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    "ocrText": "FOIA Number: 2013-0661-F\nFOIA\nMARKER\nThis is not a textual record. This is used as an\nadministrative marker by the William J. Clinton\nPresidential Library Staff.\nCollection/Record Group:\nClinton Presidential Records\nSubgroup/Office of Origin:\nNational Service\nSeries/Staff Member:\nEli Segal\nSubseries:\nOA/ID Number:\n1294\nFolderID:\nFolder Title:\n5/15/93 University of Michigan Law School - Ann Arbor, MI\nStack:\nRow:\nSection:\nShelf:\nPosition:\nS\n66\n2\n7\n2\nELI J. SEGAL\nUniversity of Michigan Law School\nAnn Arbor, MI\nSat., May 15, 1993\n&\nELI SEGAL - Itinerary\nThe University of Michigan, Law School\nMay 15 & 16\nSaturday May 15:\n6:50 - 8:23 AM\nflight to Detroit Metro,\nNorhtwest #1223, seat 23 D\n8:23 AM\nAnne Percy Knott, Assistant Dean of the\nLaw School and Director of the Office of\nDevolopment and Alumni Relations, meets\nyou and Phyllis at the gate. She will\nwear an ivory silk blouse and dark\nflowered skirt and will hold a\n\"University of Michigan\" sign.\n9:10 AM\nMeet with Professor Jeff Lehman,\ndirector of the Law School's program of\nSupport for Community-Based Economic\nDevelopment in Low-Income Urban\nNeighborhoods, over a Zingerman's\nbreakfast at Professor Lehman's home\n10:00 AM\nMeet with the University of Michigan\nTask Force on Community Service\nTappan Room, Michigan Union\nThe Task Force is reviewing the\nUniversity's current community service\nactivities, proposing new directions and\ninitiatives for these activities, and\nconsidering ways to position the\nUniversity as a leader in community\nservice.\nCongressman Ford will be joining you at\n10:15\n11:10 AM\nThomas A. Butts, Associate Vice\nPresident for Government Relations and\nDirector of the University of Michigan's\nWashington office, takes you to Dean\nBollinger house for lunch\n11:30 AM\nlunch for you and Phyllis with Lee and\nJean Bollinger in their home\n1:00 PM\nyou and Lee Bollinger don academic gowns\nat the Natural Science Building\n1:15 PM\nAcademic procession begins\n1:30\nCommencement begins in Hill Auditorium\n3:45 PM\nyou proceed to the Michigan Union with\nLee Bollinger and students for\nphotographs\n4:00 PM\nReception for graduates and families in\nthe W.W. Cook Law Quadrangle\n5:00 PM\nJane Myers, writer for the Michigan\nToday in the University's Office of\nDonor Relations, and selected Detroit\narea press interview you and Phyllis,\nlocation to be determined\n6:00 PM\ncar and driver available for dinner\nwith Mr. and Mrs. Mike Oberman\nAccomodations at the Bell Tower Hotel\n300 South Thayer Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104\nPhone: (313) 769-3010; fax: (313) 769-4339\nSunday May, 16:\nbrunch with Phyllis and friends\n3:10 - 4:40 PM\nflight to Washington National,\nNorthwest #330, seat 26 D\ncar and driver available to Metro\nMEMORANDUM\nTo:\nEli\nFrom: Susan Am\nRe:\nMeeting with the University of Michigan Community Service Task Force\nAt 10:00 am on May 15, you will meet with the University of Michigan Task Force on\nCommunity Service Learning in the Tappan Room in the Michigan Union. Congressman\nFord will join you at the meeting at 10:15 and will probably have to leave the meeting\nbefore it is over to get to an 11:00 meeting elsewhere.\nTask Force: The Task Force members include 15-20 faculty, students, staff and\nmembers of the community from southeastern Michigan who meet to discuss\nconnections between the community service programs and the curriculum. The meeting\nwill be facilitated by the Chair, Barry Checkoway, Professor of Social Work and Urban\nPlanning. This should be a fairly informal discussion.\nAgenda:\nWelcome and Introductions\nEli Segal: President Clinton and your vision of national service report on\nthe national service legislation\nCongressman Ford: report on the legislative process; predictions of how\nthe bill will proceed through Congress\nTask Force: brief description of community service learning activities at\nthe University of Michigan, including a student's perspective (Jen\nBastress) and issues of multicultural participation (Professor Bunyan\nBryant, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment).\nDiscussion of how the University of Michigan might be helpful: They are\nconsidering holding a national symposium in the fall to raise important\nissues related to community service learning on campuses. They are\nlooking for advice from you about what might be helpful to the national\nservice program and would like to forge some ongoing relationship\nbetween U of M and ONS that is substantive.\nYou could raise the suggestion that I have made to Barry Checkoway and\nTom Butts that the subject of the symposium might be to discuss/develop\nmodels for the \"during\" college part of the national service program. We\nknow what some of the models for the \"before\" and \"after\" programs will\nlook like, but less work has been done on the \"during\" college programs\nthat could be certified. I am planning to organize an expert panel to begin\nwork on this, and a national symposium to float some models, develop the\nthinking further, issue a report, etc. would be helpful.\nThe meeting should end at 11:15. Tom Butts will be at the meeting with you and will\nthen drive you to Dean Bollinger's house for lunch at 11:30.\nThe White House\nOffice of National Service\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nCONTACT: ETHAN ZINDLER\nMAY 14, 1993\n202/456-6444\n*** Press Advisory ***\nEli Segal to Speak\nat University of Michigan Law School Graduation\nOn Saturday, May 15, Eli Segal, Assistant to the President\nand Director of the White House Office of National Service, will\naddress students and faculty at the University of Michigan Law\nSchool commencement. Mr. Segal, an alumnus of the school, will\nspeak at 1:30 PM at the Hill Auditorium at Thayer and North\nUniversity on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor.\nLast week the President's National Service Trust Act of 1993\nwas introduced to Congress. The bill would allow young people to\nhelp pay their way through college by performing one or two years\nof domestic national service. Under Mr. Segal's direction, the\nWhite House Office of National Service researched and helped\nwrite national service legislation.\n###\nXIII\nCOMMENCEMENT\nSPEECHES\nPRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON\nCALLS THE MIDSHIPMEN TO\nTHEIR DUTY\n\"You cannot forget your duty for a moment, because there might come a time\nwhen that weak spot in you should affect you\nand then the whole history\nof the world might be changed by what you did not do or did wrong.\"\nWHEN OUR TWENTY-SEVENTH PRESIDENT attended the 1916\ngraduation ceremony at the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis,\nhe had no prepared comments. Few speakers are so confident of their\nability to deliver appropriate remarks on such a formal occasion. The short\nspeech that follows is impromptu, off the cuff, ad lib-but Woodrow Wil-\nson must have given the matter some thought while being introduced.\nPresident Wilson's subsequently printed address, \"Responding to the\nNew Call of Duty,\" took its title from his praise of the graduating class in\nthe second sentence of the speech. (Wilson liked the word \"new\"; a col-\nlection of his campaign speeches in 1912 was called The New Freedom,\ndesigned to top Theodore Roosevelt's The New Nationalism.) Delivered\nthree years after his inauguration, Wilson's talk offered four paragraphs in\nalluding not only to his college background but also to the gravity of the\nworld situation in June 1916, as he was preparing to campaign for reelec-\ntion with the slogan \"He Kept Us Out of War.\"\nThe presidential remarks stress the \"special obligation\" for the gradu-\nates through direct address and parallel structure (\"not of private duty\nmerely, but of public duty also\"). With parallelism even in his advice\n(\"you get your zest by doing a thing that is difficult, not a thing that is\neasy\"), Wilson conveyed a sense of the trouble ahead.\nTen months after President Wilson's remarks to the class of 1916, the\nUnited States declared war on Germany.\nM\nr. Superintendent, young gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen:\nIt had not been my purpose when I came here to say anything\ntoday, but as I sit here and look at you youngsters, I find that\n903\n904\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nmy feeling is a very personal feeling indeed. I know some of the things\nthat you have been through, and I admire the way in which you have\nresponded to the new call of duty. I would feel that I had not done either\nyou or myself justice if I did not tell you so.\nI have thought that there was one interesting bond that united us. You\nwere at Washington three years ago and saw me get into trouble, and now\nI am here to see the beginning of your trouble. Your trouble will last longer\nthan mine, but I doubt if it will be any more interesting. I have had a\nliberal education in the last three years, with which nothing that I under-\nwent before bears the slightest comparison. But what I want to say to you\nyoung gentlemen is this: I can illustrate it in this way. Once and again\nwhen youngsters here or at West Point have forgotten themselves and\ndone something that they ought not to do and were about to be disciplined,\nperhaps severely, for it, I have been appealed to by their friends to excuse\nthem from the penalty. Knowing that I have spent most of my life at a\ncollege, they commonly say to me, \"You know college boys. You know\nwhat they are. They are heedless youngsters very often, and they ought not\nto be held up to the same standards of responsibility that older men must\nsubmit to.\" And I have always replied, \"Yes; I know college boys. But\nwhile these youngsters are college boys, they are something more. They\nare officers of the United States. They are not merely college boys. If they\nwere, I would look at derelictions of duty on their part in another spirit; but\nany dereliction of duty on the party of a naval officer of the United States\nmay involve the fortunes of a nation and cannot be overlooked.\" Do you\nnot see the difference? You cannot indulge yourselves in weaknesses, gen-\ntlemen. You cannot forget your duty for a moment, because there might\ncome a time when that weak spot in you should affect you in the midst of a\ngreat engagement, and then the whole history of the world might be\nchanged by what you did not do or did wrong.\nSo that the personal feeling I have for you is this: we are all bound\ntogether, I for the time being and you permanently, under a special obliga-\ntion, the most solemn that the mind can conceive. The fortunes of a nation\nare confided to us. Now, that ought not to depress a man. Sometimes I\nthink that nothing is worthwhile that is not hard. You do not improve your\nmuscle by doing the easy thing; you improve it by doing the hard thing.\nand you get your zest by doing a thing that is difficult, not a thing that is\neasy. I would a great deal rather, so far as my sense of enjoyment is\nconcerned, have something strenuous to do than have something that can\nbe done leisurely and without a stimulation of the faculties.\nTherefore, I congratulate you that you are going to live your lives under\nthe most stimulating compulsion that any man can feel, the sense, not of\nWilliam ALLEN WHITE\n905\nprivate duty merely. but of public duty also. And then if you perform that\nduty, there is a reward awaiting you which is superior to any other reward\nin the world. That is the affectionate remembrance of your fellow men-\ntheir honor, their affection. No man could wish for more than that or find\nanything higher than that to strive for. And, therefore, I want you to know,\ngentlemen, if it is any satisfaction to you, that I shall personally follow\nyour careers in the days that are ahead of you with real personal interest. I\nwish you Godspeed, and remind you that yours is the honor of the United\nStates.\nEDITOR WILLIAM ALLEN\nWHITE CALLS THE PREWAR\nGENERATION TO Its DUTY\n\"LIBERTY, if it shall cement man into political unity, must be something more\nthan a man's conception of his rights, much more than his desire to fight for\nhis own rights. True liberty is founded upon a lively sense of the rights of others\nand a fighting conviction that the rights of others must be maintained.\"\nIN 1896, the new editor of the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette-a Republican\nand a liberal-wrote a ringing editorial titled \"What's the Matter with\nKansas?\" This blast at the Populist party helped elect William McKinley\nand called national attention to a small-town newspaperman who could\nexpress the values of tens of millions of upright, tolerant people. He\ncoined the phrase \"tinhorn politician\" and styled himself as an authentic\n906\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nvoice of the grass roots. He was editor of the Gazette for forty-nine years;\nthough its circulation never rose to more than eight thousand, it became\nhis platform for commentary that gained and held international recogni-\ntion.\nIn June of 1936, he gave a commencement address to the graduating\nclass of Northwestern University, in Illinois. These graduates were the\nyoung men and women who in five years would be bearing the brunt of the\nAmerican participation in World War II. He revealed \"the screw loose in\n[his] mental processes,\" warning, \"You have this dementia in your\nblood,\" and identifying its manifestation: \"Your fathers, mothers, and\nremote ancestors for several thousand years believed in the reality of duty.\nUpon that madness they built the world.\"\nHe presents long thoughts in short sentences. He anticipates by a gener-\nation the longing for a \"new frontier,\" and packs much food for thought\nin such passages as \"You may love for the moment the indolent sense of\nfutility that comes with the grand cynicism of youth. But life, experience,\nthe hazards of your day, and time will bring out of you the courage bred\ninto you.\"\nA\nbout all that a commencement orator can do for his auditors is to\nturn their faces around. He looks back upon the world as he\nthinks it was. Then he considers the world as he thinks it is.\nFinally in his receding perspective he discloses the pictured phantasm\nwhich he hopes will be the future. Thereupon his young listeners may see\nmirrored in the gloss of his picture the world which they think they will\nmake. It is a pleasant exercise. This commencement oratory which floods\nour land every June may be an effective anesthetic which youth may take\nat its second birth, out of the solid, unyielding, factual environment of\nchildhood and of books, out of the substantial fabric of the curriculum\nwith its sure reward of grade, class standing, and satisfying compensation\ninto the bewildering. hazy. and altogether ironic mockeries that we call, in\nhumorous euphony, real life. I stand here tiptoeing near the end of my\nthree score years and ten. There you sit across an abysm scarcely fifty feet\nwide but deeper than the distance to the moon. I come out of one dream\nworld that is memory. You go into a visionary world that is hope. I tell you\nof the things that I imagine are true in my world. You hold in your hearts\nthe picture of your world that shall be. We dwell on these two different\nplanets. How can I hope to get across the chasm of time and space any\nhint, even a flickering shadow of my truth that will reach your hearts? For\nWilliam ALLEN WHITE\n907\nmy world seemed to be a static world when I stood fifty years ago where\nyou stand now. My forebears since Caesar's day had not greatly changed\nthe tools with which they made their clothes, got their food. built their\nhouses; nor had they changed greatly in those twenty centuries the philos-\nophy upon which they erected their future. Today you look back upon a\nworld that has moved so far in one hundred years that nothing you see and\nfeel, touch and taste, hope, believe, and love is as it was when your grand-\nfathers learned from their grandfathers how to live in another day. So what\nI shall say here you may well discount. It is only the truth as I see it. Yet it\nmay have some bearing, though heaven only knows what, upon your\nlives. Perhaps I can tell you something, and being called here, I shall\ntry\nWe know we have not done God's work perfectly. The world we have\nmade out of the inheritance of our grandfathers is a pretty sad botch. It is\nfull of gross injustices. Obviously a couple of centuries of hard work needs\nto be done on it, before America is turned out, finished in its millennial\nbeauty. But with all these inequities, the old thing does hold together. We\nturn our country over to you in one piece-which is something. Even if it\nisn't a pretty piece, it is yours, with its spiritual hereditaments. And may I\nbe pardoned the vanity of one who worked on the job if I try to give you\nsome idea of what has held this nation in unity during a century and a half\nwhen in many other parts of the globe races and tongues and economic\nunits have been breaking into small states, magnifying nationalism into a\nvice.\nToday, as never before, nationalism in small geographical areas is pull-\ning men into bitter disunion and controversy. Some flame of envy and\nrancor is abroad in the world. We see it moving across the face of Europe\nin various tyrannies, each exalting its own nationalism, each challenging\nliberty in its own way-Italy under fascism, Germany under the Nazis,\nRussia under communism, Spain boiling with confusion, while the two\nprinciples of dictatorship, that of the plutocracy and that of the proletariat,\nstruggle for possession of that brave land. These isms are types of one\npestilence which is threatening civilization. That this spiritual pestilence\nwill attack America, no one can doubt.\nHow can we Americans immunize ourselves? The class of '37 must find\nout why small geographical, social, racial units are erupting into a virulent\nnationalism that threatens Western civilization. It's your problem, es-\nteemed descendants, but here's a hint that might help you to solve it.\nI am satisfied that the disease has its root in a lack of social faith. The\nthing that has bound America into one nation is tolerance-tolerance and\npatience; indeed, tolerance and patience upheld by a sense of duty.