.

Professor Nagle served as a judge on Colombia’s court of general jurisdiction from 1983-86 and was forced to leave Colombia following repeated assassination attempts. Nagle specializes in international law, international criminal law, national security law, terrorism, drug and human trafficking, guerrilla insurgency, and Latin American business law.

Professor Thurman was inducted into the Stetson University College of Law Hall of Fame in 2005. She was in private practice for 13 years before joining the Stetson Law faculty in 1975. Thurman is the first woman to serve as assistant state attorney in the 6th Judicial Circuit of Florida. She teaches in the areas of professional responsibility and family law.

President Lee retires in May after 21 years in the university presidency. In honor of Lee and wife Margaret, Stetson Law made donations to non-profit micro-credit organizations in countries in which Stetson has study-abroad and social justice programs.

 

 

Chief Justice of Canada Visits Stetson Law

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» Watch Video (Note: QuickTime is required to view.)

Chief Justice of Canada Visits 1
Chief Justice McLachlin teaches a course on Wednesday, March 4, at Stetson University College of Law. Click for high-resolution image.

Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada since 2000 and the first woman to hold the position,  visited the Stetson University College of Law campus in Gulfport. While at Stetson, Chief Justice McLachlin  taught an Advanced Comparative Tort Law course, met with faculty, and participated in informal discussions with students in her role as Distinguished International Fellow.

On March 4 in Stetson’s Mann Lounge, Justice McLachlin fielded questions from students about some of the landmark interpretations by the Supreme Court of Canada that have shaped social justice in the country. She also advised Stetson law students on the importance of collegiality, legal analysis and the ethic of honest service.

Chief Justice of Canada Visits 2
Chief Justice McLachlin speaks during an informal question-and-answer session at Stetson Law in Gulfport. Click image for high-resolution version.

“It’s a license to serve the people. That’s why you are given your privileges,” McLachlin responded to a student’s inquiry about why character should be important to aspiring lawyers. It is a lesson that is sometimes forgotten in rushing about, she said. “When you talk to lawyers who have had happy professional careers ….what they remember is how they were able to help people or how they were able to do something that was good for society.”

McLachlin discussed the importance of balance in the legal profession. “A good lawyer has to think not only about her side of the case but the other side of the case and assess its strength,” McLachlin shared. “You have to see both sides whether you are a lawyer or a judge.” McLachlin stressed the importance of stepping into the shoes of the person before the bench, and trying to see the matter as that person sees it.

“Every nation’s law has to be true to its culture and its people and it’s a unique social emanation,” McLachlin said of providing context to legal tradition.

Chief Justice of Canada Visits 3
Chief Justice McLachlin talks with Stetson Law students following a question-and-answer session on Wednesday, March 4, in the Mann Lounge. Click image for high-resolution version.

After World War II, social policy in Canada focused on developing ways of helping marginalized people, McLachlin said. The Chief Justice added that Canada provides strong protections for disabled individuals at provincial and federal levels. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, similar to the American Bill of Rights, contains a provision outlining Equality Rights that prohibits discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. In 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage.

Canada’s Supreme Court is composed of nine elected justices, including four women and five men. McLachlin became a member of the Supreme Court of Canada on March 30, 1989, and ascended to Chief Justice on January 7, 2000.

Three Educators Receive Facilitator Award

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Three Educators Receive Award 1
(L-R): Stetson Law Professor Peter Lake, Linda Major of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Stetson Law Vice-President and Dean Darby Dickerson. Click thumbnail for larger image.

The late professor Liviu Librescu of Virginia Polytechnic University, Linda Major of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and professor Thomas Workman of the University of Houston-Downtown and Baylor College of Medicine, each received this year’s Facilitator Award from Stetson University College of Law at the 30th Annual National Conference on Law and Higher Education on Feb. 22 in Orlando, Fla.

Stetson created the Facilitator Award to honor educators who embody the values and principles articulated by Stetson Law professors Robert Bickel and Peter Lake in their book, The Rights and Responsibilities of the Modern University. The Facilitator Model urges educators to be proactive about safety and risk management, and to develop organizational environments that are reasonably safe, educationally relevant and developmentally sound.

