First Monday - October 4, 2004

In this issue:

• Calling of Public Service Will Highlight 2004 Bellwood Events
• Private Giving Exceeds $900,000 in 2003-04
• University Vision and Resources Task Force Submits Report
• Pro and Con: "Gay Marriage" Debate Highlights Examination of Sexual Orientation Issues

Calling of Public Service Will Highlight 2004 Bellwood Events

The forthcoming visit to Moscow by America’s leading lawyer for the poor, Helaine Barnett, will anchor the events of “Bellwood Day,” Thursday, October 21, 2004. At 4:00 p.m., in the Student Union Building, Ms. Barnett, President of the national Legal Services Corporation, will deliver the Sherman J. Bellwood Memorial Lecture on the topic “Justice for All: Are We Fulfilling the Pledge?” The lecture will be simulcast at the University of Idaho Boise Center. Earlier that day, at 9:30 a.m. in the College of Law Courtroom, Ms. Barnett will discuss the challenge of public service with a distinguished panel including Idaho Supreme Court Justice Linda Copple Trout and Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden. At 10:30 a.m. the panelists will broaden their discussion to include questions and answers from law students on careers and issues in the legal profession. A dinner-by-invitation that evening, with Professor and Clinic Director Maureen Laflin presiding, will include members of the College of Law Advisory Council, whose semi-annual meeting will take place on Friday, October 22. Also attending the dinner will be members of the law classes of ’79 and ’84, celebrating their 25th and 20th anniversary reunions, respectively, with a program of continuing legal education and social events on Friday and Saturday. (For further information, contact Dean Burnett (dburnett@uidaho.edu) about the Bellwood Lecture and panel discussion; Lee Dillion (dillion@uidaho.edu) about the Boise simulcast.

Private Giving Exceeds $900,000 in 2003-04

The University of Idaho Development Office has reported that the College of Law raised $905,222 in gifts and pledges during the fiscal year ending June, 2004. This amount is the highest figure attained by the College of Law in a year when giving totals were not dominated by single large gifts or bequests such as the Bellwood, Schimke and Ellis endowments. The private giving total included $234,222 donated by alumni and friends to the College of Law Annual Fund. The generosity of the law school's alumni and friends will underwrite student financial aid, faculty research and professional development, the law library, technology, student professional skills programs, and other educational enrichments. (Further information is available from College of Law Director of Development.

University Vision and Resources Task Force Submits Report

On September 22, 2004, the University community received a much-anticipated report from a special task force appointed by UI President Timothy White. President White charged the task force to articulate a vision for the University’s future as well as to make recommendations for balancing the University’s annual budgets and resolving the University’s accumulated deficits. The task force, consisting of key University executive staff and selected University faculty (including College of Law Professor Jack Miller), worked throughout the summer and early fall on the ambitious project. Their report is now entering a comment phase that will extend to November 15, following the submission of formal responses by the Council of Academic Deans, the Provost, the Vice President for Research, and the Vice President for Finance and Administration on or before October 11. Faculty, staff, students, alumni and other interested stakeholders may comment. In light of comments received, and upon consultation with internal and external constituencies, President White will make decisions, some of which may be subject to approval by the Board of Regents/State Board of Education. Further information about these developments as they unfold, and their implications for the College of Law, will appear in later editions of “First Monday.”

Pro and Con: “Gay Marriage” Debate Highlights Examination of Sexual Orientation Issues

Contrasting perspectives on the timely issue of gay marriage were presented today in a lively but collegial panel discussion at the College of Law. The well-attended event featured presentations by Professor Lynn Wardle of the Brigham Young University Reuben Clark School of Law, and UI law student Romney Hogaboam, arguing in favor of preserving the institution of marriage as a relationship existing only between a man and a woman. UI Professor Elizabeth Brandt and UI law student Susan Moss presented arguments in favor of allowing states -- if they so choose -- to recognize same-sex marriages or relationships. Later this month, on October 11, a law student organization, the Sexual Orientation Diversity Alliance, will host University of Washington professor Phil Bereano, an expert on data and health care privacy issues, who will speak on the topic, “Out of the Closet and Into the Database.” For further information, contact Professor Brandt (ebrandt@uidaho.edu).