\n908\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nAt this point, dearly beloved members of the class of '37, I propose to\nreveal the screw loose in my mental processes, also to show you some-\nthing of the aberration of your forebears. You have this dementia in your\nblood, and you might as well know it. Your fathers, mothers, and remote\nancestors for several thousand years believed in the reality of duty. Upon\nthat madness they built the world. Not that I wish to brag about it-this\nsense of duty-but I still hug the delirium of my generation to my heart\nand believe there is something in those old-fashioned eccentricities\nknown as the Christian virtues. Don't get excited. I am not preaching\npiety. I have no plan of salvation to offer you, no theology to defend. But I\nfeel, and my generation has believed in a general way, that democracy\nwith its freedom, with its patience, with its tolerance, with its altruism, is\na sort of rough attempt to institutionalize the Christian philosophy. And\nwhen I say rough, I mean rough, something like a 20 percent realization of\na noble ideal. Our American Constitution, for instance, is a national com-\npact of our individual and of our social duties. It has worked in this coun-\ntry after a fashion. Yet the same Constitution, or nearly the same, has been\nadopted in a dozen other lands and has failed. Why has it held us to an\nessential unity? I am satisfied that our Constitution has stood up because\nAmericans actually have established here a sort of code of duties. That has\nbeen the crystallizing principle that has held us together-duty of man to\nman, of region to region, of class to class, of race to race, of faith to faith.\nThat duty has bred something more than neighborly tolerance. It has en-\ngendered a profound desire in every American's heart to make life as\npleasant as it may be made-not merely for himself, indeed not chiefly for\nhimself, but for others. Thus we have found and cherished true liberty.\nLiberty, if it shall cement man into political unity, must be something\nmore than a man's conception of his rights, much more than his desire to\nfight for his own rights. True liberty is founded upon a lively sense of the\nrights of others and a fighting conviction that the rights of others must be\nmaintained. Only when a people have this love of liberty, this militant\nbelief in the sacredness of another man's self-respect, do races and nations\npossess the catalyzer in their political and social organism which produces\nthe chemical miracle of crystallized national unity and strength. We\nAmericans have had it for three hundred years on this continent. It was in\nthe blood of our fathers. It was the basis of our faith in humanity when we\nwrote our Constitution. It has been with us a long time on this continent-\nthis capacity for compromise, this practical passion for social justice and\nfor altruistic equity in settling the genuine differences of men. This high\nquality of mutual respect is no slight gift. It is a heroic spiritual endow-\nment, this knack of getting along together on a continental scale.\nWILLIAM ALLEN WHITE\n909\nWe have set as a national custom the habit of majority rule. This custom\nis maintained not by arms but by a saving sense in the heart of every\nminority that any majority will not be puffed up, will not infringe upon the\nrights of the minority. Matching this duty of the majority to be fair, we\nhave set up the component duty of the minority to be patient, but to agitate\nuntil the justice of a losing cause has convinced the winning majority.\nThis American tradition of political adjustment cuts through every line of\ncleavage and all differences in our social organization-regions classes,\nraces, creeds. Here is the way it has worked. As our country has expanded\ngeographically, this political genius for unity has tapped our store of cer-\ntain basic virtues: neighborly forbearance, meekness, unselfishness, and\nthat belief in the essential decency of one's neighbors which for want of a\nbetter word we have called love. Now, in our land abideth these three—\nfaith in our fellows, hope in the triumph of reason, and love for humanity.\nWith all the grievous faults and glaring weaknesses of our federal union,\nthese things are the centripetal spiritual forces which have solidified\nAmerica.\nThese commonsense qualities which have grown out of the Beatitudes\nhave helped to preserve the American Union for the last century and a\nhalf. Now, what are you going to do about it, you who stand here at the\nthreshold of the reality of your past, looking into the evanescent horizon of\nyour future? We who shall soon be petrified into pedestaled ghosts as your\nancestors have a notion that you, our descendants, don't have much use\nfor duty, for patience, and for tolerance. We get the general idea that you\nhave no sort of faith in the strength of the humble. Yet it is out of this lack\nof faith that a new challenge has appeared in the world, a challenge aimed\nat democracy, a challenge which scorns these lowly neighborly virtues\nthat have held our world together. This challenge is finding its way into\nour American life. We are being told that the majority sometimes has\nemergency mandates to ignore the rights of the minorities. We have set up\nrulers all over the earth who preach against the virtue of patience. It is a\nnew thing in our America to hear men defending the tyrannies of\nEurope-communism. fascism, and the Nazis-declaring that the minor-\nity may oppress the majority if the minority happens to be convinced that\nit is right. It is even a stranger doctrine in America, which holds that a\npassing majority, by reason of its being a ballot box majority at one or two\nelections, has an inherent right immediately to suppress and ruthlessly\ndestroy an honest minority.\nNow, as an ancestor, let me caution you, my heirs and assigns, that\nthese new political attitudes are symptoms of greed for power. They will\nfool you if you channel your thinking into narrow dialectics. Don't take\n910\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nyour logical premise from your class self-interest. Don't build your logic\nupon a purely selfish structure. Don't think as plutocrats. Don't reason as\nmembers of the middle class or as proletarians. Such thinking is too sure\nof its own syllogisms ever to be just. Such thinking rejects the possibility\nthat there is truth and that there may be reason in the contention of another\nclass of society. This same discord that has torn as under so many peoples\nin Europe, where fifty years ago democracy seemed to be taking root, today\nis seeding in our land. Capitalists are scorning labor leaders. Labor leaders\nare preaching distrust and hatred for capitalists. The revelations of the La\nFollette committee in the United States Senate now investigating the in-\nfringement of civil liberties certainly lay bare the cancer of hatred in our\neconomic body that is poisoning our national blood. The class-conscious\narrogance of wealth is creating its own class morals. Proletarian logic is\njustifying the use of force in class conflict and condoning cunning. The\nindustrial enterpriser shuts his eyes to the tragedy of the farmer's eco-\nnomic plight. Then the farmer envies the financier.\nBut I feel sure the tide will turn. You who stand here, chisel in hand,\nabout to hew out the future, have something in you; humanity's most\nprecious mental gift-the eternal resilience, the everlasting bounce in\nman. You may love for the moment the indolent sense of futility that\ncomes with the grand cynicism of youth. But life, experience, the hazards\nof your day, and time will bring out of you the courage bred into you. You\nwill find that you have the urge that we had. You will want to believe in\nsomething in spite of yourselves. You will want to construct something.\n*\nFor you are the sons and daughters of a creative people, inventive, re-\nsourceful, daring. And above all, in spite of the many unpleasant things\nyou have learned in this cloister, in spite of the hard realities that have\nmolded your youth, you are mystics, you are crusaders, you are incorrigi-\nble visionaries in the noblest sense of these words. The eternal verities of\nyour inheritance, the organizing brains, the industry, the noble purpose\nthat during the nineteenth century made America a kindlier and more\nbeautiful land than ever before was brought forth on this planet, will be\nbeckoning you, urging you, indeed, stemly commanding you to follow\nwhatever is fine and just in the achievement of your country\nThe residuum of what I am trying to say is this: you must reorganize life\nin your America and point your achievement toward a fairer distributive\nsystem. Abundance is here for the taking. Don't bemoan your lost frontier.\nIt is even now flashing on your horizon. A gorgeous land lies before you\nfair and more beautiful than man before has ever known. Out of the labo-\nratories will come new processes to multiply material things for your\nAmerica, to multiply them almost infinitely; but only if you will hold open\nWILLIAM ALLEN WHITE\n911\nthe channels of free science, unfettered thought, and the right of a man to\nuse his talents to the utmost provided he gives honest social returns for the\nrewards he takes. Don't delude yourselves about your new frontier. For on\nthat frontier which will rise over the laboratories you will find the same\nstruggle, the same hardships, the same inequities that your forefathers\nhave found on every frontier since the beginning of time. You will find\nrapacious men trying to grab more than their share of the common boun-\nties of the new frontier. You will find human greeds and human perfidies\nthere as we found them fifty years ago and as our fathers found them\ngenerations upon generations before. Energetic buccaneers always thrive\nwherever men are pioneering. In every one of the ten long generations\nduring which your ancestors have been conquering this continent and\nbuilding a proud civilization here, they have struggled as you will struggle\nagainst the injustices of life which are bred out of the lust for power in\nunsocial men. But don't let that discourage you\nAnd now, in closing, on behalf of your fathers who are bequeathing to you\ntheir choicest gifts, let me say that your heritage is not in these great lovely\ncities, not this wide and fertile land, not the mountains full of undreamed-\nof riches. These you may find in other continents. What we leave you that\nis precious are the few simple virtues which have stood us in good stead in\nthe struggle of our generation. We will and bequeath to you our enthusi-\nasm, our diligence, our zeal for a better world, that were the lode stars of\nour fathers. As our legatees we assign you our tolerance, our patience, our\nkindness, our faith, hope, and love, which make for the self-respect of\nman. These qualities of heart and mind grow out of a conviction that the\ndemocratic philosophy as mode of thinking will lead mankind into a no-\nbler way of life\n912\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nECONOMIST ARTHUR BURNS\nSHARES THREE DISCOVERIES\nWITH YOUNG ISRAELIS\n\"I do not hold with those who say that power corrupts men. Rather, it is the\nother way around; men without morality corrupt power.\" \"\nDR. ARTHUR BURNS, an immigrant to the United States from Austria\nat the age of eight, founded the Bureau of Economic Research, became\nchairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Dwight Eisenhower,\nand served as Richard Nixon's domestic policy counselor before being\nappointed chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. He finished his career,\ncoming full circle, as ambassador to West Germany.\nHis speaking style was precise; his official writing was afflicted with too\nmany facts and figures. But because he had an organized mind and liked to\nmake a clear point, his extemporaneous speaking and rare informal ad-\ndresses were models of clarity.\nThe following commencement address, made at Hebrew University, in\nJerusalem, on July 6. 1970, is uneditable-that is, it cannot be cut without\nthe cut showing. That demonstrates a tight construction in speechwriting,\nwith points logically marching to a satisfying conclusion. It begins with a\ncouple of anecdotes. drawing the audience in with easy-to-follow stories\nabout people. Then Dr. Burns previews, or billboards, the three elements to\ncome in his speech: discoveries in economics (where he's the expert),\npower management (always of interest), and the achievement of ideals\n(which should be on the minds of young people).\nHe then delivers as advertised, each discovery helpfully labeled and\nbriefly expounded. At the end, like a good college lecturer to students\ntaking notes, he summarizes his trinity of points. Then he poses three\nquestions, designed to give his listeners something to puzzle out in each of\nthe three areas as they live their lives. Not an exciting speech, but reflective\nof the speaker: helpful; structured; wise.\nARTHUR BURNS 913\nT\nhis is my third visit to Israel. I remember, just before my first visit\nhere, in 1958, being admonished not to come by several United\nStates ambassadors.\nThe reason for the warning was plain. Israel was then in the midst of the\nLebanon crisis. With tension mounting by the hour, even a professor\nought to have enough sense to stay away from a country about to become\ninvolved in war. The men who told me this were seasoned diplomats; they\nwere gravely alarmed by the state of affairs.\nBut when I came here, I was struck by just the opposite-not by the\ntension, not by the alarm, but by the coolness of the Israeli people in the\nmidst of international anxiety.\nThere is an ironic saying we have in America, paraphrasing a line in a\nKipling poem: \"If you can keep your head while all about you are losing\ntheirs, perhaps you do not understand the gravity of the situation.\"\nBut the fact was that the Israelis I met here-some of whom had been\nmy students at Columbia University in years past-fully understood the\ngravity of the international situation. They kept the calm that is found in\nthe eye of a hurricane.\nI was struck then, as I am struck now, by what Ernest Hemingway\ndefined as the essence of courage-\"grace under pressure.\"\nThat quality of calm courage is found only in a people with a clear sense\nof purpose and a firm sense of duty. This simple fact must weigh heavily\nin every assessment by outsiders of the future of Israel.\nOn another visit, I asked David Ben-Gurion how the Israelis were able to\nachieve so rapidly their advances in industry and commerce. As you\nknow, many economists associate economic growth with a nation's en-\ndowment of natural resources. England's early progress was attributed to\nher coal; America's to her abundant minerals and vast agricultural re-\nsources. But Israel was not blessed with large mineral deposits, much of its\nland was barren, and even water was in short supply.\nHow, I therefore asked the prime minister, was Israel able to build such\na strong economy in such a short time? He answered, \"We did it first by\ndreaming, then by doing what the economists said was impossible.\"\nKeeping in mind that gentle reminder of fallibility, I would like to speak\nto you today about three discoveries in seemingly different fields-in the\nmanagement of economic affairs, in the management of power, and in the\nachievement of ideals.\n914\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nYou are a part of those discoveries, and the way the young people of\nIsrael govern their lives will have an important impact on the use of those\ndiscoveries in the years ahead.\nThe first discovery, in the field of economic management, is this: the\nhuman element is basic in the creation of an economy that combines full\nemployment with high productivity and relative price stability.\nThe great debate you read about in economics today is between those\nwho feel that fiscal policy is all-important and those who believe that\nmonetary policy is all-important. The two schools joust in learned debate,\nbut both are also beginning to take account of the human element in eco-\nnomic affairs-that is, the dreams, fears, and hopes that so often upset the\nmost expert calculations.\nAnd so we are gradually discovering-or perhaps I should say rediscov-\nering-that there is more to economic policy than the established princi-\nples of economics. When the older writers on economics entitled their\ntreatises \"political arithmetic\" or \"political economy.\" they were telling\nus something we have forgotten: that man's hope is a crucial element in\nman's fate.\nWhat is your role in this discovery? Right now, right here in Israel, you\nare proving that hope is perhaps the most powerful of all economic forces.\nYou are proving that a spirit of purpose can give meaning to human energy\nand overcome a lack of material resources. In this, you are not breaking\nany rules of economics; but you are developing new rules of political\neconomy.\nA generation ago, the only thing we had to fear was fear itself; today, the\nonly thing we should despair of is despair. In nations all around the world,\non both sides of the Iron Curtain, an enervating mood of despair is becom-\ning fashionable, especially on the part of some young people. The cultiva-\ntion of despair can do as much to undermine the strength of some econo-\nmies as the cultivation of hope can do to overcome the apparent\nweaknesses of other economies.\nThis brings me to a second discovery that is being made, in a related but\ndifferent field-in the exercise of power in the world.\nPower traditionally has been thought of in military terms. And, of\ncourse, as you know better than most, the survival of freedom in the world\nas it is today would be impossible without military power.\nBut I do not hold with those who say that power corrupts men. Rather, it\nis the other way around; men without morality corrupt power. And the\nworld is making a remarkable discovery about the exercise of power: with\nnations, as with individual men, the most effective application of power is\nthe power of moral example.\nARTHUR BURNS\n915\nThis, I submit, is what has made and continues to make America great.\nWe have a dream of freedom, of equal opportunity, and of human dignity.\nIt is true, of course, that our reach exceeds our grasp, but by striving to\nmake our way of life better and to help other nations enrich their freedom,\nwe set a moral example that is one of the greatest sources of our power. We\nare criticized so much around the world because people expect so much of\nAmerica; I would never trade away those high expectations for mere ap-\nproval.\nAnd this, too, is what makes Israel a \"great power\" in her own right.