UC Law to Host Free Legal Clinic for Small Businesses - Sept 14th!

From UC News:

University of Cincinnati College of Law to Host Free Legal Clinic for Small Businesses

The UC College of Law and the Duke Energy Law Department are co-sponsoring this event, scheduled for Sept. 14, from 1-5 p.m., at the law school. Small business owners are invited to schedule a 30-minute consultation (free of charge) with a local attorney to discuss a variety of business issues.

Date: 9/5/2012 4:00:00 PM
By: Sherry English
Phone: (513) 556-0060

  

Are you a student or UC employee with a small business? The UC College of Law Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic (ECDC) and the Duke Energy Law Department are partnering to sponsor “Free Legal Advice to Better Your Business,” a pro bono event for small business owners seeking legal advice. The event will be held on Friday, September 14, 2012 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. at the College of Law, located at the corner of Clifton Ave. and Calhoun St.  Free parking is available at the Deaconess Hospital Garage on Straight Street. Pre-registration is available by contacting Lori Strait (lori.strait@uc.edu or 513.556.0117) by Wednesday, Sept. 12. Walk-in registration is available until 4:15 p.m. on Sept. 14.

UC Professor Lew Goldfarb, director of the ECDC, believes "this is a great opportunity for small business owners to obtain legal services critical to their future success. The success of our small business community is critical to the economic vitality of the Cincinnati area. We are privileged to be collaborating with Duke Energy on this endeavor, which is a good example of how a partnership between the private sector and academia can work for the betterment of the communities in which we live and work."

Area business owners can schedule a 30-minute consultation with an attorney to discuss a variety of practice areas. These include: contracts, business start-up, litigation, real estate, tax, labor & employment, environmental issues, intellectual property and non-profits. UC Law students will also be assisting at the various tables. 

The event was held for the first time last year. Duke attorneys “were impressed with the creativity and ambition of the entrepreneurs in our community, and honored to provide legal support to them” commented Melissa Feldmeier, associate general counsel, Duke Energy. “Small business owners are our neighbors and customers, and we want to help them succeed.  It also was refreshing to interact with law students as they begin their own careers, and hopefully reinforced the positive role that attorneys can play in the community.”

Tim Sullivan, president/CEO of Sincere Incorporated, was one of the local business owners who received assistance at last year’s event. “Being a small business owner with limited financial resources, every penny counts especially, when it comes to my accounting and legal needs” says Sullivan. “I recommend taking advantage of this free resource.

For more information on this event and/or to download the registration form, visit the event web page.  Or, call 513-556-0117.

2012 Diversity Grant Recipients Announced

From: UC News

Six grants to improve UC's diversity have been awarded. Proposals from throughout the university were invited to suggest initiatives for funding.

Date: 3/7/2012 12:00:00 AM
By: Greg Hand
Phone: (513) 556-1822

   University of Cincinnati Chief Diversity Officer Mitchel D. Livingston, in conjunction with the President’s Diversity Council, has awarded six competitive grants totaling $45,000 to promote the recruitment and retention of a diverse student and employee population.

Mitchel D. Livingston

“Proposals submitted covered a wide range of ideas which made a challenging review process for the selection team,” said Livingston.

The funded initiatives were selected from 20 proposals submitted in this, the fourth year of the grant program, in response to an invitation from the President’s Diversity Council. Applicants were strongly encouraged to find matching funds to extend the impact of the grants.

The following six awards have been granted for the 2012 diversity incentive proposals.

College of Education, Criminal Justice & Human Services
Gen 1HouseAward Amount: $8000
Matching Funds: $9000The Partner for Achieving School Success program at the College of Education, Criminal Justice & Human Services will expand its Gen-1 Theme House to provide services for up to 36 new freshmen residents and up to 15 sophomores and approximately 30 juniors and seniors whho are continuing in the expanded Gen-1 program. Participants are first-generation students who are Pell-eligible. This unique program and its staff have been cited in local, regional, and national media for successful efforts to alleviate barriers for underrepresented students at a public, research-extensive university.

College of Law
Bridge ProgramAward Amount: $3400
Matching Funds: $3,205The College of law will create a pilot “bridge” program for entering law students from diverse backgrounds to master the foundational skills required for the successful study and practice of law. The program represents a collaboration between the McMicken College departments of English and Philosophy, and the College of Law. The six-day program is designed to increase student competencies in critical thinking and analysis as well as composition and drafting.  

