The purpose of these updates is to give everyone - faculty, staff, students and graduates - an update on matters that may not always be sufficiently transparent without additional communication. For those students on co-op, this is one way to keep up on developments. We are now distributing these updates to faculty and staff via email, to alumni/ae via a link from their Web site (and linked to the new monthly e-newsletter), and to students via the WeBoard. Please give me feedback: Are there ways to make this more informative?

This Update for the Web is organized in the following order: notable successes followed by updates on faculty, program and various issues.

A brief note on some very notable successes since the last Update:

Human Rights and the Global Economy. With a two day symposium in June attended by national and international human rights leaders, we have now launched a major new Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy that will focus on economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. This program, headed by Hope Lewis, is the result of a remarkable collaborative effort of many members of the faculty. As the program develops, we anticipate integration of human rights co-ops, classroom teaching, and service and research that will allow students and faculty to work with others outside Northeastern on key initiatives. Kudos to Hope Lewis, Margaret Burnham, Martha Davis, Karl Klare, Pat Voorhies and the many other faculty and staff who have worked to get this program off the ground.

Fundraising success for fiscal year 2005 (ending 6/30/05). Despite staff turnover and a variety of other challenges, we raised more new money in the past fiscal year than in any prior year in the history of the School of Law. "New" money raised this year (cash received from annual giving plus large pledges) totaled $1,648,970. This topped our last previous best year, fiscal year 2002, in which we raised $1,290,748. Almost all of the large new grants are devoted to scholarship and other forms of student support. Kudos go to Nicole King Brady and to Ellen Kulik for some incredible work after we were so understaffed last fall.

NUSL Leadership on Access to Justice issues at the State House. Northeastern took the lead on two important law school initiatives at the Massachusetts State House in June. First, Jeff Smith and Val Kapilow had been spearheading an effort to have the Massachusetts legislature pass a state-based Loan Repayment Assistance Program bill. The bill was introduced this past spring, and we successfully organized the deans of the law schools at BC, BU, Harvard, Suffolk, Western New England and Southern New England to sign a letter in support of the legislation. Dean Robert Smith and I both spoke at the public hearing on the bill that was held by the joint House-Senate Judiciary Committee on June 14. The bill is now pending. Kudos go to Jeff and Val for their tremendous work in this effort. Second, at the request of legal services offices, we organized a joint letter from the deans of all Massachusetts law school (except the for-profit Mass School of Law in Andover) supporting the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation FY 2006 Budget Request. That letter was delivered to the legislature, and a press release issued, on June 9.

Partnering for Prevention and Community Safety Project. Debbie Ramirez, director of PfP, now anticipates significant funding for a major national training program during this academic year. The program will be housed in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, and will train federal law enforcement representatives together with members of the Arab, Sikh, and Muslim communities in an effort to protect peoples' civil liberties while allowing effective anti-terrorism law enforcement. Kudos to Debbie Ramirez!

BLSA team wins national moot court competition. The NUSL team of Asha Bryant '06 and Duci Goncalves '05 took a historic first place at the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition during the Black Law Student Association National Convention in Boulder, Colorado, on April 2, 2005. Competing against the top three teams from six regions, out of a total of 150 participating schools across the nation, the team beat second place Loyola Chicago and third place University of Mississippi. Dealing with a complex hypothetical expatriation case, the team advanced through five rounds of argument before a range of judges. The final round panel of nine judges said the team was not only the best reasoned and supported, but also raised the bar for excellence in the competition. Kudos to Asha and Duci - and to their coach Susan Maze Rothstein!

Student Bar Association launched. After several years of discussion, students have decided to organize an umbrella student organization. Mario Choi '05 worked with current students over the past year to develop a mechanism for elections within the organization and for NUSL committees, as well as helping to write draft bylaws and to organize broad student support. The organization was launched with elections (managed electronically on the WeBoard) at the end of the spring quarter. The at-large leadership of the new organizations:

• Fall/Spring Co-op Rotation: Chair, Richard Moore; Vice Chair for Finance, Monica Elkinton; Vice Chair for Student Organizations, Arturo Menendez; Vice Chair for Social/Recreation, Sanni Hull
• Summer/Winter Co-op Rotation: Chair, Matthew Pang; Vice Chair for Finance, John Moore; Vice Chair for Student Organizations, Jamila Glean; Vice Chair for Social/Recreation, Carolyn Chen

Kudos to the students who have worked hard to make this a democratic and inclusive organization!