\nThe power of her example in dignifying life, in conquering disease, and in\nextending technical assistance to other poor nations, can never be under-\nestimated. I know that President Nixon feels this deeply. Not long ago, in\ndiscussing why America supports Israel, he put it this way: \"Americans\nadmire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israe-\nlis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism,\nidealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know.\"\nThe young people of Israel, born to this noble example, have a special\nresponsibility both to their own nation and to the world to preserve and\nenhance those qualities. You must continue to show the world that you\nknow the difference between bravery and bravado. You must continue to\nshow the world how dearly you hold the moral precepts of brotherhood.\nYou must continue to show the world your readiness to seek peace and\nprogress for yourselves and for your neighbors.\nThe example of Israel is nowhere more vivid than in the field of educa-\ntion. You have the privilege of being graduated today from one of the great\nuniversities of the world. But what impresses the world is not so much\nyour fine educational facilities or the magnificence of Mount Scopus,\nwhere you began to build this university, but the fact that education in\nIsrael permeates the very existence of her people.\nYou do not \"go to school\" in Israel; in a sense, this whole land-\nevery home, factory. kibbutz, or even army camp-is a school. Educa-\ntion is an exciting part of life. The mistake that others sometimes make,\nand that I trust you will never make, is to treat education as a chore in-\nstead of a joy; to treat graduation as an end of education rather than as\na beginning.\nYou consider yourselves pioneers in many things, and rightly so, but I\nsuggest that there is a discovery you are making that you may not be aware\nof: that a passion for learning diffused throughout a society is the surest\nroad to the achievement of its ideals.\nThe president of the United States likes to say, \"When you're through\nlearning, you're through.\" And he's right-the strength of a nation, like\n916\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nthe strength of an individual, depends on its ability to learn how to change\nand to grow.\nPerhaps the greatest thing that can be said about the people of Israel is\nthat in fighting for the life of your nation, you have stimulated the life of\nthe mind.\nToday I have been speaking of three discoveries that are being made in\nthe world, and of your part in them in the years ahead.\nIn creating a lasting prosperity, the human element is at last being rec-\nognized as of fundamental importance.\nIn exercising power in the world, the power of moral example can be far\ngreater than material riches or equipment.\nIn achieving ideals, a reverence for learning and education is indispens-\nable.\nAs you take leave of the university, as you graduate into a new life of the\nmind, may each of you ask yourself this: What am I doing to increase the\nsum of hope in this world? What am I doing to nourish the sense of\npurpose that founded this nation and made it strong? What am I doing to\nteach someone else what I have learned?\nIn asking questions like these, you will come to new discoveries, you\nwill rise to new challenges, and you will justify the faith of your fathers\nand the admiration of millions of free men all around the world.\nI am deeply honored to join the fellowship of this graduating class and I\nsalute you: Shalom.\nART BUCHWALD O917\nHUMORIST ART BUCHWALD\nSPEAKS TO\nLAW GRADUATES\n\"No matter what you read in the newspapers or see on television, I assure you\nthat we're all going to make it.''\nA KEENING OBSERVER OF WASHINGTON POLITICS, Art Buch-\nwald knows how to ask the tough questions, like \"Have you ever seen a\ncandidate talking to a rich person on television?\"\nThe winner of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary.\nBuchwald as political humorist reaches an international audience through\nthe worldwide syndication of his column to more than 550 newspapers.\nHe outlectures Mark Twain. Among his recent books are I Think I Don't\nRemember (1987) and Whose Rose Garden Is It Anyway? (1989).\nOn May 7. 1977, Buchwald delivered the commencement day address at\nCatholic University's Columbus School of Law, in Washington, D.C.\nThe commencement address is vintage Buchwald, from the presidential\nsalutation (\"My fellow Americans\") to the common-man close (\"Now, I\ncould have said something very profound today, but you would have for-\ngotten it in ten minutes\"). With chapter and verse of biblical and court-\ncase allusions, Buchwald prepares the law graduates for trying careers.\nM\ny fellow Americans, or as we're going to be saying for the\nnext four years-How y'all? It is a great honor for me to\naddress the graduating class of Catholic Law School of 130\nmen and 85 persons. You couldn't have selected a better person to be your\ncommencement speaker today.\nI am no stranger to the bar. I first became interested in the law when I\nwas working in Paris for the Herald Tribune, and I covered a trial which had\nto do with a couple caught in a very compromising situation in a Volks-\nwagen. Now. everyone in France was interested in the case because it had\nto do with such a small car. The defense lawyer argued it was impossible\nto do what the couple had been accused of doing in a Volkswagen. The\n918\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\njudge said he didn't know if this was true or not, so he appointed a com-\nmission to study it. It took them six months to render their verdict, and\nthey said ''it was possible but very difficult.\"\nWhat does a speaker say to a fresh-faced, well-scrubbed graduating\nclass of neophyte lawyers? Your studies are over, and now you will leave\nthese hallowed halls, this ivy-covered campus, to go out and practice the\nsecond-oldest profession in the world.\nIt is an honorable calling that you have chosen. Some of you will soon\nbe defending poor, helpless insurance companies who are constantly\nbeing sued by greedy widows and orphans trying to collect on their poli-\ncies. Others will work tirelessly to protect frightened, beleaguered oil com-\npanies who are being attacked by wicked and depraved antitrust officials.\nA few of you will devote your lives to suing doctors, while many of you\nwill choose to sue the patients. As lawyers you will see to it that whether\nyou represent General Motors, Coca-Cola, or the telephone company, the\nlittle fellow will get his day in court.\nThere are some of you who have chosen to go into criminal law-which\nI must admit is getting harder and harder to distinguish from civil law. To\nyou I say, this, too, is an honorable undertaking-only if you keep one\nthing in mind, and that is to always get your fee in advance. No matter\nhow hard you defended him, a convicted criminal is the most reluctant of\nall clients to pay the lawyer after the jury has returned a verdict of guilty.\nThis great government of ours has made the law profession the growth\nindustry of America. Every time a new regulation is issued, a new law is\npassed, and an old law is repealed, fifty thousand lawyers are needed to\nexplain it. Just one amendment to the IRS code will give every lawyer in\nthis country enough work to last him thirteen years. One memorandum\nfrom the Food and Drug Administration will provide enough litigation to\nfeed your families for the rest of your lives. Our country looks kindly on\nlawyers. Our government hires them to make the rules. Then the private\nsector is forced to hire lawyers to find ways of breaking them.\nThe beauty of the law is that the more complicated lawmakers make it,\nthe more work it generates for other lawyers. Had the Ten Commandments\nbeen written by a government lawyer, Moses could never have carried\nthem on a stone tablet. He would have had to haul them down from Mount\nSinai on the Rock of Gibraltar. And if you ever get discouraged, remember\nthis: even if the meek do inherit the earth, some lawyer will have to pro-\nbate the will.\nI am not trying to give you the impression that your life will be all milk\nand Gulf Oil. The fact of the matter is that the legal profession faces many\nproblems these days. According to a recent survey, lawyers rated lower\nART BUCHWALD 919\nthan garbage collectors in the public's esteem. Now, I think this is an\nunfair image. I know many lawyers who would make good garbage collec-\ntors-but I don't know one garbage collector who would make a good\nlawyer.\nAnother problem you face is that you will soon be forced to advertise.\nThis is an anathema to most lawyers, but it's coming and there is no sense\nfighting it. I think if you have to advertise you should put most of your\nmoney into television. I have been working on some TV commercials\nwhich might be appropriate. One, which I already have in script form,\nwould show a nattily dressed man standing in front of the Atlanta Federal\nPrison. He would say, \"Hi, I used to be a vice-president of Lockheed\nAircraft. I'd be inside these gates now if it hadn't been for Covington &\nBurling. If you have committed a white-collar crime-or are thinking of\ncommitting one, call this toll free number: 800-367-2345. We have a\nspecial sale this week on income tax fraud and SEC violations. Don't\ndelay. Had the men inside this prison called Covington & Burling, they\nwould be standing out here with me today.'\nThe tendency today in this country is to wring our hands and say every-\nthing is rotten, but I don't feel that way. I am basically an optimist-\notherwise I would never fly Allegheny Airlines. I don't know if this is the\nbest of times or the worst of times, but I can assure you of this: this is the\nonly time you've got-and you can either sit on your expletive deleted or go\nout and pick a daisy.\nNow we seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone\nseems to think yesterday was better than today. I personally don't think it\nwas, and I would advise you not to wait ten years from now before admit-\nting today was great. If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is\nyesterday. and just go out and have one hell of a time.\nYou know, if you were looking for a name for this country right now,\nyou'd have to call it the uptight society. Everyone seems uptight about\nsomething. The white students want out of our system; the black students\nwant in; the people are mad at the cops; and the priests aren't talking to the\ncardinals. And doing the column the way I do, I discovered that for every\nuptight person in this country, there's an uptight organization to back him\nup. And I discovered that the most uptight organization in this country\nright now is the National Rifle Association. Now, before you get to like me,\nI am for gun registration, and it's very personal with me. My neighbor has\na gun, and he can't even water his lawn straight. But every time I do an\narticle for gun registration, I get hundreds of letters, all neatly typewritten,\ntelling me I'm trying to destroy the Constitution. And I discovered that\neverybody in this country who owns a gun also owns a typewriter. So my\n920\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nsolution to the gun registration problem is to make everybody register his\ntypewriter. People are very uptight about pornography and what it is doing\nto all our lives. Now, I'll be very honest with you. I have always wanted to\nwrite a pornographic book. But I get so excited doing the research that I\ncan never get around to the book\nMy final message to you today is that no matter what you read in the\nnewspapers or see on television, I assure you that we're all going to make\nit. For two hundred years this country has muddled through one crisis\nafter another, and we have done it without changing our form of govern-\nment. And it seems like centuries, but it was only three years ago that a\npresident of the United States was forced to resign from office under the\ndarkness of clouds, and he was asked to leave the office because he lied to\nthe American people. I was at the White House that night to hear his\nresignation speech. What impressed me more than anything else was that\nwhile one leader of our country was resigning and another was taking his\nplace, I did not see one tank or one helmeted soldier in the street, and the\nonly uniforms I saw that night were on two motorcycle policemen who\nwere directing traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue. Two hundred million peo-\nple were able to change presidents overnight without one bayonet being\nunsheathed. And I believe that any country in the world that can still do\nthat can't be all bad.\nNow, I could have said something very profound today, but you would\nhave forgotten it in ten minutes; so I chose to give this kind of speech\ninstead so that in twenty years from now when your children ask you what\nyou did on graduation day, you can proudly say, \"I laughed.\"\nThank you, and God bless you.\nWILLIAM SAFIRE\n921\nLANGUAGE MAVEN\nWILLIAM SAFIRE DENOUNCES\nTHE TELEPHONE AS THE\nSUBVERTER OF GOOD ENGLISH\n\"IT is harder to put your foot in your mouth when you have your pen in your\nhand.\"\nLOOK, THIS DOESN'T COMPARE with Pericles and Patrick Henry,\nbut every anthologist is entitled to the inclusion of one of his own. It was\ndelivered at my alma mater, Syracuse University, on May 13, 1978, and\nthe graduates lapped it up.\nlassmates:\nC\nI entered Syracuse University with the class of '51, dropped out\nafter two years, and am finally receiving my degree with the class\nof '78. There is hope for slow learners.\nMy subject today is \"The Decline of the Written Word.\" If the speech I\nhave written is disjointed and confusing, you will get my point the hard\nway.\nWe have not heard a really eloquent speech out of the White House in a\nlong time. Why? When you ask the speechwriters of Mr. Ford and Mr.\nCarter, they give you this explanation: they say that \"high-flown rhetoric\"\nis not their man's style.\nBut that is not responsive. A flowery speech is a bad speech. Simple,\nstraight English prose can be used to build a great speech. There has to be a\nmore profound reason for the reluctance of the presidents of the seventies\nto write out their thoughts plainly and deliver them in words we can all\nunderstand.\nIf you press the president's aides-and that's my job, to press them\nhard-they'll admit that their man much prefers to \"ad-lib\" answers to\nquestions. He's not good at what they call a \"set\" speech.\nWhat do they really mean by that? They mean a speech-a written\n922\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nspeech, developing an idea-is not what people want to hear. People pre-\nfer short takes, Q. and A.; the attention span of most Americans on serious\nmatters is about twenty seconds, the length of a television clip.\nIn the same way, people do not want to read articles as they once did;\ntoday. if you cannot get your message in a paragraph, forget it.\nAs a result, we're becoming a short-take society. Our presidency, which\nTheodore Roosevelt called a \"bully pulpit,\" has become a forum for\ntwenty-second spots. Our food for thought is junk food.\nWhat has brought this about? I don't blame President Carter for this-he\nreflects the trend; he did not start it. I don't flail out at the usual whipping\nboy, television.\nThe reason for the decline of the written word-speeches, written arti-\ncles-is that we, as a people, are writing less and talking more. Because it\ntakes longer to prepare our thoughts on paper, that means we are ad-\nlibbing more, and it also means we are thinking more superficially. An ad\nlib has its place, but not ad nauseam.\nThat's one of those sweeping statements that pundits are permitted to\nmake. But let me turn reporter for a minute and prove to you that we're\ntalking more and writing less.\nMost people are not writing personal letters any more. Oh, the volume\nof first-class mail has doubled since 1950, but here's the way the mail\nbreaks down. Over 80 percent is business related; over 10 percent is greet-\ning card and Christmas card; and only 3 percent is from one person to\nanother to chew the fat.\nMore and more, we're relying on commercial poets and cartoonists to\nexpress our thoughts for us. Tomorrow is Mother's Day; how many of us\nare relying on canned sentiments? I remember my brother once labori-\nously handmade a card for my mother: on the front was \"I'll never forget\nyou, Mother,\" and inside it said, \"You gave away my dog.\" Okay, he was\nsore, but at least he was original.\nThe greatest cultural villain of our times has a motherly image: Ma Bell.\nThe telephone company. Instead of writing, people are calling; instead of\ncommunicating, they're \"staying in touch.\"\nThere you are, all about to be holders of college degrees. When was the\nlast time you wrote, or received, a long, thoughtful letter? When was the\nlast time you wrote a passionate love letter? No, that takes time, effort,\nthought-there's a much easier way, the telephone. The worst insult is\nwhen kids call home, collect, for money; when my kids go to college. the\nonly way they'll get a nickel out of me is to write for it.\nAs the percentage of personal mail has dwindled, the number of tele-\nphone installations since 1950 has quadrupled. The average person's need\nWILLIAM SAFIRE 923\nto write has been undermined by simple economics: as the cost of a letter\nhas gone up, the cost of a call has gone down.\nDuring World War I, a first-class letter cost two cents an ounce; in a few\nweeks, it will be fifteen cents an ounce. In that same sixty years, a New\nYork-to-San Francisco call has gone from twenty dollars for three minutes\ndown to fifty-three cents today, if you're willing to call at night or on a\nweekend. The penny postcard is a dime. Letters up almost 800 percent;\nphone calls down to one-fortieth of the cost to grandpa. No wonder the\nmarket share of communication has dropped for letter writers. In the year I\nwas a freshman here, the Postal Service had over a third of the communi-\ncation business; today, it is one-sixth, and falling.\nAnd it's going to get worse: phonevision is on the way. We have seen\nwhat happened to the interpersonal correspondence of love in the past\ngeneration. The purple passages of prose, and tear-stained pages of the\nlove letter-that's gone now. It has become the heavy breathing, grunts,\nand \"like, I mean, y'know, wow\" of the love call. The next stage, with the\nvisual dimension, will not even require a loud sigh: we can just wave at\neach other to say hello; wiggle our fingers to express affection; raise our\neyebrows to ask, \"What's new?.