Administration & Finance Division/Human Resources

Diversity Benefits SeriesAward Amount: $6600
Matching Funds: $6598The award will support a series of online training courses to provide management tools for faculty and administrators who are responsible for understanding diversity issues. The Diversity Benefits to All Employees series demonstrates how a diverse population can positively impact the university. The series covers topics ranging from respect for cultural traditions to managing a multigenerational workforce to LGBT issues in the workplace.

College of Business
Today’s Learners, Tomorrow’s Leaders (TL2)Award Amount: $9000
Matching Funds: $32,530The TL2 program is a summer program bringing a diverse selection of high school students to campus for foundation study in economics and the opportunity to earn standing credit. The coursework includes field experience to introduce these students to the UC environment and the Cincinnati economy.

McMicken College of Arts & Sciences
Putting Retention 1st in the Zest for Excellence (PR1ZE)Award Amount: $9000
Matching Funds: $12,495PR1ZE will expand its program to an additional 30 students and bolster academic engagement through undergraduate research. The PR1ZE mentoring program was designed in 2008 to help increase the retention and graduation rate of African-American students in the College of Arts and Sciences. With funding from the Diversity Council, the program expanded in 2010 to include all African-American Students campus-wide.

College of Allied Health Sciences
Diversity EnhancementAward Amount: $9000
Matching Funds: $9000The Diversity Enhancement program includes a mentoring component in which college alumni are matched with current students and a dual enrollment component to enroll Hughes High School students from the health pathway sequence in college classes.

Call for Papers for Social Justice Feminism Conference - Deadline Apr 1st!

From UC College of Law:

Social Justice Feminism Conference - Call for Papers

"Social Justice Feminism"

University of Cincinnati College of Law

October 26-27, 2012

Keynote Speakers:

Patricia Hill Collins, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland;

Charles Phelps, Taft Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Cincinnati;

Anika Rahman, President and CEO, Ms. Foundation   

The University of Cincinnati College of Law’s Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice seeks submissions for its upcoming 2012 conference “Social Justice Feminism.”

What is Social Justice Feminism?  It is the type of work feminist activists on the ground say that they want to do.  This desire for “social justice feminism” (SJF) emerged from a three-years’ long conversation among women leaders from national groups, grassroots organizations, academia, and beyond (the New Women’s Movement Initiative) who gathered to address dissonance in the women’s movement, particularly dissatisfaction with the movement’s emphasis on women privileged on account of their race, class, or sexuality.  In 2010, Kristin Kalsem and Verna L. Williams of the University of Cincinnati College of Law published an article, “Social Justice Feminism,” that takes initial steps at broadly defining SJF as that which is productive, constructive, and healing.  Moving from practice to theory, it suggests a new way of articulating and understanding the feminist work that is being done in this current stage of feminist jurisprudence, after the path-breaking interventions of anti-essentialism and intersectionality.  The article also sets forth methodological tools for “doing social justice feminism.” 

“Social Justice Feminism” was written to advance the conversation that has already begun, both in the world of practice as evidenced by the work of the New Women’s Movement Initiative, as well as the world of feminist legal theory.  To download a copy of the article click here.  The upcoming conference is intended to continue and expand the conversation.  We are seeking papers from academics who are interested in practice and activists who are interested in theory.  Possible panels include:

• A social justice feminist approach to women and prison
• Critical Race Feminism and SJF
• The intersections of SJF and environmental justice
• History and reproductive justice
• New approaches to domestic violence activism
• SJF and criminal justice

Deadline: April 1, 2012.  We invite submissions of abstracts for individual papers, as well as complete panels.  Send paper abstracts of no more that 500 words and a short biographical statement to lawsonmn@ucmail.uc.edu.  In the subject or “re” line of your submission, please type: SJF conference submission.  Include your full contact information, including an email, phone number, and mailing address where you can be reached.  We will notify presenters of selected papers by June 1, 2012.

We look forward to your submissions.  If you have any questions, please contact Professor Kristin Kalsem at 513.556.1220 or atkristin.kalsem@uc.edu.

Professor Angela Harris Lecture "The Occupy Wall Street Blues: Why Americans Have Trouble Talking about Inequality" - Jan 11th!