And, first year students completed 15 projects in Law Culture and Difference. The Class of 2007 worked with upper level Teaching Facilitators, Susan Maze-Rothstein, faculty Jim Rowan and Peter Enrich, and numerous faculty and attorney advisors to complete complex projects this past Spring for community-based organizations. This year's completed projects were: Massachusetts Law Reform Institute: Stopping Privacy Erosions Criminal Records on the Internet; Project RIGHT, Inc.: Stabilizing the Inner-City Community Empowerment Through Property Management; Perkins School for the Blind: Seeing Possibility! Transitional Services for Blind Community Members; League of Women Voters of Massachusetts: Sex-based Insurance Discrimination; LawyerÕs Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Through Credit Histories; Stanley Jones Clean Slate Project: Getting There! Societal Re-entry for Ex-Offenders; Mass CEDAW Projects: International Law Meets State Law in Poverty Employment Credit and Government Benefits and International Law Meets State Law in Health and Gender Violence; Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee: Mental Health Rights in Housing; Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc.: Protecting H-2A Migrant Workers; Greater Boston Legal Services: Family Sick Leave; Wage, Inc.: Negotiating the Workplace (Empowering Women Workers); ChildrenÕs Law Center: When are Children Competent for Juvenile Proceedings?; Public Health Advocacy Institute: Industry Responsibility in the Obesity Epidemic?; JRI Health Law Institute: Regulating Speech: HIV/AIDS Educational Materials.

Updates on:

Strategic planning for NUSL. We embarked on a strategic planning process for the School earlier this year. Our Planning Committee did some initial work with me on framing the issues. In May and June, we held seven four-hour sessions, in which all faculty, administrative staff and some students discussed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) for the School and worked on short and long term goals. We are currently typing up the notes from these meetings and developing a synthesis that will allow us to move toward prioritization and implementation in the fall. During the summer and fall, we are also organizing meetings with students and with alumni/ae. A survey to all graduates will be going out at this fall as well, so that we can better understand what alumni/ae are doing both immediately after graduation and longer term. We anticipate that we will have three products from this process: a strategic plan for the School; an implementation plan for internal use; and a Self Study Report for the ABA Accreditation. Once the synthesis is developed, we will be bringing it back to all participants for discussion.

ABA/AALS Reaccreditation Review. Northeastern is scheduled for its regular (every seven year) accreditation review during this academic year. A site visit team will be on campus on April 2-5, 2006, to meet with all members of the NUSL community Š students, faculty, staff, administrators of the University, and alumni/ae. In preparation for their visit, we will be developing both a Self Study Report that analyzes our mission, the strengths and weaknesses of the School, and provides goals and implementation plans for moving forward (both for addressing weaknesses and progressing toward goals). Much of this will reflect the discussions in the on-going strategic planning process. Sara Sayess will be heading up the administrative work on this process, including working with administrators to generate their components of the report and data. Dick Daynard will be developing the narrative component of the Report, with assistance from others. The chair of our site visit team is Professor Margaret Raymond of the University of Iowa College of Law. The reporter for the AALS will be Professor Richard Danner, Senior Associate Dean for Information Services at Duke University School of Law. We will be distributing more information regarding this process on a regular basis throughout this coming year.

Daynard Public Interest Fellows named for 2005-2006. We are entering the second year of the Carol and Richard Daynard Public Interest Visiting Fellow Program. This year, Stephen Kohn NUSL '82, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Whistleblower Center in Washington, D.C., will be coming during the winter quarter. Oona Chatterjee, Co-Founder of Make the Road By Walking, an advocacy group in East New York, New York, will be visiting during the spring quarter. Each Daynard Fellow comes to campus for a three day visit, during which they visit classes, meet with Career Services and Co-op staff, meet with students, and deliver a community lecture. The Daynard Public Interest Visiting Fellows for this past year were Mary Bonauto, GLAD (fall quarter 2004) and Milo Mumgaard, Nebraska Appleseed (winter quarter 2004-05).

Speakers at NUSL during 2004-05. In addition to our inaugural year of the Daynard Public Interest Fellows program, we successfully continued the NU Law Forum: Discussions on Contemporary Issues for a second year. This past year, we welcomed John Bonifaz, General Counsel, National Voting Rights Institute in July. In September, we hosted a panel on the "Balance Between Freedom and Security.Ó Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights, and David Rivkin, former White House staff member in the Bush Administration, spoke. The event was co-sponsored by NURF and the NUSL Federalist Society. In January, the Honorable Justice Richard Goldstone of the South Africa Constitutional Court spoke on "The First Ten Years of South Africa's Constitutional Court." On March 24, we welcomed gay rights activist Urvashi Vaid '83, now with the Ford Foundation, who spoke on "Looking Forward: The Future of GLBT Activism."

The Valerie Gordon Lecture for 2004-05, "'Back in the Day' is Today: The Fight for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Deep South," was delivered by Jaribu Hill, Executive Director and founder of the Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights. Julius Chambers, legendary civil rights attorney and advocate, delivered the 2005 Commencement Address. We awarded to Mr. Chambers the first Northeastern University School of Law Visions and Ideals award, to be awarded to an individual who exemplifies the melding of theory and practice in service of social justice ideals.