\" get a shrug in reply, and sign off with a\nsmile and a wink.\nWe need not degenerate further from written English to verbal grunts,\nand then to sign language. We need to become modern reactionaries; I\nconsider myself a neo-Neanderthal, and my happiest moment of the year\ncomes as daylight savings ends in October, when I can turn back the clock.\nHow do we save ourselves from the tyranny of the telephone? How do\nwe liberate our language from the addiction to the ad lib?\nIf this were an off-the-cuff presentation, I would drift off into a fuzzy\nevasion like \"There are no easy answers.\" But one thing I have learned in\npreparing my first commencement address, and the main advice I shall\nburden you with today is this: there are plenty of easy answers. The big\ntrick is to think about them and write them down.\nThere are four steps to the salvation of the English language, and thus to\nthe rejuvenation of clear thinking in your working lives.\nFirst, remember that first drafts are usually stupid. If you shoot off your\nmouth with your first draft-that is, if you say what you think before\nyou've had a chance to think-your stupidity shines forth for all to hear.\nBut, if you write your first draft-of a letter, a memo, a description of some\ntranscendental experience that comes to you while jogging-then you fall\non your face in absolute privacy. You get the chance to change it all\naround. It is harder to put your foot in your mouth when you have your\npen in your hand.\n924\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nSecond, reject the notion that honesty and candor demand that you \"let\nit all hang out.\" That's not honesty; that's intellectual laziness. Tuck some\nof it in; edit some of it out. Talking on your feet, spinning thoughts off the\ntop of your head, and just rapping along in a laid-back way have been\nglorified as \"expressing your natural self.\" But you did not get an educa-\ntion to become natural; you got an education to become civilized. Compo-\nsition is a discipline; it forces us to think. If you want to \"get in touch with\nyour feelings,\" fine-talk to yourself; we all do. But, if you want to com-\nmunicate with another thinking human being, get in touch with your\nthoughts. Put them in order; give them a purpose; use them to persuade, to\ninstruct, to discover, to seduce. The secret way to do this is to write it down\nand then cut out the confusing parts.\nThird, never forget that you own the telephone; the telephone does not\nown you. Most people cannot bear to listen to a phone ring without an-\nswering it. It's easy to not answer a letter, but it's hard to not answer a\nphone. Let me pass along a solution that has changed my life. When I was\nin the Nixon administration, my telephone was tapped-I had been as-\nsociating with known journalists. So I took an interest in the instrument\nitself. Turn it upside down; you will notice a lever that says \"louder.\"\nTurn it away from the direction of louder. That is the direction of emanci-\npation. If somebody needs to see you, he'll come over. If others need to tell\nyou what they think, or even express how they feel, they can write. There\nare those who will call you a recluse-but it is better to listen to your own\ndifferent drummer than to go through life with a ringing in your ears.\nMy fourth point will impress upon you the significance of the written\nword. Those of you who have been secretly taking notes, out of a four-year\nhabit, will recall that I spoke of \"four steps\" to the salvation of the English\nlanguage. Here it is: there is no fourth step. I had the fourth step in mind\nwhen I began, but I forgot it.\nNow, if I were ad-libbing, I would remember I had promised four\npoints, and I would do what so many stump speakers do-toss in the\nall-purpose last point, which usually begins, \"There are no easy answers.\"\nBut, in writing down what you think, you can go back and fix it-instead\nof having to phumph around with a phony fourth point, you can change\nyour introduction to \"there are three steps.\" Perhaps you wonder why I\ndid not do so. Not out of any excess of honesty. or unwillingness to make a\nsimple fix-I just wanted you to see the fourth step take shape before your\nvery eyes.\nIs the decline of the written word inevitable? Will the historians of the\nfuture deal merely in oral history? I hope not. I hope-that oral history will\nlimit itself to the discovery of toothpaste and the invention of mouthwash.\nWilliam SAFIRE\n925\nI don't want to witness the decomposing of the art of composition, or be\npresent when we get in touch with our feelings and lose contact with our\nminds.\nI'm a conservative in politics, which means I believe that we as a people\nhave to lead our leaders, to show them how we want to be led.\nAccordingly, I think we have to send a message to the podium from the\naudience: we're ready for more than Q. and A. We're ready for five or ten\nminutes of sustained explication. A \"fireside chat\" will not turn out our\nfires. On the contrary-if a speaker will take the time to prepare, we are\nprepared to pay in the coin of our attention.\nThat, of course, is contrary to the trend, against the grain. It can come\nonly from people who care enough to compose, who get in the habit of\nreading rather than listening, of being in communication instead of only\nin contact.\nWhen Great Britain was fighting World War II alone, an American pres-\nident did something that would be considered cornball today: FDR sent\nChurchill a poem, along with a letter, that read:\nSail on, O Ship of State!\nSail on, o Union, strong and great!\nHumanity with all its fears,\nWith all the hopes of future years,\nIs hanging breathless on thy fate!\nChurchill took the message-delivered to him by Wendell Willkie, who\nhad just been defeated by FDR-and selected a poem in answer. At that\nmoment, looking east, England faced invasion; looking to the west across\nthe Atlantic, Churchill saw potential help. The poem he sent concluded\nwith the words:\nAnd not by eastern windows only,\nWhen daylight comes, comes in the light;\nIn front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,\nBut westward, look, the land is bright.\nHigh-flown rhetoric? Perhaps. And perhaps poetry, which had an hon-\norable place in a 1961 inauguration, is too rich for some tastes today.\nAnd now I remember the fourth step. I like to think we can demand\nsome sense of an occasion, some uplift, some inspiration from our lead-\ners. Not empty words and phony promises-but words full of meaning.\nbinding thoughts together with purpose, holding promise of understand-\n926\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nable progress. If we ask for it, we'll get it-if we fail to ask, we'll get more\nQ. and A.\nI believe we can arrest the decline of the written word, thereby achieving\na renaissance of clarity. And not by eastern establishment windows only.\nThe hope is on this side of the Potomac, the Charles, and the Hudson\nrivers-westward, look, the land is bright.\nFINANCIER FELIX G. ROHATYN\nEXAMINES A\nFRAGILE ECONOMY\n\"WHEN a democratic society does not meet the test of fairness freedom is in\njeopardy. Whether the attack comes from the left or from the right is irrelevant;\nboth extremes are equally lethal.\"\nWHEN FELIX G. ROHATYN rose to address the graduating class of his\nalma mater, Middlebury College, in Vermont, his speech in May 1982\ndrew heavily on his own experience as a leader in business and public\naffairs. Rohatyn, born in Austria in 1928, came to the United States during\nWorld War II and was naturalized in 1950. An investment banker and\nchairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation (New York City's fiscal\nwatchdog agency). Rohatyn was largely responsible for helping New York\nCity survive its financial crisis of the midseventies.\nThese experiences led into Rohatyn's discussion of the economy in\n1982, as it began pulling out of severe recession. Called \"The Fragile\nFELIX G. ROHATYN\n927\nSystem,\" Democrat Rohatyn's speech focused on the challenges facing\nour nation's economy in the boom times of the Reagan era.\nWith the anaphora of \"There is no reason\" to enumerate seven needed\nchanges in policy. Rohatyn posits a reformation of the American econ-\nomy. A listing of the nation's worries, combined with his recollections of\nthe handling of New York City's fiscal crisis, underscores his direct ad-\ndress to the class of 1982, particularly in his perorational avoidance of\nsentiment in a nice ''I do not envy you, but I do not feel sorry for you.\"\nI\nt has been more than thirty years since I graduated, without the\nslightest distinction, from a small, idyllic, some might say ivory\ntower college in Vermont called Middlebury. I had come to the\nUnited States in 1942, a refugee from Nazi-occupied France. America\nmeant freedom and opportunity for me; Franklin Roosevelt was America;\nMiddlebury was part of a heady postwar period, of belonging somewhere,\nof becoming a U.S. citizen, of having a future. A small, bouncy, bald\nprofessor named Benjamin Wissler taught me the difference between a\nfact and an assumption, between reasoning and guessing. Even though.\nsoon after graduation, I was drafted for the Korean War and graduated\nfrom that experience as a sergeant of infantry, also without distinction,\nnothing during that period dimmed my conviction that in the U.S. tomor-\nrow would be better than today. as would every tomorrow thereafter. Inso-\nfar as I am concerned, America has far exceeded my personal expecta-\ntions. No European country would have given a Jewish refugee, of Polish\nextraction, the opportunities in business and in public affairs that this\ncountry has given me.\nAnd yet it would be disingenuous and unrealistic not to recognize that\nthe world as a whole and the U.S. in particular, are profoundly changed\nfrom my graduating year of 1949.\nA friend of mine, one of the more civilized corporate chairmen, said to\nme recently, \"I no longer give commencement addresses; the graduates\nare entitled to an upbeat speech, and I am no longer capable of delivering\nit.'' It gave me pause because I certainly do not have an upbeat speech;\nhowever, a realistic assessment of where we are cannot be equated with\nhopelessness. We saved New York City from bankruptcy against much\ngreater odds than those facing this country today. But we did it by being\nruthlessly realistic about the mess we were dealing with and by assuming,\nquite correctly, that when things look very bad, they usually turn out to be\nworse than they look.\n928\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nThe United States is more than a nation; it is a continent. Within this\ncontinent lie our greatest challenges and the most serious threat to our\ndemocratic form of government: income and class disparities on the one\nhand, regional disparities on the other. The Reagan administration's ap-\nproach to these issues was to state that tax policy should not be used to\neffect social change and that citizens should vote with their feet. As a\nresult, a completely laudable attempt to improve American productivity by\nstimulating investment has resulted in an economic program incoherent\nin its application.\nBudget cuts have been largely concentrated on lower-income programs\nsuch as food stamps and welfare and have not, so far, touched the large,\nmiddle-income support programs, indexed to the cost of living, such as\nSocial Security and pensions. Massive tax cuts, coupled with enormous\nand apparently indiscriminate increases in military spending, have cre-\nated the perspective of enormous federal deficits for years to come. The\ngrowth in the economy which was expected to pay for these programs is,\ntime and again, choked off by high interest rates.\nAt the same time, a strong regional tide is running away from this part\nof the country. Unless vigorous actions are taken soon, older America, the\nNortheast and Midwest-tied to traditional industries like autos, steel,\nglass and rubber, seriously wounded by Japanese competition-will not\nprovide the jobs, the schools, the taxbase to maintain the physical plant of\nits cities, and the minimum requirements of its citizens. Half this country\nwill be basking in the sun, swimming in oil and defense contracts, while\nthe other half will sink further and further into physical decay. social\nstress, and despair.\nThe basic test of a functioning democracy is its ability to create new\nwealth and see to its fair distribution. When a democratic society does not\nmeet the test of fairness, when, as in the present state, no attempt seems to\nbe made at fairness, freedom is in jeopardy. Whether the attack comes\nfrom the left or from the right is irrelevant; both extremes are equally\nlethal\nMaybe for the first time in its history, the United States is faced with\ndoubts about its destiny. In less than twenty-five years we have gone from\nthe American century to the American crisis.\nThe United States today is a country in transition. It is in transition from\nbeing the world's dominant military power to sharing that role with the\nSoviet Union; it is in transition from an industrial to a service society;\nfrom being a predominantly white, northern European society based in the\nNortheast and Midwest to being a multiracial society with its center of\ngravity in the Sunbelt. A society in transition cannot be governed by rigid\nFELIX G. ROHATYN\n929\ndogma; on the contrary, it requires a government which is flexible, prag-\nmatic, even sometimes deliberately ambiguous. Shared values must be\nclear, but the means to the end cannot be rigid. From fascism to commu-\nnism, from monarchy to anarchy, the ends of government are purportedly\nthe same. Justice with opportunity, higher standards of living. peace in\nour time. The means to the end are very different, however, and the means\nare what determine whether we live in a free society.\nThe critical issues we face today are not the levels of interest rates or\nwhat kind of package finally comes out of budget negotiations. These\nthings are important, but our fascination with numbers must not obscure\nthe real issues. These are, in no particular order:\nThe rapid growth of a permanent underclass in America: the\nresidents of inner-city ghettos, black and Hispanic, undereducated,\nunderskilled, without real hope of participating in the future of the\ncountry;\nThe regional split between Sunbelt and Frostbelt, which is\naccelerating and which will leave the northern half of the United\nStates in serious difficulty;\nThe decline of our traditional manufacturing sectors, the decay of\nour older cities and the decline in the quality of urban life;\nIllegal immigration in great numbers, especially from Mexico,\nwhich will create additional social tensions unless we produce\nenough jobs to absorb our own unemployed along with new\narrivals;\nNuclear proliferation and the need to control and reduce the level of\nnuclear weapons while being realistic about Soviet power.\nTo be fair and evenhanded, I should probably attempt to sketch the\nmany reasons today to be optimistic about the future. The new technolo-\ngies and inventions, the exploration of space and the oceans, communica-\ntions and education, advances in medicine and knowledge of the human\nbody, plus the myriad new developments we cannot even conceive of\ntoday. We must also be realistic in recognizing that we are today the stron-\ngest economic power in the world and that we are facing a Soviet system\nwhich is spiritually and financially bankrupt.\nIf I seem to dwell on the problems, it is probably for two reasons. First,\nbecause I have been trained, professionally, to look after the bad news first\nand let the good news take care of itself. Second, because I believe that in\nour problems lie the most serious challenges to our system and in their\nresolution lie some of the greatest opportunities for tomorrow.\n930\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nAnd yet the list of problems that I reviewed is by no means a complete\nlist, and their diversity and complexity indicate the futility of trying to deal\nwith them by across-the-board economic theories and \"hands-off\" gov-\nemment. The role of government, in the last decades of this century, will\nbe the paramount question to be decided.\nToday, we are witnessing a paradox: a government which abdicates to a\ntheoretical marketplace most of its responsibilities for the welfare of the\npeople, while wishing to intrude on people's most private decisions. How\ndoes one equate the conservative passion to intrude on such issues as\nabortion, school prayer, and the death penalty with its equally fervent\npassion for the free market as the fount of all benefits? Today's conserva-\ntive experiment will fail because it has no relevance to the world we live\nin, just as yesterday's liberalism failed for exactly the same reason. We are\nsoon, however, going to run out of time for experiments.\nBenny Wissler once snappily explained to me that there was no such\nthing as the wrong answer; there was only a wrong answer. It was only re-\ncently, however, that I concluded that, especially in government and pub-\nlic life, there may not be any such thing as the right answer. There may, at\nbest, exist a process whereby trends can be affected and the direction of\nsocial and economic behavior temporarily influenced. This is the antithe-\nsis of the planned, central domination of government, but it means gov-\nernment committed to oppose destabilizing trends before they become\nflood tides. It is a permanent but ever-changing process.\nA Rabelaisian friend of mine once compared saving New York City to\nmaking love to a gorilla. \"You don't stop when you're tired,\" he said to\nme; \"you stop when he's tired.\" The gorilla never tires, and government\ncan never abdicate its responsibilities\nThere is no reason why a hardheaded liberalism cannot live with the\nreality that we cannot spend ourselves into bankruptcy.\nThere is no reason why social programs, impeccable in their objectives,\nhave to be grossly abused, or expanded to include those who really don't\nneed them.\nThere is no reason why an economy, geared mostly to private-sector\ngrowth, cannot at the same time permit limited government intervention\nwhere needed. A modern version of the Reconstruction Finance Corpora-\ntion of the 1930s could help rebuild our cities and restructure our basic\nindustries without threatening our basic free-enterprise system.