From the UC Law Center for Race, Gender and Social Justice:

We here at the Center wanted to remind you about Professor Angela Harris' visit to the College of Law, which is coming up in less than two weeks.  Professor Harris recently joined the law faculty at the UC Davis School of Law, after serving for more than 20 years on the law faculty at Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley).  

An influential and highly regarded scholar of law and critical race feminism, Professor Harris is this year's Chesley Distinguished Visiting Professor and will be teaching an upper-level short course during the week of January 9, 2012, called "Social Equality and the Law."  

As part of her visit, she will also present a public lecture on Wednesday, January 11 from 12:15-1:15pm, in room 114 at the College of Law, called "The Occupy Wall Street Blues: Why Americans Have Trouble Talking about Inequality" (for more info, go here).  

Professor Harris is an amazing speaker whose work over the years has consistently grappled with difficult and cutting edge issues involving intersectional (economic, gender, race, sex) equality.  We realize that this lecture is happening before the beginning of the spring semester, but If you're going to be  around, we hope you can make it to her public lecture on January 9.  

Hope to see you on January 9 -- and feel free to email us at uclaw.justice@gmail.com if you have any questions and/or would like a reading list.  

All best,

Professors Houh, Kalsem, and Williams (Center co-directors)

Kamiikia Alexander (Class of 2012)

Anna Lammert (Class of 2012)

'Lost Boys of Sudan' Speaker to Highlight International Education Week at UC - Nov 15th!

From UC News:

'Lost Boys of Sudan' Speaker to Highlight International Education Week at UC

Keynote speaker Bol Aweng was among 35,000 so-called 'Lost Boys' when he fled his village in southern Sudan when it came under attack by government troops in 1987.

Date: 10/12/2011 12:00:00 AM
By: International Programs

Photos By: Provided

   The University of Cincinnati highlights International Education Week with keynote speaker Bol Aweng, one of the 35,000 so-called Lost Boys who fled southern Sudan during the second Sudanese Civil War. Aweng will detail his life then and now when he speaks at UC from 7-8:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 15, in Room 400 A,B,C of Tangeman University Center (TUC). The event is free and open to the public.

Bol Aweng

As a six year old boy, Bol Aweng fled his village in 1987 when it was attacked, bombed and burned by government troops. While walking 1,500 miles to Ethiopia and then to Kenya, he survived attacks by government troops, starvation, illness and attacks by wild animals. 

Of the 35,000 Lost Boys that fled Southern Sudan, he was among the 16,000 who safely arrived in Kenya. Aweng spent fourteen years in refugee camps until he was approved for resettlement in the United States by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He arrived in Nashville, Tenn., in 2001, where he worked at low-wage jobs while earning an associate's degree in computer technology. He then moved to Columbus, Ohio to attend The Ohio State University. Aweng became a U.S. citizen in 2007 and graduated from OSU with a degree in fine arts.

Aweng returned to his Southern Sudanese village of Piol in December 2007. It was a bittersweet reunion with family he had not seen in 20 years. Seeing his mother, meeting new siblings and being with aging grandparents was exceptionally gratifying.  However he also learned details of family members who had not survived the destruction of his village. The living conditions in the village deeply concerned him. There were no buildings left after the bombing, only family tukals (huts) had been re-built. Families had very little food and there were no schools.  Very few in the village could read or write, and only one person in the village had a job.  The only health care was provided by a young man who had a second grade education in English.  He had a chair and a card table and a small box of malaria medications, aspirin and cough syrup provided by UNICEF. 

At his UC appearance, Aweng will describe how he is using his skills and experience to make a difference in his Sudanese community. He and others are determined to operate a health clinic to meet the basic healthcare needs in their village. Learn more about this project at www.sudanclinic.org. 

To learn more about the Lost Boys of Sudan, attend a showing of “God Grew Tired of Us” prior to the event. The film will be shown from 2-4 p.m., Monday, Nov. 14, in the MainStreet Cinema.See http://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/international/docs/List%20of%20All%20IEW%20Events%2011Adraft4.pdf for a complete listing of events scheduled during International Education Week.

International Education Week at UC is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.

The event featuring Bol Aweng is sponsored by the UC African American Cultural and Resource Center, Ethnic Programs and Services, the UC College of Law, UC International Programs and the Division of Student Affairs and Services.