LSSSE Student Survey. Thanks to all of the students who responded last year to the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, a nationally-run survey of law students. Northeastern was one of 53 participating schools. An amazing 72% of our students responded to the survey. Respondents were evenly distributed among the three years and among the various student populations (in terms of age, race, and so on). The results are both interesting and encouraging. There is not room here to report all of the results Š we will put a copy of the full report on reserve in the law library. Some of the more significant findings: Compared to the mean response of all students nationally in the survey, NUSL students reported significant variation from the nationally pool in a few areas. These included: In the 1L year, students here are more likely to have prepared two or more drafts of an assignment; to have worked on a project that required integrating ideas or information from various sources; to have used electronic media to discuss an assignment; and to have written papers of 20 pages or more. 1Ls are much more likely to have included diverse perspectives in class discussions and to have participated in a clinical or pro bono project, and they are less likely to come to class without completing the readings. When looking at all three years: Northeastern students are more likely to ask questions or contribute to class discussion; to report that diverse perspectives are included in class discussions and writing assignments; to work with other students on projects, both in and outside of class; to have participated in clinical or pro bono projects; and to have had serious conversations with students of a different race or ethnicity. Students here report that they are less likely to be memorizing facts, ideas or methods so that they can repeat them verbatim in class, but in other areas of learning (analysis, synthesis, and making judgments), students here mirror national norms. In addition, students write more papers than the norm. Not surprisingly, given our Co-op and Clinics programs, students here are much more likely to have had field experiences. Our students are also more likely to have worked on a legal research project with a faculty member and sat on student-faculty committees. We have higher levels of satisfaction than the norm in career and job search assistance, as well as financial aid advising. Satisfaction with academic advising and personal counseling is close to the mean. Students report that they are much more encouraged by this schoolÕs environment than the mean to have contact with students from different economic, social and racial or ethnic background; to pursue the ethical practice of law; to acquire work-related knowledge and skills; to work effectively with others; to understand people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds; and to contribute to the welfare of the community. In other areas our students are close to the reported means. Overall, we are delighted to learn more about the areas in which we are strong and the general level of satisfaction of the student body. In the coming year, we will be reviewing these results more carefully and discussing ways to address areas in which we believe that we should be stronger.

Faculty initiatives

Human Rights and the Global Economy. See the note under key successes, above. We are currently working on a governance structure and grant proposals for this project. As these plans develop, I will provide additional information in future Updates. The initiative will include, once funded, a summer institute, development of co-op and other learning opportunities for students, and a range of work by individual and groups of faculty who are interested in both the theory and practice of human rights law.

Law and Public Health. Work on public health and law is continuing to develop. We are strengthening our administrative support for the JD/MPH dual degree program with Tufts University. The joint public health and law nonprofit organization, the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), is currently considering a merger with the long-standing Tobacco Control Resource Center. Under the umbrella of PHAI, NUSL faculty (Wendy Parmet, Dick Daynard, Dan Givelber) have been working with PHAI staff and Tufts faculty on projects ranging from public health literacy for lawyers to the effects of secrecy in legal settlements of toxic tort cases to legal approaches to the obesity epidemic. This year, we will have a Public Health and Law clinic, taught by staff attorneys who work on these projects. We hold our third annual conference on Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic in September, and our 22nd annual conference on Tobacco Control in October. Professor Wendy Parmet is continuing her work on public health literacy for lawyers as she returns to teaching from her Matthews Professorship two year leave.

Partnering for Prevention. Professor Debbie Ramirez's project is expanding rapidly in size and significance. See notable successes, above. Because of the expansion of the project, Debbie will be extending her leave into this academic year.

Law and Economic Development. A group of faculty continue to meet to study the issues of law and development and to develop ideas for programs at NUSL.

Faculty news

For the remarkable work being done by individual faculty members, see the Faculty Notes in the summer 2005 magazine.

Solomon Amendment As you know, Northeastern University School of Law is a publicly named member of the organization, Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), that has challenged the Solomon Amendment. On November 29, 2004, the Third Circuit found the Solomon Amendment to be unconstitutional. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights v. Rumsfeld, 390 F.3d 219 (3rd Cir. 2004). On May 2, 2005, the Supreme Court granted certiorari, and briefs are now being filed. Until the Supreme Court rules, the military has decided to continue to enforce the Solomon Amendment. As before, we will continue to comply with existing law.

Law Library The Law Library is adding an international focus to its already rich collection in public interest law through a generous grant from the Pappas Foundation. These books and electronic resources support professors' and students' research and the Law School's new program on Human Rights and the Global Economy.

Admissions The new Class of 2008 is shaping up to be diverse, energetic, academically gifted - and interesting. As of this moment, more than 30% of the class are people of color; about 55% women, 45% men. The Office of Admissions has continued to expand its use of technology. In addition to the continuation of various prospective and admitted student events, we instituted online chats - virtual open houses - several times this year, and we are providing more pre-orientation information to the incoming class.

I hope that you are all having a great summer!

EAS
Emily A. Spieler
Dean and Edwin Hadley Professor of Law
email: e.spieler@neu.edu