\nThere is no reason why limited and temporary protection for our hard-\nhit industries cannot be conditioned on restrained wage and price behavior\nby labor and management; this might become the model for an incomes\npolicy where wage and price behavior could be linked to productivity.\nFELIX G. ROHATYN 0 931\nThere is no reason why large savings cannot be effected in defense, and\nparticularly in reducing nuclear delivery systems, if we are willing to pay\nthe price of larger standing conventional forces.\nThere is no reason to abandon human rights abroad and deal with mur-\nderers from the right because they happen to be anti-Communist. Nor is\nthere reason to tolerate murderers from the left on the romantic notion that\nthey are agrarian reformers.\nHowever, although there is no reason why these results cannot be\nachieved, we must be realistic about the political difficulty of bringing this\nabout. Without the active support of the American people and the active\ncooperation of business, labor, and government, it cannot happen.\nIn times of upheaval, the passions must be for moderation and not for\nextremes. As Anwar Sadat well knew, the passion for moderation may be\none of the most dangerous passions today. and yet it is especially vital to\nour future. Sadat took the risks and paid the price. Even though today's\ntechnology provides us with mountains of instant data, it is useless with-\nout judgment. And if judgments are to have value, policy decisions have\nto be made early. When the crisis is clear, it is often too late to act. That is\nthe dilemma of statesmanship and the possibly fatal flaw in a political\nsystem which only seems to act when it is too late.\nFrance has given the world a lot; not least is the skepticism of Mon-\ntaigne and of Voltaire. Skepticism is what is needed today-skepticism of\neasy solutions, of cant, of ideology of the left or right. Skepticism does not\nequate with cynicism; it is not inconsistent with the fiercest patriotism or\nthe firmest belief in basic values. But it can be the anchor to windward\nwhen our basic institutions seem to be adrift with the tides.\nYesterday, your president spoke to you of the American dream; today, I\nspeak to you of the American reality. They are not inconsistent with each\nother, but unless you face the latter, you will never achieve the former.\nLadies and gentlemen of the class of 1982, I do not envy you, but I do not\nfeel sorry for you. You will have an exciting time, and it is likely to be hard\ngoing. The United States is in need of change, and your challenge will be\nto provide it as well as to adjust to it. As the rate of change accelerates, as\nthe problems become greater and the solutions more elusive, get involved\nin public affairs. It is a great adventure.\nPolitics is not the only way to become involved in public life. There will\nbe many structures such as Municipal Assistance Corporation, where pri-\nvate citizens can play important roles. I had the privilege of participating\nin a great adventure, the rescue of New York City. It was an experience\nboth terrifying and exhilarating, which I would not have missed for any-\nthing. It taught me what you will find out. To be skeptical and always look\n932\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nover your shoulder, but to get involved deeply and to shoot for the moon.\nTo beware of lawyers and consultants and people who do not take risks\nand who do not get their hands dirty. There are even more experts today\nthan there are problems, but there is no greater strength than an open mind\ncombined with a willingness to take risks. Middlebury opened my mind,\nas I am sure it did yours. In order to take risks, however, you have to go in\nharm's way. What happens then and how you perform, will depend on the\nfates as well as on your character.\nGOVERNOR MARIO CUOMO\nSPEAKS OVER THE HEADS\nOF THE GRADUATES TO\nTHE PARENTS\n\"WE have for a full lifetime taught our children to be go-getters. Can we now\nsay to them that if they want to be happy they must be go-givers?\"\nTHE GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK is often a political leader with the\npotential for national stature, and Mario Cuomo made the most of a key-\nnote address at the 1984 Democratic National Convention to establish\nhimself as a party leader; his emotional evocation of \"family values,\"\ncombined with a view of the nation as an extended family, marked him as\na politician to watch.\nIn that same summer, on June 3, 1984, he delivered a commencement\nMARIO CUOMO 933\naddress to Iona College, in New Rochelle, New York. As he wrote to the\nanthologist, \"This is certainly not a great speech, but it is my favorite.\nOthers have received more attention; this one says best what is most im-\nportant to me.\"\nCuomo is a politician, like Adlai Stevenson, who pays close attention to\nwords and writes many of his own speeches. When a columnist chided\nhim for convoluted \"Jesuitical reasoning.\" the governor quickly coun-\ntered with \"That's how little you know-it's Vincentian reasoning.\"\nI\nt was an Irishman who gave me the best advice I've ever been given\nabout the art of delivering a commencement speech.\nFather Flynn was the president of my alma mater, St. John's, and\nthe first time I was ever asked to speak at a graduation, I asked him how I\nshould approach it.\n\"Commencement speakers,\" said Father Flynn, \"should think of them-\nselves as the body at an old-fashioned Irish wake. They need you in order\nto have the party, but nobody expects you to say very much.\"\nThat's advice I intend to remember today\nI know that you are thinking-good parents and grandparents, loved\nones of the graduates-what I'm thinking. \"We've been through it all, at\nleast most of it, or a lot of it. There's so much ahead that they ought to\nknow about. So many temptations they should ignore. So much we can\ntell them about how to begin answering these hard questions.\nWe have the obligation to tell them, to reduce as much as possible the\npain of their learning only from their own blunders.\nWe have the obligation. But do we have the right?\nCan we, who found the ultimate truth so elusive for so long, tell them\nwith confidence now of the futility of gathering up riches and the things of\nthe world?\nIt's clear to us that all the newly won power over space and time, the\nconquest of the forces of nature, the fulfilling of age-old challenges, have\nnot made us any happier or surer of ourselves.\nWe have built rockets and spaceships and shuttles; we have harnessed\nthe atom; we have dazzled a generation with a display of our technological\nskills. But we still spend millions of dollars on aspirin and psychiatrists\nand tissues to wipe away the tears of anguish and uncertainty that result\nfrom our confusion and our emptiness.\nMost of us have achieved levels of affluence and comfort unthought of\ntwo generations ago.\n934\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nWe've never had it so good, most of us.\nNor have we ever complained so bitterly about our problems.\nThe closed circle of pure materialism is clear to us now-aspirations\nbecome wants, wants become needs, and self-gratification becomes a bot-\ntomless pit.\nAll around us we have seen success in this world's terms become ulti-\nmate and desperate failure. Teenagers and college students, raised in af-\nfluent surroundings and given all the material comforts our society can\noffer, commit suicide.\nEntertainers and sports figures achieve fame and wealth but find the\nworld empty and dull without the solace or stimulation of drugs.\nMen and women rise to the top of their professions after years of strug-\ngling. But despite their apparent success, they are driven nearly mad by a\nfrantic search for diversions, new mates, games, new experiences-any-\nthing to fill the diminishing interval between their existence and eternity.\nWe know because we've been there. But do we have the right to tell\nthese graduates that the most important thing in their lives will be their\nability to believe in believing? And that without that ability, sooner or later\nthey will be doomed to despair?\nDo you think they would believe us if we told them today, what we know\nto be true: That after the pride of obtaining a degree and maybe later\nanother degree and after their first few love affairs, that after earning their\nfirst big title, their first shiny new car and traveling around the world for\nthe first time and having had it all-they will discover that none of it\ncounts unless they have something real and permanent to believe in?\nTell me, ladies and gentlemen, are we the ones to tell them what their\ninstructors have tried to teach them for years?\nThat the philosophers were right. That Saint Francis, Buddha, Muham-\nmad, Maimonides-all spoke the truth when they said the way to serve\nyourself is to serve others; and that Aristotle was right, before them, when\nhe said the only way to assure yourself happiness is to learn to give happi-\nness.\nDon't you remember that we were told all this when we were younger?\nBut nevertheless, we got caught up in the struggle and the sweat and the\nfrustration and the joy of small victories, and forgot it all. Until recently\nwhen we began to look back.\nHow simple it seems now. We thought the Sermon on the Mount was a\nnice allegory and nothing more. What we didn't understand until we got\nto be a little older was that it was the whole answer, the whole truth. That\nthe way-the only way-to succeed and to be happy is to learn those rules\nMARIO CUOMO\n935\nso basic that a shepherd's son could teach them to an ignorant flock with-\nout notes or formulae.\nWe carried Saint Francis's prayer in our wallets for years and never\nlearned to live the message.\nDo we have the right now to tell them that when Saint Francis begged\nthe Lord to teach him to want to console instead of seeking to be con-\nsoled-to teach him to want to love instead of desiring to be loved-that\nhe was really being intensely selfish? Because he knew the only way to be\nfulfilled and pleased and happy was to give instead of trying to get.\nWe have for a full lifetime taught our children to be go-getters. Can we\nnow say to them that if they want to be happy they must be go-givers?\nI wonder if we can, in good conscience, say these things to them today\nwhen we ourselves failed so often to practice what we would preach.\nI wonder if we-who have fought, argued, and bickered and so often\ndone the wrong thing to one another-are the ones to teach them love.\nHow do we tell them that one ought not to be discouraged by imperfec-\ntion in the world and the inevitability of death and diminishment? How do\nwe tell them when they lose a child, or are crippled, or know that they will\nthemselves die too soon-that God permits pain and sickness and unfair-\nness and evil to exist, only in order to permit us to test our mettle and to\nearn a fulfillment that would otherwise not be possible?\nHow can we tell our children that-when we have ourselves so often\ncried out in bitter despair at what we regarded to be the injustice of life-\nand when we have so often surrendered?\nHow can we tell them that it is their duty to use all that they have been\ngiven to make a better world, not only for themselves and their families,\nbut for all who live in this world, when it was our generation that permit-\nted two great wars and a number of smaller ones, our generation that made\nthe world a place where the great powers are so alienated from one another\nthat they can't even play together in an Olympics?\nDo we have the right to tell them, as our teachers told us, that they have\nan obligation in justice to participate in politics and government? Can we\nwithout shame say to them that our system of democracy works well only\nwhen there is involvement by all? That in our democracy the policies that\nbecome law, the rules of justice, the treatment of individuals are the re-\nsponsibility of each citizen? That you get what you deserve out of our\nsystem, and that indifference deserves nothing good?\nWhen we ourselves have chosen to sit at home on so many election days\nmuttering grim remarks about the politicians who appear on the television\nset, instead of doing what we could to change things, for the better?\n936\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nWill they believe us if we said these things?\nWould we be able to explain the embarrassment of our own failures?\nDo you blame me, ladies and gentlemen, for being reluctant to deliver to\nthem the message that is traditional on commencement day?\nBut maybe, ladies and gentlemen, this problem is not as great as I've\nmade it out to be.\nI've been taking a closer look at these graduates. They are actually taller,\nstronger, smarter than we were, smart enough maybe to take our mistakes\nas their messages, to make our weaknesses their lessons, and to make our\nexample-good and not so good-part of their education.\nI think I see in their eyes a depth of perception that perhaps we didn't\nhave. A sense of truth, deeper and less fragile than ours.\nAs you talk to them, you get the feeling that they are certainly mature\nenough to see the real problems of our society: the need for peace, the need\nto keep pure the environment God offered us, the need to provide people\nthe dignity of earning their own way.\nIndeed, as I think about it, I have to conclude that these young people\nbefore me today are the best reason for hope that this world knows.\nI see them as believers and doers who will take what we will pass on to\nthem so clumsily, and make it something better than we have ever known.\nHonoring us by their works, but wanting to be better than we have been.\nI tell you, ladies and gentlemen, looking at them now, closer and harder\nthan I have before, I have a feeling about these people that makes me want\nto live long enough to see and be part of the world they will create.\nNow, ladies and gentlemen, parents and grandparents, I would like to\ntell them, the graduates, all of this, and I know that if we thought they\nwouldn't be embarrassed by hearing it, we would all be telling them about\nhow proud we are of them and how much we believe in them and their\nfuture. But again maybe we don't have to tell them; maybe they know.\nMaybe they can tell just by seeing the love in our eyes today.\nCongratulations, ladies and gentlemen, on the good children you have\ncared for and raised.\nLANE KIRKLAND 937\nLABOR'S LANE KIRKLAND\nREJECTS THE LABELS\n\"LIBERAL\" AND\n\"CONSERVATIVE'\n\"As for those terms 'liberal' and 'conservative,' as one who has been afflicted by\nboth labels, I doubt their utility in this day and age for anyone except\nslapdash journalists.\"\nLANE KIRKLAND is revered by speechwriters as one of their own who\nmade it to the top of his profession. He began as a merchant seaman\nduring World War II and later drafted nautical charts to pay for his college\ndegree at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, but he veered from\ndiplomacy to the labor movement in 1948 as a researcher. The AFL-CIO\nlent him to the Truman and later the Stevenson campaigns as a speech-\nwriter; in 1961, he became an assistant to George Meany, writing that\nredoubtable labor leader's speeches, and in 1979 succeeded Meany as\npresident of the AFL-CIO.\nIn speeches, as in his career, he is an organizer; his speeches march to a\npoint. He returned to his native state of South Carolina (where his great-\ngreat-grandfather signed the Declaration of Secession) in 1985 to deliver\nthe commencement address to the University of South Carolina. The open-\ning makes the proper obeisance to the lessons of life required of com-\nmencement speakers. but with a twist: his quotation is taken from a recent\nwestern movie. (A mark of originality in a speech is a fresh source to cite,\nespecially one unlikely to yield wisdom; by reading universal meaning\ninto a colorful statement, the speaker shows both his common touch and\nhis philosophical depth.) Its message about the relevance of history is\nreprised, extended, and deepened at the end in an unfamiliar quotation\nfrom Sidney Hook and a famous line from George Santayana.\nThe second section centers on the social changes of the past two genera-\ntions. Short paragraphs begin with \"I remember\" (sometimes with a po-\netic evocation, as ''I remember a South Carolina that was too poor to paint\nand too proud to whitewash\") and are followed by \"When I note\" or\n938\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\n\"When I see\" lines that chide today's healthy patients for throwing their\nold crutches at the doctor.\nWith a transition line, \"I did not come here today to organize but to\nphilosophize,\" he then applies the lesson of those hard-fought-for social\nchanges to current political labeling. The students, and a broader public\nbeyond, needed this clarification of labels: the labor movement under his\nleadership has been liberal in economic affairs and conservative or hawk-\nish in foreign affairs; its staunch espousal of the rights of Poland's Solidar-\nity movement worried many U.S. doves who usually associate with do-\nmestic liberals-a situation that confused those who like their categories\ntidy. Kirkland delivers the message at the end that \"there really are things\none ought to be conservative about and things one ought to be liberal\nabout, and they do change.\" Unlike most commencement addresses,\nwhich tend to meander self-indulgently, this is an easy-to-hear speech\nwith a shape and a purpose.\nI\nunderstand that commencement audiences are tolerant, to a degree,\nof speakers who reminisce and wax philosophical about what les-\nsons they have picked up along the way about life and all that.\nAs to the lessons of life, I can't improve on some lines from a western\nmovie called Missouri Breaks.\nTwo cutthroats with murderous designs on each other are sharing a\ncampfire. One is strumming a guitar and singing an old gospel song called\n\"Life Is like a Mountain Railroad.\"\nHe stops and asks the other fellow in a taunting manner, \"Is life really\nlike a mountain railroad?\" \"Naw,\" the other replies. \"Then what is life\nlike?\" asks the first character. \"Mister,\" came the reply, \"life ain't like\nnothing I ever heard of before.\"\nThat takes care of what life is all about, and I can vouch for it. I can\nassure the graduates here that life ain't going to be like anything you ever\nheard of before.\nNevertheless, nothing in my experience has contradicted what I ab-\nsorbed in my youth in South Carolina, and I remember it well.