Three Educators Receive Award 2
(L-R): Stetson Law Professor Peter Lake, Thomas Workman of the University of Houston-Downtown and Baylor College of Medicine, and Stetson Law Vice-President and Dean Darby Dickerson. Click thumbnail for larger image.

Librescu sacrificed his own life to save his students by throwing himself in front of Virginia Tech shooter Seung Hui Cho on April 16, 2007, when Cho attempted to enter his classroom. Librescu was fatally shot, but most of his students escaped to safety through a window.

Major serves as the director of student involvement and is the project director for “NU Directions,” a campus/community coalition initiative at the University of Nebraska designed to reduce high-risk drinking among college students. Workman also worked at Nebraska with NU Directions, but now works in Houston with the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston-Downtown, where he co-directs the Center for Public Deliberation. Together, Major and Workman developed and implemented a signature program that has reduced high-risk drinking at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and has positively and permanently impacted the academic community.

To learn more about upcoming higher education programs at Stetson, please visit the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy’s Web site at http://www.law.stetson.edu/excellence/HigherEd/ or call 727-562-7392.

The late Professor Liviu Librescu of Virginia Polytechnic University.
The late Professor Liviu Librescu of Virginia Polytechnic University. Click for high-resolution image.

Stetson University Earns Carnegie Recognition

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Stetson University has been awarded the 2008 Community Engagement Classification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The foundation announced Dec. 18 that Stetson was one of 119 colleges and universities selected for the 2008 classification, joining 76 institutions identified in 2006.

The distinction is external validation from a prestigious source that recognizes community engagement is central to the life of Stetson University, said Dr. D. Gregory Sapp, Stetson’s Hal S. Marchman Chair of Civic and Social Responsibility and associate professor of Religious Studies. Fewer than 5 percent of nonprofit, four year institutions of higher education in the United States carry the designation.

The independent accreditation is part of a burgeoning standardized classification. The designation “allows someone considering Stetson to know it’s a place where community engagement is part of who we are, that it’s part of our character,” Sapp said.

Stetson students and faculty on the DeLand and Gulfport campuses provided more than 54,000 hours of service during the 2007-2008 academic year. That number represents both academic service learning hours and nonacademic volunteer hours. More than $19 million of the university’s $125 million endowment directly supports community engagement.

Examples of academic service learning programs at Stetson include Bonner Community Engagement, a 60-student service-oriented program; Community-Based Research; La Plaza Comunitaria community center in Pierson; and the CHOMI microcredit program in DeLand and Tanzania. Examples of volunteerism include CAUSE (Campaign for Adolescent and University Student Empowerment); the Greenfeather campuswide fundraiser for local nonprofit groups; and pro bono work at the College of Law.

 

U.S. Rep. John Lewis to Speak at Stetson Law Graduation

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U.S. Rep. John Lewis
U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Click for high-resolution image.

Civil Rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia will speak to graduates of Stetson University College of Law on May 16 at 9 a.m. at 1401 61st St. S. in Gulfport. Rep. Lewis is a lifelong advocate of civil liberties who played a leading role in passing the Voting Rights Act and in ending segregation in America.

Lewis is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize, the Ford’s Theatre Lincoln Medal, the NAACP Spingarn Medal, and the unprecedented Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

Born to sharecroppers in Alabama, Lewis attended segregated schools and was inspired by the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to join the Civil Rights Movement. As a student at Fisk University, Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn. In 1961, he joined the Freedom Rides, challenging Jim Crow segregation in the South. At the age of 23 he was speaking to the same enormous crowd that heard King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the historic March on Washington.

On March 7, 1965, Lewis and Hosea Williams led more than  600 people on The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights. Lewis and others were brutally beaten by state troopers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The event became known as “Bloody Sunday” and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Lewis to direct the federal volunteer agency known as ACTION. In 1981, as a member of Atlanta City Council, Lewis advocated for ethics in government and neighborhood preservation. Lewis has served as a U.S. Representative of Georgia’s 5th Congressional District since being elected to Congress in 1986.

For more information, please see his online  biography.