\nI remember the names of the six Confederate generals from Camden,\nenshrined in the Pantheon, where I played as a kid: Cantey, Chesnut,\nDeas, Kennedy, Kershaw, and Villepigue.\nThere still echoes in my mind the sound of the hours struck by the\nold bell in the clock tower of the Opera House in Newberry, where for a\ndime on Saturdays I could join my peers in tribute to Ken Maynard and\nLANE KIRKLAND\n939\nHoot Gibson and even witness the last death throes of live vaudeville in\nAmerica.\nI remember it well.\nI remember some other things whenever I return to a thriving and\nbeautified South Carolina.\nI remember a South Carolina that was too poor to paint and too proud to\nwhitewash.\nAnd the more fiercely the current national debate rages about the appro-\npriate role of the federal government and its various programs, the more\nclearly I remember a South Carolina before there was such a role, when\nstates' rights ruled and enterprise was free to do as it pleased.\nI remember when the destitute aged were sheltered not in the bosom of a\nwarm and loving family but in county poor farms. Then Social Security\ncame and tore those poor houses down, freeing young and old alike of that\nspecter.\nWhen I note the now flourishing institutions of higher learning spread\nacross this state, I remember when some fine little colleges were one jump\nahead of the sheriff, were hard-pressed to put meals on their student ta-\nbles, and couldn't meet their payrolls. They were rescued and made sol-\nvent by the National Youth Administration, wartime training programs,\nand the GI Bill of Rights.\nWhen I see now the clear waters of our rivers, I remember when the\nBroad, the Wateree, the Bush, and the Saluda ran brick-red from the ero-\nsion of farms and deforested uplands. The Soil Conservation Service and\nthe millions of trees planted by the thirty or so CCC camps that were placed\nin South Carolina had something to do with the improvement. Free enter-\nprises such as the paper and forest products industries shared abundantly\nin the benefits of those government initiatives.\nI remember when kerosene lit the farms of this land until the REA\nelectrified and humanized them, bridging the cultural gap between town\nand country-and incidentally creating new markets for the appliance in-\ndustry.\nWhen I hear complaints about affirmative action, I remember some\nmean things that used to happen in this land, in the treatment of people by\npeople. While we still have a way to go, does anyone really think we\nwould have approached our present level of equity and civility without the\nintervention of the federal government? I have met no South Carolinian\nwho has expressed to me any desire to return to the old days of racial\ncruelty and exclusion.\nI did not come here today to organize but to philosophize. Yet, when I\nhear it said that southern working people have some cultural aversion to\n940\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nthe exercise of the right of freedom of association, I cannot help but re-\nmember the old days when cotton mills sometimes bristled with National\nGuard bayonets and machine guns to enforce that alleged aversion. Still\ntoday the question returns to my mind: if southern workers don't want\ntheir own unions, why have states and corporations found it so expedient\nto collaborate in forging measures to thwart the effective pursuit of that\naspiration?\nLest it be thought that these reflections are just another expression of\noutmoded \"liberal\" balderdash, let me point out that such stout conserva-\ntives as James Byrnes, Olin Johnston, and Burnet Maybank were among\nthe authors of the larger federal role that helped bring this state into the\nmodern age.\nI do not counsel worship at the altar of government for its own sake, for\nI share fully the wholesome antipathy to government-federal, state, or\nlocal-unrestrained by strong free and private institutions, for one of\nwhich I speak.\nI do suggest that the citizens of a modern republic should not go too far\nin support of those who would dismantle or ruin the benign capacity of\ntheir government, for they may need it badly some day. When it happens\nto you, you'll know it's true.\nAs for those terms \"liberal\" and \"conservative,\" as one who has been\nafflicted by both labels, depending on the stance of the afflictor and the\nforeign or domestic nature of the issue, I doubt their utility in this day and\nage for anyone except slapdash journalists.\nReal meaning has surely been drained from a term when the clammy\nhand of fashion appears in the form of a hyphen preceded by \"neo,\" as in\n\"neo-conservative\" and \"neo-liberal.\" In all areas of human discourse,\n\"neo hyphen\" is a sure sign of something that is not long for this world.\nIf, as has been said, a modern \"liberal\" is someone who believes that\nhis country's adversaries are probably right, I strongly reject that label.\nAnd what is the objective meaning of the word \"conservative,\" when\nits leadership has brought us a $200 billion annual deficit, put forward a\nmeasure that will mindlessly gut our defense forces year after year, and\nnow, in the wake of Geneva, escorts clamoring hordes of businessmen\neast in pursuit of Moscow gold, exposing to that \"evil empire\" the soft\nunderbelly of freedom, the stateless avarice of capital?\nHear now the words of Shakespeare, in Henry IV, on this matter: \"From\nthe Orient to the drooping West\nstuffing the ears of men with false\nreports. I speak of peace, while covert enmity, under the smile of safety.\nwounds the world.\"\nToday's graduates ought not waste too much time worrying about which\nLANE KIRKLAND\n941\ncategory they ought to fit. There may be a few pure liberals and pure\nconservatives about who march in lockstep, but I don't really know any,\npresent parties included.\nThe great rank and file of the American people are liberal about some\nthings and conservative about others, and the shifting distribution of such\nimpulses depends largely upon circumstances and interest.\nThat is the way it should be, because there really are things one ought to\nbe conservative about and things one ought to be liberal about, and they do\nchange.\nI owe to Sidney Hook a thought that I offer as my final conclusion from\nall this. From him I learned the difference between a truth and a deep\ntruth. A deep truth is a truth the converse of which is equally true.\nFor example, it is true, as Santayana said, that those who cannot re-\nmember the past are doomed to repeat it.\nYet it is equally true that those who do remember the past may not know\nwhen it is over.\nThat is a deep truth.\nThank you, and good luck to you all.\n942\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nPROFESSOR JACOB NEUSNER\nDEFINES THE\nSOCIAL CONTRACT BETWEEN\nTEACHER AND STUDENT\n\"OUR theory of teaching is to tell students, 'Don't ask, discover!'\nLearning\ntakes place\nwhen you find out for yourself.\nJACOB NEUSNER is the most provocative and prolific scholar in the\nworld of Judaic studies. While a professor at Brown University, a fellow of\nthe Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, and a research professor at\nthe University of South Florida in Tampa, he has written 240 learned\nbooks, including Canon and Connection: Intertextuality in Judaism, a popular\nwork, How to Grade Your Professors, and one best-seller with Reverend An-\ndrew Greeley, The Bible and Us: A Priest and a Rabbi Read Scripture Together.\nFew scholars relish controversy; however, Neusner's views on the Tal-\nmud, on government support of the arts and humanities, and on the dy-\nnamics of academic life keep him in hot water, which he never avoids.\nThe following speech, delivered at Elizabethtown College, in Pennsyl-\nvania, on September 25, 1991, is not a commencement speech but a con-\nvocation-an address to incoming rather than departing students. It uses\ninternal interrogation (\"What should you ask of your professors?\nWhat should your professors ask of you?\") to hold interest, and he gives\nspecific advice to teachers and students about the real purpose of educa-\ntion: teaching people to teach themselves.\nT\nhe beginning of the school year challenges us to ask tough ques-\ntions: What do I expect in the next ten months or so? For you\ndon't have to be here, and it's costing plenty of money for you to\nstay here. Not only so, but a college like Elizabethtown takes teaching\nJACOB NEUSNER\n943\nseriously and is not an expensive baby-sitting operation. Your families\nhave sent you here, and your college and its professors have received you\nhere, because they, and you, must agree it is the most important thing you\ncan do with your life this year. You should therefore ask why. Given all of\nthe many things you can do with your time and money, why should you\nturn your back on everything else in the world and spend the next ten\nmonths here, in these classrooms and laboratories and library, and with\nthese professors? Only if the answer is, because there is nothing more\nimportant, should you stay here. And why should that be so? Because\nyou're going to learn things here that matter and that you cannot learn in\nany other place or circumstance. What that means has nothing to do with\nacquiring information: you can learn more from an encyclopedia than you\ncan from me or any other professor. What it means is that you're going to\nlearn in a way in which you can only learn here and nowhere else: that is\nthe social contract of the college classroom; it is what we promise you, and\nwhat you must demand of us.\nSince everybody knows we learn all the time and everywhere, that is a\nconsiderable claim in behalf of Elizabethtown College, or University of\nSouth Florida, where I teach, or any of the other thousands of colleges and\nuniversities in this country. public and private, religious and secular, fa-\nmous and homely, where, this morning, a year of studies starts. Why do I\nthink you've made the right decision to come here: why is this the most\nimportant thing you can do with your life this year, this month, this min-\nute? The answer is, because here, if your teachers teach and if you learn,\nyou will learn a new way of learning, one that will guide you for all time to\ncome. That's the one point I want to leave with you: demand of your\nteachers and yourself not merely information but a way of learning that\nyou can use every day for the rest of your life. It is what we professors\npromise, and sometimes even deliver: the secret of how to learn by discov-\nering things on your own-learn not by asking but by finding out on your\nown.\nIt is the particularly American way of learning, which is, by discovering\nthings for yourself. We American professors at our best aim at teaching by\nhelping students learn on their own. Our theory of teaching is to tell stu-\ndents, \"Don't ask, discover!\" The more we tell you, the less you learn. The\nmore you learn, the more we teach. And learning takes place, in a country\nas practical and as rich in innovation as this country, when you find out for\nyourself. Professors are there to guide, to help, to goad, to irritate, to stim-\nulate. Students are there to explore, to inquire, to ask questions, to experi-\nment, to negotiate knowledge. The ideal teachers for our students there-\n944\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nfore are people like Socrates, Jesus, and Hillel, and what you have to ask of\nyour professors here at Elizabethtown is that they measure themselves by\nthe model of Socrates, Jesus, and Hillel\nGreat teachers don't teach. They help students learn. Students teach\nthemselves. Three of the all-time greats-Socrates, Jesus, and his Jewish\ncontemporary the sage Hillel-share a dislike of heavyweight speeches.\nThey spoke briefly, painting pictures and telling tales (\"parables\"), and\nalways raised more questions than they settled.\nSocrates was the greatest philosopher of all time, and all he did was\nwalk around the streets and ask people irritating questions. Jesus was\ncertainly the most influential teacher in history, and his longest \"lec-\nture\"-for instance, the Sermon on the Mount-cannot have filled up an\nhour of classroom time or a page in a notebook. And Hillel's greatest\nlesson, in answer to someone who told him to teach the entire Torah while\nstanding on one foot-\"What is hateful to yourself, don't do to someone\nelse. That's the whole Torah, all the rest is commentary. Now go study\"-\ndirected people to go off and learn on their own.\nThe great teacher makes a few simple points. The powerful teacher\nleaves one or two fundamental truths. And the memorable teacher makes\nthe point not by telling but by helping the students discover on their own.\nLearning takes place through discovery, not when you're told something\nbut when you figure it out for yourself. All a really fine teacher does is\nmake suggestions, point out problems, above all, ask questions, and more\nquestions, and more questions\nOur teaching encourages not only discovery but initiative. Good teach-\ning in our schools leads to risk-taking; good teaching in theirs [the Ger-\nmans'], to note-taking. Successful professors in our system present learn-\ning as answers to important questions; successful professors in their\nsystem go over familiar facts and pass their opinion on this and that. They\ntell people things. We want people to make their own discoveries.\nAll Socrates did was ask questions; he never really gave any answers,\nnothing you could memorize and say back on an exam. And, with all due\nrespect, Jesus did not dictate long lectures, so the students could carry\nhome thick notebooks. And Hillel would have lasted about a minute and a\nhalf-\"Now, go study\"-indeed! Our kids would have given Socrates a\ngood time, and I think they would have patience for a teacher who just told\nthem stories, like Jesus, or who advised them that everything he could\nteach he could tell them by standing on one foot, like Hillel. Now, there's\nreal teaching: taking the risk of telling people what you really think, and\nwhy you think it, and what difference it makes.\nIn this country, with its tradition of pragmatism and experiment, we\nJACOB NEUSNER\n945\naim at helping students teach themselves, asking them questions to stimu-\nlate their own inquiry. We do not indoctrinate; we stimulate. We do not\njust tell people things; we try to make knowledge important because\nknowing helps answer urgent questions. The best classes state the prob-\nlem, for students to find the answer.\nIt's no accident that in America, many of us teachers demand of our\nstudents, \"Don't ask, discover!\" We have an educational tradition that\nserves the needs of a society in process, a nation never fully finished, a\ncountry in quest, a people of peoples in perpetual search. That is why\nentire fields of learning are founded here-social science as we know it\nnow, for instance. That explains why new ideas, new sciences, find in this\ncountry a ready hearing, a warm welcome.\nTrue, we pay a price for this intellectual restlessness of ours: our kids are\nbetter at process than at proposition. They seem to know less; when they\nneed to know, they go and learn. So they spend more time in the labora-\ntory, work harder at writing their own thoughts, do research on their own.\nBut then they spend less time learning what we know, work less hard at\nfully understanding other people's thoughts, sometimes do research\naimed at reinventing the wheel. We've made our choices. For an open\nsociety, an always changing economy, a responsible politics of participa-\ntion and endless negotiation, we need an alert, inventive citizen.\nWhat should you ask of your professors? (1) Don't tell me things; let me\nfind out for myself. (2) But when I need help, give it to me. (3) And when\nmy work is poor, don't tell me it's good. Many professors would rather be\nliked than be understood; not a few find it easier to indulge the students\nthan teach them. Don't accept from professors compliments when they\nowe you criticism. And love them when they're tough. Proverbs says,\n\"Rebuke a wise person, and you'll be loved, rebuke a fool and you'll be\nhated.\" Show yourselves wise, and you'll get professors who care about\nwhat you know.\nWhat should your professors ask of you? (1) Don't ask me to sell you my\nsubject; let me explain it to you. Once you're in the classroom, relevance is\na settled question: this is what you want to know; now let me teach it. (2)\nDon't stop work in the middle of the semester. It's easy to start with\nenthusiasm, and it's easy to end with commitment. But in the middle of a\ncourse, it's hard to sustain your work; the beginning is out of sight, the end\nand goal and purpose of the course not yet on the horizon. Do your best\nwhen the weather looks bleak. (3) Don't sit back and wait to be told things;\nstay with me and allow the logic of the course to guide us both; join me,\nthink with me. The most remarkable student I've ever taught was a late-\nmiddle-aged woman who audited a course of mine at University of South\n946\nCOMMENCEMENT SPEECHES\nFlorida in Sarasota; after five minutes in each class session of three hours,\nshe would say, \"Oh, is this what you mean?\" And she would proceed to\nlay out for me the entire argument that I was beginning to develop. Yes, a\nremarkable student, but I never walked into class without fearing that I\nwould run out of things to tell people in the first ten minutes. You owe\nyour teachers that moment of trepidation: make them afraid they'll run out\nof things to tell you. They won't, of course, but you'll make them work and\ngive them life. The challenge is not in disagreeing or agreeing but in un-\nderstanding: uncovering the logic and accepting its dictates. That you owe\nyour teachers.\nYour imagination is our richest national resource; an open and active\nmind, our most precious intangible treasure. That's what we try to do at\nour universities and colleges in this country: teach people to teach them-\nselves, which is what life is all about-during the coming year, and during\nall the years of your lives and mine.\nClinton Presidential Records\nDigital Records Marker\nThis is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative\nmarker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.\nThis marker identifies the place of a publication.\nPublications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose\nof digitization. To see the full publication please search online or\nvisit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.\nLaw School Support for Community-\n22\nBased Economic Development in Low-\nIncome Urban Neighborhoods\nLAW SCHOOL SUPPORT FOR COMMUNITY-BASED\nECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN LOW-INCOME\nURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS\nJEFFREY S. LEHMAN\nROCHELLE E. LENTO\nReprinted from\nJournal of Urban and Contemporary Law\nVolume 42, 1992\nCopyright © 1992 Washington University\nTHE UNIVERSITY\nOF MICHIGAN\nLAW SCHOOL\nPHOTOCOPY\nPRESERVATION\nProposed Itinerary: Eli Segal\nMay 14, 1993\nCar and driver available to meet Eli and Phyllis Segal at Detroit Metro Airport\nFlight arrangements to be determined\nAccomodations at the Bell Tower, 300 South Thayer Street, 313-769-3010\nMay 15, 1993\n8:30 a.m.\nBreakfast with Law School Clinical Program faculty\nLocation to be determined\n10:00 a.m.\nMeet with the University of Michigan Task Force on Community Service\nTappan Room, Michigan Union\nThe Task Force is reviewing the University's current community service\nactivities, proposing new directions and initiatives for these activities, and\nconsidering ways to position the University as a leader in community\nservice.\n11:10 a.m.\nThomas A. Butts, Associate Vice President for Government Relations and\nDirector of the University of Michigan's Washington Office, takes Eli Segal\nto the Bollingers' home for lunch\n11:30 a.m.\nLunch for Eli and Phyllis Segal with Lee and Jean Bollinger in their home\n1:00 p.m.\nEli Segal and Lee Bollinger don academic gowns at the Natural Science\nBuilding\n1:15 p.m.\nAcademic procession begins\n1:30 p.m.\nCommencement begins in Hill Auditorium\n3:45 p.m.\nEli Segal proceeds to the Michigan Union with Lee Bollinger and students\nfor photographs\nProposed Itinerary: Eli Segal, page 2\n4:00 p.m.\nReception for graduates and families in the W.W. Cook Law Quadrangle\n5:00 p.m.\nJane Myers, writer for Michigan Today in the University's Office of Donor\nRelations, and selected Detroit area press interview Eli and Phyllis Segal\nLocation to be determined\n6:00 p.m.\nCar and driver available\nAccomodations at the Bell Tower\nMay 16, 1993\nCar and driver available\nFlight arrangements to be determined\nProposed Itinerary: Phyllis Nichamoff Segal\nMay 14, 1993\nCar and driver available to meet Eli and Phyllis Segal at Detroit Metro Airport\nFlight arrangements to be determined\nAccomocations at the Bell Tower, 300 South Thayer Street, 313-769-3010\nMay 15, 1993\n8:30 a.m.\nBreakfast with Law School Clinical Program faculty\nLocation to be determined\n10:00 a.m.\nCoffee with selected members of the Law School faculty\nCook room, Legal Research building\n11:10 a.m.\nProfessor Jeff Lehman takes Phyllis Segal to the Bollingers' home for lunch\n11:30 a.m.\nLunch for Eli and Phyllis Segal with Lee and Jean Bollinger in their home\n1:00 p.m.\nPhyllis Segal and Jean Bollinger proceed to Hill Auditorium\n1:30 p.m.\nCommencement begins in Hill Auditorium\n4:00 p.m.\nReception for graduates and families in the W.W. Cook Law Quadrangle\n5:00 p.m.\nJane Myers, writer for Michigan Today in the University's Office of Donor\nRelations, and selected Detroit area press interview Eli and Phyllis Segal\n6:00 p.m.\nCar and driver available\nAccomodations at the Bell Tower\nMay 16, 1993\nCar and driver available\nFlight arrangements to be determined\nAn Overview: The Current Programs\nThe University of Michigan Law School currently funds two full-fledged clinics and\ntwo other programs that are listed under the rubric of \"clinical offerings\" (though they are\nreally more like externships). In addition, in the last couple of years a few experimental\nclinics have been introduced for a term or two. Finally, there are several student-run\norganizations that provide some practical opportunities for students on a non-credit basis.\nEach of these programs is described briefly below.\nI. Full-Fledged Clinics\nA. The General Clinic (The Michigan Clinical Law Program)\nIn existence since 1968, the Michigan Clinical Law Program is the Law School's\ngeneral practice civil-criminal clinic. Students earn three credits for their lawyering-skills\nseminars and NITA-style (National Institute of Trial Advocacy) trial practice simulations, and\nfour credits for their fieldwork on real cases in a poverty law setting. MCLP students\nrepresent indigent clients in landlord/tenant matters, consumer and family law cases, small\ntort claims, criminal misdemeanors, and involuntary civil commitments. In recent years the\nMCLP has also taken on employment discrimination and prisoners' civil rights cases.\nStudents first-chair the cases from intake interviews to full jury trials. The cases range from\nsimple administrative hearings to complex class actions and appeals raising issues of first\nimpression.\nUnder faculty supervision, students practice in the local district, probate, circuit, and\nfederal courts, as well as in the courts of appeal. Students also participate in simulated\nhearings, interviews, and negotiations, as well as in mock jury trials. They receive detailed,\nindividualized feedback from the clinical faculty, including review of their work on videotape.\nStudents are criticized and evaluated on their written work and oral performances throughout\nthe term, and they are graded on a pass/fail basis.\nThe Law School pays the salaries of two full-time clinical professors, who work with\nthe students on an 8/1 or 10/1 student-faculty ratio. In some years outside grants permit the\nhiring of additional faculty. About 40-60 students are served by the MCLP each year,\ndepending on the number of faculty.\nB. The Child Advocacy Law Clinic\nEstablished in 1976, the Child Advocacy Law Clinic provides legal representation to\nchildren, parents, and the Department of Social Services in child abuse and neglect cases.\nLaw students handle all aspects of client representation from initial interviews through trial\nand, at times, through appeal.\nDuring their semester in the Clinic, students attend six hours of class per week. Class\ntime is devoted to teaching an inter-disciplinary approach to child protection law. A child\npsychiatrist is on the Clinic's staff and teaches law students the fundamentals of child\ndevelopment. Students participate in simulated hearings, interviews and negotiations,\nincluding a jury trial. They receive immediate review of their work, usually on videotape.\nThey are personally evaluated by the clinic faculty throughout the semester and are graded on\na pass/fail basis.\nThe Clinic represents children in one county, parents in another, and the Department\nof Social Services in six other counties in Michigan. Students are often called on to interview\nchildren, negotiate case plans with attorneys and social workers, and take the testimony of\nexpert witnesses. Ethical issues are addressed as they arise throughout the semester.\nStudents are encouraged to discuss their cases with each other, with guidance from the staff\npsychiatrist, in the frequent case conferences scheduled during the term.\nForty to fifty students are enrolled each year, handling a total of approximately 50-70\ncases a year. In addition, faculty involve students in outside projects, including legislative\nreform and research. Students who have completed the Child Advocacy Clinic are qualified\nto enroll in the University of Michigan's Interdisciplinary Program in Child Abuse and\nNeglect. Along with graduate students from the Schools of Social Work, Psychology,\nMedicine and Education, six law students a year engage in intensive interdisciplinary study of\nchild abuse and neglect.\nThe Clinic is staffed with a ratio of one clinical professor to 8-10 students.\nII. Clinical Offerings\nA. The Criminal Appellate Clinic\nThe Criminal Appellate Clinic functions as a branch of the State Appellate Defender's\nOffice. Every year SADO loans one of its staff attorneys full time to the Law School. The\nlawyer brings a reduced caseload of felony appeals to the School, where 10 students a term\npolish their writing and advocacy skills by helping to write the appellate briefs. Each student\nhandles a case or two in conjunction with a 3-credit seminar in criminal appellate practice.\nB. The Environmental Law Clinic\nThe National Wildlife Federation operates its Midwest Regional Office out of Ann\nArbor (just across the street from the Law School). During the academic year law students\nserve as interns to the NWF regional director, assisting that attorney on litigation involving\nenvironmental issues in the Great Lakes watershed. The law students work with students\nfrom the Schools of Natural Resources and Public Health, primarily challenging discharge\npermits issued by the state Department of Natural Resources and the federal Environmental\nProtection Agency, and enforcing the provisions of the Clean Water Act. The NWF lawyer\nalso teaches a course in Environmental Law during the winter-spring term. The Clinic was\nestablished in 1982 and serves approximately six students a year.\nIII. New and Experimental Programs\nIn addition to the offerings listed above, the Law School has experimented with two\nnew clinics in the last few years, and is running a third pilot project this fall.\nA. The Immigration Law Clinic\nIn 1988 Professor Alex Aleinikoff, who teaches immigration law, ran an Immigration Law\nClinic. The Clinic allowed students to do advanced reading in immigration law and policy,\nwhile in the practical component of the course students represented two Central American\nfamilies who were seeking asylum in the United States.\nB. The AIDS Clinic\nIn 1989 Professor David Chambers started an AIDS Clinic, in which students worked\nwith clients who had been diagnosed as HIV positive. During the fall term students took a\nseminar, reviewing current literature concerning AIDS and exploring problems of public\npolicy raised by AIDS.\nDuring the winter term students did two sorts of projects. First, all students wrote a\nwill or provided other individual representation to a client with HIV. Second, all students\nworked on a broader project addressing policy issues, such as drafting legislation or policies\nfor public institutions. In 1989-90 students helped with estate planning for AIDS patients at\nthe V.A. Hospital, worked on a submission to the Department of Corrections regarding\nplacement of prisoners with HIV in community-based facilities, and drafted a hospital policy\nregarding confidentiality of records.\nFor 1990-91 an attorney from Detroit will continue to run the AIDS Clinic for about\neight students during the school year. Students earn five credits--two graded credits in the\nfall seminar, and three pass/fail credits for the winter Clinic.\nC. The Women and the Law Clinic\nThe Women and the Law Clinic is the Law School's newest addition to its clinical\nofferings. Starting in the fall of 1990, students are providing representation to women in a\nvariety of cases involving legal issues significant to women. The majority of cases involve\nrepresentation of victims of domestic violence in divorce, custody and child support\nproceedings. The Clinic is also handling employment discrimination claims referred by the\nMichigan Department of Civil Rights. One day a week students meet with prisoners at the\nnearby state women's prison to provide legal counsel to inmates concerning child custody\nissues. Clinical faculty will call on students to begin to recognize connections between the\nvarious cases which can be traced to the particular status of poor women and children in\nAmerica. While handling individual cases, students are being encouraged to consider legal\nand legislative reforms aimed at improving the legal system's response to poor women and\nchildren.\nDuring the semester students will attend four hours of class a week and participate in\nsimulated interviews, depositions, negotiations and a mock trial. All of the simulations are\nderived from actual cases involving domestic violence, employment discrimination and child\nprotection. Faculty provide videotaped review of the students' performances. Students are\nalso free to participate in legislative projects under the supervision of faculty. For instance,\nthe entire Family Law Code is presently under revision in Michigan, presenting major issues\nfor women and children. Students will be able to evaluate the proposed legislation and work\nwith the Legislature to advocate for or against various reforms.\nEmphasis placed on identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas as they arise in\nstudents' cases. Guest speakers are being used to give students exposure to the opinions and\nexperiences of attorneys, judges, caseworkers and mental health experts who work with cases\nlike the students'. In its first semester, the Clinic is serving 10 students, under the direction\nof one clinical professor, handling approximately 20 cases. Students will be graded on a\npass/fail basis and evaluated throughout the term by their supervisor.\nIV. Student Projects\nA. The Immigration Law Project\nSubsequent to the 1988 Immigration Law Clinic a few students each year have\ncontinued working on immigration cases under the supervision of a local attorney. The\nproject serves as a supplement to the immigration law lecture course, and students can earn\nextra credit for their participation. There is no direct faculty involvement in the project.\nB. The Unemployment Benefits Clinic\nThis Clinic is a student-run organization set up by the student chapter of the National\nLawyers Guild. Students represent claimants in unemployment compensation hearings before\nthe Michigan Employment Security Commission. Students do not receive credit for their\nwork. They can invest a very small or a very large amount of time, depending on their\ninterest and the availability of clients.\nC. The Family Law Project\nThe Family Law Project is a volunteer organization which provides free legal\nrepresentation to victims of domestic violence. The Project is 10 years old and is managed\nby students and a board of directors made up of attorneys from the Ann Arbor community.\nStudent volunteers handle cases referred to the Project by the local domestic violence shelter.\nThe Project has a part-time staff attorney and relies heavily on volunteer supervision provided\nby the board members. In Michigan, only second and third year law students can appear in\ncourt under supervision. The Project allows first year students to volunteer and handle all\naspects of representation short of court appearances.\nProviding the only free legal services available to domestic violence victims in the\ncommunity, the Project plays a vital role. Over 100 law students volunteer each school year\nand most handle one or two cases throughout the year. Approximately eight third-year\nstudents serve as case supervisors, providing direction to new volunteers. (All but one of the\ncase supervisors for the 1990-91 school year have enrolled in the Women and the Law Clinic\ndescribed above.) There is a training program offered each fall for volunteers, but students\ndo not receive credit for their work. Unlike the clinics, the Project's emphasis is on provision\nof legal services, not lawyer training.\nMCLP\nClinical Faculty - 1990-91\nJulie Kunce Field was a Nebraska Regents' Scholar who graduated magna\ncum laude from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1982. She went to law\nschool at the University of Chicago Law School, where she was active in the\nMandel Legal Aid Clinic and in moot court competition. She then clerked for\ntwo years for Judge John W. Oliver in the federal district court in Kansas\nCity. For the next two years she worked as a litigation associate at\nNutter, McClennan & Fish in Boston, before joining the Michigan Law School\nin 1989. Julie's husband Stuart Field also moved to the U-M from Boston,\naccepting an appointment in the Department of Nuclear Physics.\nMark Mitshkun is a graduate of the U-M's Residential College (1971) and\na magna cum laude graduate of the Wayne Law School (1974). He spent seven\nyears in Seattle at the office of the King County Public Defender, eventual-\nly directing the office's Mental Health Division. From 1981 to 1989 he was\non the clinical faculty at Boston University, where he was granted clinical\ntenure and promoted to the rank of clinical associate professor after a full\nfaculty review in 1987. Mark has developed course materials in immigration\nlaw and practice in addition to teaching a wide range of clinical courses.\nHe joined Michigan's clinical faculty in the fall of 1989. At the same time\nhis wife Diane Rosenblum switched her teaching career (in special education)\nfrom the Brookline schools to Huron High School in Ann Arbor.\nPaul Reingold has been associated with the Law School since 1982. He\nserved as the acting director of the Michigan Clinical Law Program from 1982\nto 1989, when he was given clinical tenure and awarded a long-term clinical\nprofessorship. Paul graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in 1973,\nand he earned his J.D. at Boston University in 1977. He worked as a Legal\nServices attorney for five years, and as an assistant city attorney in Ann\nArbor for a year, before coming over to the Law School. As the program\ndirector, he designs the clinical course, authors most of the major grant\nproposals, and supervises the hiring of new faculty in the general clinic.\nPaul has worked on cases at all levels of state and federal practice, in-\ncluding three cases in the U.S. Supreme Court.\nNick Rine is a past president of the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association\n(1985-86) who has 15 years of litigation experience. He was a partner in\nthe Detroit firm of Philo, Cockrel in the early 1970's, and from 1977 to\n1987 he was a partner at Kelman, Loria, also in Detroit. He left the firm\nin 1988 to try his hand at full-time writing. Nick is a well-known Michigan\ntrial lawyer with contacts around the state and throughout the Midwest. He\nhas also published several practice-oriented articles on employment discrim-\nination, evidence, and the law of torts. He is twice a graduate of Wayne\nState University (B.A. 1969; J.D. 1973). Nick came to the Michigan Law\nSchool in the fall of 1989.\ncl-fac--.bio\nTHE CHILD ADVOCACY LAW CLINIC FACULTY\nDONALD N. DUQUETTE, a graduate of Michigan State University,\nand the University of Michigan Law School, is Director of\nthe Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Interdisciplinary\nFellowship Program in Child Abuse and Neglect. Prior to\nattending law school, he worked as a social worker in child\nprotection and foster care. Before joining the clinical law\nfaculty in 1976, he served as an assistant professor of\nPediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State\nUniversity. His principal research and teaching interests\nare in clinical law and interdisciplinary approaches to\nchild welfare law and policy. He is editor and principal\nauthor of Advocating for the Child in Protection\nProceedings.