Professors Honored with Kaplin Award

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Michael Olivas, Ph.D.
Michael Olivas, Ph.D. Click thumbnail for high-resolution image.

Michael Olivas, Ph.D., of the University of Houston Law Center and Professor of Law Emeritus and University Professor Emeritus  Robert O’Neil of the University of Virginia School of Law will receive Stetson University College of Law’s inaugural William A. Kaplin Award for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy Scholarship. The awards will be presented on Feb. 22, at the 30th Annual National Conference on Law and Higher Education in Orlando.

 

The award for outstanding scholarly work related to higher education law and policy is named for William A. Kaplin, research professor of law at Catholic University of America School of Law and distinguished professorial lecturer at Stetson Law. Professor Kaplin teaches and writes in the areas of education law and constitutional law and has authored or co-authored  nine books on higher education law and policy, including  The Law of Higher Education, Fourth Edition, with Rutgers University professor Barbara Lee.

 

 

 

Professor Emeritus Robert O'Neil.
Professor Emeritus Robert O'Neil. Click thumbnail for high-resolution image.

Olivas is the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Houston Law Center and director of the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance at the University of Houston. O’Neil is director of the not-for-profit Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Freedom of Expression in Charlottesville,Va., and past-president of the University of Virginia. Both have written extensively in the area of higher education law and policy and have contributed greatly to the field.

 

The selection committee consisted of chair Tim Birtwistle, professor of higher education law and policy and Jean Monnet Chair at the Leeds Law School, U.K.; Darby Dickerson, vice president and dean of Stetson University College of Law; Donald D. Gehring, professor emeritus of higher education and past director of the higher education administration doctoral program at Bowling Green State University; William A. Kaplin; Peter F. Lake, professor of law and the Charles A. Dana Chair and director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law; Holiday Hart McKiernan, senior vice-president and general counsel at the Lumina Foundation for Education; Leland Ware, the Louis L. Redding Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Delaware; and Thomas Workman, assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Houston-Downtown and faculty section head, production, at the Eisenberg Center for Decision & Communication Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine.

 

Salute the Troops Feb. 14

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The public is invited to attend a free “Salute the Troops Barbeque” on Feb. 14, between 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Gulfport Recreation Center, 5730 Shore Blvd. S.

Attendees are asked to bring donations of non-perishable items, including toiletries, books, magazines and stationery supplies, to help create care packages for members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

The charity drive, now in its third year, is hosted by Stetson student organization Law & Order, and jointly sponsored by Stetson’s ABA Law Student Division chapter, the City of Gulfport, and the law firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP.

This year’s event features games, face-painting and balloon creations for children and, on a first-come, first-served basis, free food and entertainment for participants. Attendees may write personalized messages of appreciation to military personnel at the card-writing station.

Public parking is available at the Gulfport Recreation Center and along Gulfport Beach.

Recommended items to donate include: Baby wipes, beef jerky, magazines and books, razors and  shaving cream, socks, hot chocolate, reusable water bottles, non-perishable food items (cookies, chips, crackers, cereal, instant oatmeal, pudding, canned fruit, soups, canned tuna), Gatorade mix, hard candies, instant coffee, Tupperware, plastic utensils, fabric softener, seasonings, hot sauce, sugar packets, Tylenol, muscle rub, travel games and toys, batteries (D and AA), stationery supplies, CDs, cotton swabs, Ivory soap, feminine hygiene products, tobacco, cigars, cigarette papers, disposable cameras, bug repellant, sunscreen, mail order catalogs, aloe vera, toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss, deoderant, body lotion, toilet paper and tissue packages, throat lozenges, eye drops, lip balm, foot powder, eyeglass wipes, and prepaid phone cards.

Tampa Law Center Closed Sunday

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The Super Bowl will be held in Tampa on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009.  
 
The crowd attending the game  and related events is expected to cause significant traffic problems.      
For this reason, the Tampa Law Center will be closed all day on Sunday, Feb. 1.
 
The Tampa Law Center will reopen at its usual time on Monday, Feb. 2.

 

Bay Area Elder Consumer Expos in February and April

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Manager of Media Relations
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Stetson University College of Law invites seniors to its Gulfport campus for two free Bay Area Elder Consumer Protection Expos in February and April.

Expos educating seniors about consumer protection, exploitation, abuse and neglect will be offered on Feb. 13 and on April 22 between 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Both expos will be offered in the Great Hall at Stetson Law, 1401 61st St. S.

A free continental breakfast will be provided. Space is limited.

Expos include on-site shredding services, “Do-Not-Call” and “Opt-Out” registry information, door prizes, presentations, and informational exhibits by local, state and federal agencies.

Parking is available at Stetson at the corner of 61st St. S. and 15th Ave. S. Expo attendees may also be dropped at the entrance to the school before parking their vehicles.

To learn more about attending or exhibiting at Stetson’s upcoming presentations for seniors, please call Slade Dukes, Elder Consumer Protection Program fellow, at 727-562-7800 ext. 7078 or e-mail [email protected]. If attendance requires any physical assistance, please call two weeks prior to the event.

Stetson University College of Law is a national leader in the field of elder law. Stetson’s Elder Consumer Protection Program serves as an educational, informational and instructional resource about general and legal matters in the areas of elder consumer protection, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Supported in part by limited state and federal funding, the program offers materials and services that provide and promote general knowledge, public awareness and assistance, and professional development. Stetson also is home to the Eleazer Courtroom, the nation’s first elder-friendly courtroom, dedicated in September of 2005.

Stetson Law Honored by University of Granada

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Manager of Media Relations
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Steson Honored by Univ of Grenada
(Counter clockwise): Dean John Cooper accepting the honor from University of Granada School of Law Dean Juan López Martínez and University of Granada Rector Francisco González Lodeiro.

The University of Granada School of Law honored Stetson University College of Law with the historic Medalla de la Facultad de Derecho on Jan. 23 in Granada, Spain.

“Stetson is being honored for its commitment to international education and willingness to enter into partnerships with law schools in other nations,” said John Cooper, associate dean of international and cooperative programs at Stetson University College of Law. Stetson annually offers a study abroad program in Granada, Spain, in addition to legal programs in seven other countries around the globe.

The medal was presented on Jan. 23 during the original feast day celebrating San Raymundo de Peñafort, the patron saint of canon lawyers and the patron saint of all lawyers in Spain.

The prestigious Medalla was presented last year to Judge Baltasar Garzón and to Professor Juan Antonio Carrillo Salcedo. Garzón came to prominence in the late 1990s when he campaigned for the extradition of former Chilean military ruler Augusto Pinochet for human rights abuses. Salcedo is a member of the International Commission of Jurists, a former member of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission of Human Rights, and a professor of public international law at the University of Seville, Spain.

Stetson Honors Public Service

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Stetson Honors Public Service 1
L-R: Clearwater lawyer Gregory Showers accepts the public service award from William Reece Smith Jr. Click for high-resolution image.

Stetson University College of Law presented attorney Gregory K. Showers with the prestigious William Reece Smith Jr. Award for Public Service on Jan. 22 during the Inns of Court Banquet in St. Petersburg. This annual award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to community service. The ceremony included a keynote address (Watch Video) by American Bar Association President-Elect Carolyn Lamm.

A partner in the firm of Kwall, Showers & Barack P.A., Showers has volunteered hundreds of pro bono service hours for Gulfcoast Legal Services and has mentored at-risk students. He has served as a leadership volunteer for the YMCA, Willa Carson Health Resources Foundation, Greenwood Community Health Resource Center, Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services, Gulfcoast Legal Services and Leadership Pinellas.

Stetson Honors Public Service 2
ABA President-Elect Carolyn Lamm gave keynote address. Click for high-resolution image.

Showers graduated from Stetson Law in 1992, and is past president of the Clearwater Bar Association, co-founder of the Clearwater Bar’s Student Legal Intern Program, and a member of the Fred G. Minnis Bar Association and the NAACP. He continues to mentor minority law students at Stetson University, and is a frequent lecturer and volunteer at St. Petersburg College.

The award was established in 1990 in honor of its first recipient, William Reece Smith Jr., a distinguished professorial lecturer at Stetson University College of Law and past president of the International Bar Association, the American Bar Association and The Florida Bar.