\nJUDITH G. OLIN received her bachelor's degree from New York\nUniversity and her J.S. from the State University of New\nYork at Buffalo. Before coming to the Child Advocacy Law\nClinic she practiced as a legal services lawyer in\nMassachusetts and Buffalo, N.Y. for four years, representing\nindigent clients in the areas of administrative law,\nlandlord-tenant, and family and matrimonial law.\nSUELLYN SCARNECCHIA received her bachelor's degree in\nhistory from Northwestern University and her law degree from\nthe University of Michigan. She practiced for six years\nwith the law firm of McCroskey, Feldman, Cochrane and Brock\nin western Michigan, specializing in employment\ndiscrimination litigation on behalf of plaintiffs. She left\nthe firm as a partner and joined the Child Advocacy Law\nClinic in 1987. Her research interests focus on gender and\nracial bias in trial courts. She is currently teaching a\nWomen and the Law Clinic.\nClinton Presidential Records\nDigital Records Marker\nThis is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative\nmarker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.\nThis marker identifies the place of a publication.\nPublications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose\nof digitization. To see the full publication please search online or\nvisit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.\nUrban Co mmuni es Program\nNEWSLETTER FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LAW SCHOOL PROGRAM IN LEGAL ASSISTANCE FOR URBAN COMMUNITIES\n801 Monroe Street\n531 Legal Research\nAnn Arbor, Michigan 48109-1210\n(313) 763-9152\nApril 1993\nThe Program in\nThe Program focuses on economic\nin Legal Assistance for Urban\ndevelopment problems which often lie\nCommunities forms community\nLegal Assistance\nat the root of community concerns and\neconomic development corporations\nfor Urban\noften depend upon legal expertise for\nand pursues federal tax-exempt status\nsolutions. Community economic\nCommunities\nunder $501(c)(3) of the Internal\ndevelopment law utilizes corporate\nlaw, tax law, property law, landlord-\nRevenue code for client organiza-\nThe Program in Legal Assistance\ntenant law, environmental law, and\ntions. It assists in the development of\nfor Urban Communities was estab-\nmunicipal law. It includes such areas\nlow- to moderate-income housing,\nlished in 1989 by the University of\nas nonprofit housing redevelopment,\naddresses legal issues of abandoned\nMichigan Law School to assist poor\nneighborhood-oriented commercial\nproperties, and drafts legislative\ncommunities in their transformation\ndevelopment, community education,\nreform proposals. The Program\nand the development of worker-owned\nand redevelopment. The Program's\neducates clients about how they can be\nventures. Business and community\ngoal is to enable community-based\ndevelopment issues are addressed\neffective in legal matters. It also\norganizations serving low-income\nthrough a transactional mode of legal\ninitiates and organizes coalitions of\nareas to surmount some of the legal\npractice, rather than a dispute-oriented\nclient organizations around areas of\nobstacles they face as they strive to\nmode. Through the Program, students\ncommon concern. In addition, the\nrebuild their neighborhoods' eco-\nnegotiate and create innovative\nProgram develops cooperative\nnomic and social bases. The Program\ncontractual remedies for disputes and\nrelations with a range of Detroit\nnew forms of joint economic or social\nserves a variety of community-based\ngovernmental and nongovernmental\nventures. Each student advocate\norganizations while offering select law\nentities in order to promote the\npractices community economic\nstudents an opportunity to work\ndevelopment law and develops his or\ninterests of community-based\ndirectly with the organizations as part\nher skills as researcher, interviewer,\norganizations.\nof a clinical educational experience.\ncounselor, draftsperson, and\nProgram Director, Rochelle Lento,\nIn this unique program, the clients\nnegotiator. The Program is designed to\nbrings experience as a community\nwho receive assistance are the\nprovide students with a valuable\norganizer, campaign and political\norganizations and their communities,\nexperience which exposes them to the\nadvisor, and as an attorney in public\nunique practical and ethical dilemmas\nrather than individuals. The Program\nand private practice to the Program.\nthat can arise outside the context of\nseeks to provide legal assistance that\nThe Program also has a part-time staff\nlitigation.\nimproves the quality of life in the\nattorney, Robert Poznanski, who has\nAmong its activities, the Program\nclients' communities.\nexpertise in housing law.\nCommunity\nand affirmative obligation to serve the\nmoderate-income neighborhoods.\nReinvestment Act:\npublic, and especially to meet the\nThe Legal Assistance Program\ndeposit and credit needs of the local\nproject is to produce a report to\nAnalysis of CRA\ncommunities in which they are char-\nintroduce Detroit area community\ntered.\nand Perspectives\norganizations to CRA. It is hoped that\nThis obligation exists because\nby informing and educating organiza-\nfor Communities\nfinancial institutions have some special\ntion leaders about the potential use of\nprivileges, including: charters to do\nCRA, the organizations may use it as a\nA new project for this spring\nbusiness; deposit insurance; and access\ntool to increase credit availability in\nconcerns the Community Reinvestment\nto special borrowing privileges such as\nlow- and moderate-income neighbor-\nAct of 1977 (CRA). The Act was\nthe Federal Reserve discount window\nhoods in which they operate. A senior\ncreated to affirm the idea that banks and\nand Federal Home Loan Bank advances.\nstudent advisor in the Program has\nsavings institutions are granted charters\nCRA requires federal agencies that\nconducted the research, including\nto help meet the convenience and needs\nsupervise financial institutions to\ninterviews with bankers and commu-\nof the communities where they are\nencourage institutions to meet the credit\nnity organizers in Detroit to draft the\nlocated. The Act states that banks and\nneeds of their communities, including\nreport.\nsavings institutions have a continuing\nthe needs of residents in low- and\n1\nTask Force on Community Service Learning\nBusiness Administration\nUniversity of Michigan\nLaw\nMedicine\nPublic Health\nProfessional\nSocial Work\nPractica\nof\nNursing\nprofessional\nEducation\nArt & Architecture\nSpecial\nPopulations\nCriminal\nChemical\nJustice\nDependency\nHealth\nCare\nEducation\nProject Community\nInfo &\nResearch\nReferral\nOffice of\nPraxis\nCommunity\nSERVE\npublication\nService Learning\nWork\nadvancing\nJournal of\nthe\nProject\nAlternative\nCommunity\nfield\nSERVE\nSpring\nService\nnot\nJRJ\nBreak\nLearning\ncredit\nSERVE\nFaculty\nWeek\ncollaboration\nOutreach\nFaculty\nAward\nStEPP\nSociology\nEnglish\nGreek System\nPsychology\nResidence Halls\nPolitical Science\nUndergraduate\nStudent\nCourses\nBiology\nInitiatives\nIndividuals\nEducation\nNatural Resources\nStudent Organizations\nWomen's Studies\nTASK FORCE ON COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING\nGruhr\nMichigan Union Tappan Room\nSaturday, May 15, 1993\n10:00 - 11:15 a.m.\nBuy\nShyon\nAGENDA\nJeff\n4400 students\nService enhances\nacademic learning\n1.\nWelcome and Purpose of the Meeting JeN\nFIRST time belonged\n2.\nEli Segal on National Service\nHomlesin >> advoce,\nPhenomed expecuses\nTRONSFUL- For- university Choster\n3.\nIntroduction of Congressman Ford\nBwnyer Bryant\nDetroit Summer\nGang leader conflict resolu-\nthis\n4.\nCommunity Service Learning at the\n90 kids, half For Debortt\nUniversity of Michigan\n14/- for around of\ncountry\n5.\nMulticultural Education and Service Learning\n6.\nProposed Symposium on Community Service\n7.\nClosing\n- Infraimuatere\nes. supervery volunteers\n- Corr to refunance svedelions\nMEMORANDUM\nTO:\nTask Force on Community Service Learning\nFROM:\nBarry Checkoway\nSUBJ:\nNext Regular Meeting\nDATE:\nMay 14, 1993\nOur next regular meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 19,\nat 8:30 a.m. in the 6th floor conference room of the Fleming\nBuilding.\nEnclosed are some materials for review in preparation for\nthe meeting. They include:\nMichigan Summer of Service Proposal\nChapters on Service Learning - Definitions, etc.\nWingspread Principles of Good Practice\nEnclosed also is a draft agenda for the meeting.\nSee you soon!\nTASK FORCE ON COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING\nFleming Building 6th Floor Conference Room\nWednesday, May 19, 1993\n8:30 - 10:00 a.m.\nAGENDA\n1. Welcome and Announcements\n2. Summer of Service Proposal\n3. Key Concepts of Service Learning\n4. Wingspread Principles of Good Practice\n5. Agenda for Task Force Retreat\n6. Closing\nTask Force on Community Service Learning\nRevised Brainstorming List\nAccording to Constituencies\nStudents\nDevelop a student strategy\nPrepare and disseminate a comprehensive list of programs, courses, faculty, etc.\nResidence hall training\nFaculty/Academic Culture\nDevelop a faculty strategy -- consciousness-raising, increasing involvement,\nbuilding support, overcoming obstacles, etc.\nFoundation proposal to make CSL part of the academic culture, e.g., research\nprojects, course revisions, etc.\nRequirement in 2 or 3 key units, e.g., Business Administration.\nPut community service on UM transcript.\nWorking paper reviewing the CSL literature.\nCommunity\nDevelop a national strategy.\nConduct a campuswide/national symposium on CSL.\nHold MCC meeting here next year.\nPresident or Vice President attend MCC meeting.\nSupport new Journal of Community Service Learning.\nBring national speakers to campus on CSL issues, e.g., Norman Brown, Edgard\nBeckham, Robert Coles.\nUse National Commission funds to visit other programs nationwide.\nExisting Programs\nStrengthen support, space, staff, and $$$.\nTalk with Philip Power about his CSL Center idea.\nOther\nSchedule task force retreat for June 2.\nSummer of Service 1993 followup - voluntary program?\nHire a student for task force summer staff.\nPROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO:\nThe Commission of National and Community Service\n529 14th Street, N.W., Suite 452\nWashington, D.C. 20045\n(202) 724-0600\nTITLE: MICHIGAN SUMMER OF COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING\nSUBMITTED BY: THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN\nUniversity Task Force on Community Service Learning\nDivision of Student Affairs (Office of the Vice President\nand Office of Community Service Learning)\nIN PARTNERSHIP WITH:\nEastern Michigan University\nFocus: HOPE\nUnited Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit\n(Youth Volunteer Corps, NAACP Detroit Branch)\nWarren/Conner Development Coalition\n(Youth on the Edge of Greatness)\nLearning Community Coalition\nCONTACT:\nBarry Checkoway, Chairperson\nUniversity Task Force of Community Service Learning\nUniversity of Michigan\nAnn Arbor, Michigan 48109\n(313) 763-5960\nTOTAL AMOUNT REQUESTED:\n$1,795,730\nNUMBER OF STIPENDED PARTICIPANTS:\n350\nNUMBER OF NON-STIPENDED VOLUNTEERS:\n700\nSUMMARY OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND COMMUNITIES SERVED:\nThe purpose of the Michigan Summer of Community Service Learning is to\nengage young people in meeting critical community needs in Detroit and\nYpsilanti (including the area of Willow Run). The program will involve\nuniversity students and community youth from diverse racial and economic\nbackgrounds in serving the health, education, environment, and safety of at-risk\nchildren. It will be managed by the University of Michigan in partnership with\ncommunity agencies with records of excellence in community service, and\ndemonstrated capacity in working with young people.\nMichigan Summer of Community Service Learning\nTitle Page Signatures\nSIGNATURES OF LEGAL APPLICANT AND PRINCIPAL PARTNERS\nThe University of Michigan\nJames J. Duderstadt, President\nJanes\nThe University of Michigan\nMaureen A. Hartford, V.P. for Student Affairs\nFocus: Father William HOPE T. Cunningham, Executive Director\nLearning Community Coalition\nJeannine LoSavage, Director\nJunnine Hasoveyi\nWarren/Conner Development Coalition\nMaggie DeSantis, Executive Director\nMagie\nUnited Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit\nGeneva Williams, President\nEastern Michigan University\nWilliam E. Shelton\nWilliam\nPart III - Higher Education Innovative Projects Forms\nCertification - Signature\nBefore\nBefore completing certification. please read Certification Instructions. page 23.\nYou Start\nSignature\nBy signing this Certification page, the applicant certifies that it will agree to perform all\nactions and support all intentions stated in the Certification sections in Part Hof this\napplication. The three Certifications are:\nCertification: Debarment, Suspension, and Other Responsibility Matters\nCertification: Drug-Free Workplace\nCertification: Lobbying Activities\nThe Regents of the University of Michigan\nOrganization Name\nSummer of Community Service Learning\nProject Name\nAlan Walter Steiss, Ph.D.\nDirector, Div. of Research Development\nand Administration\nName and Pitlo of Authorized Representative\nSignature\n3/31/93\nDate\nThe Commission on National and Community Service\nMICHIGAN SUMMER OF COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\nPage Number\nA.\nPROGRAM NARRATIVE\n1\nCommunity Needs and Benefits\n1\nProgram Objectives\n2\nProgram Participants\n2\nService Activities\n3\nB.\nOTHER PROGRAM ELEMENTS\n6\nUniversity-Community Advisory Committee\n6\nProgram Management\n6\nPlanning for Implementation\n7\nSelection of Community Agencies and Field Supervisors\n7\nCommunity Service Learning and Learning Contracts\n7\nOpening Orientation and Training\n8\nMidsummer Leadership Development Program\n8\nClosing Community Conference\n9\nPost-Service Learning\n9\nCommunity Education and Network Newsletter\n9\nVenture Grants Program\n9\nParticipatory Action Research\n9\nCultural Programs\n10\nDetroit Rackham Building\n10\nMultiplier Effect and Middle Schools\n10\nSustainability\n10\nC.\nORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY\n12\nThe University of Michigan\n12\nFocus: HOPE\n13\nUnited Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit\n14\nWarren/Conner Development Coalition\n15\nLearning Community Coalition\n16\nD.\nNATIONAL LEADERSHIP TRAINING\n16\nE.\nNATIONAL THINK-TANK ON COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING 16\nF.\nPROGRAM EVALUATION\n16\ni\nG.\nINSTITUTIONAL AND PERSONNEL INFORMATION\n17\nResumes\n19\nH. BUDGET\nAPPENDICES\nStatement of Liability\nEndorsement Letters\nSupplementary Information\nii\nA. PROGRAM NARRATIVE\nCommunity Needs and Benefits\nThe cities of Detroit and Ypsilanti (including the area of Willow Run) Michigan, face\nsimilar circumstances. Following years of sustained growth as hubs of automobile\nproduction, they have suffered through economic recession, changes in industry, and\nreductions in federal expenditures. Private institutions have disinvested from the\narea in favor of suburban and sunbelt locations, and public institutions have\ndisinvested by reducing the levels of services provided. This has resulted in a\ndownward cycle of deteriorating infrastructure, worsening social conditions, and\nwithdrawal from participation in the community.\nIn addition, state budget deficits and tax revenue shortages have caused cutbacks in\nservices for the poor, members of minority groups, displaced workers, and other\nspecial populations. Soup kitchens, housing shelters, and health clinics report\nincreasing requests for emergency services.\nThese cities have many children from poor families who live in inadequate housing\nin disinvested neighborhoods. They may lack access to health care, immunizations\nagainst disease, nutritious meals, and basic resources needed for a good start in life. In\n1993, nearly half of all children under 18 years of age in the city of Detroit, for\nexample, are living below the poverty level.\nThese cities also have young people who attend unsafe schools with inadequate\nfacilities, drop out of school, or cannot find a job. They may become affected by class\ninequities and racial segregation, abused by adults victimized by poverty, and become\nvictims of violence. They are only part of the overall population - indeed, many\nchildren and youth are achieving despite forces beyond their control - but they\nrepresent continuing needs for community response.\nThese cities also have citizens who have organized in response to these conditions --\nwith exceptional efforts to plan new programs, provide needed services, and\nrevitalize their communities. Their organizations are increasing in number and\ncapacity, and demonstrate that citizens can take initiative and mobilize resources to\nhelp themselves.\nThe community agencies with which we propose to collaborate have records of\nexcellence in serving the community. They have deep commitments to meeting local\nneeds, a range of quality programs and services, and demonstrated capacity for\nproviding placements for students. They are a solid foundation on which to develop\nthe present program.\n1\nProgram Objectives\nThe Michigan Summer of Community Service Learning will have the following\nobjectives:\nEngage young people in meeting critical community needs in Detroit and\nYpsilanti (including the Willow Run area) Michigan;\nDemonstrate the potential of community service to provide tangible and\nmeasurable benefits for serving the health, education, environment, and\nsafety of at risk children;\nDevelop the leadership skills of young people in ways which serve the\ncommunity;\nIncrease multicultural interaction and understanding between university\nstudents and community youth diverse backgrounds;\nContribute to university students' understanding of the forces affecting\ncommunities, root causes of problems, and strategies for change;\nStrengthen the lifelong social responsibility and civic mindedness of\nuniversity students;\nCreate a model of community service learning for replication elsewhere;\nAssist participants by contributing to the costs of their educational\ntraining.\nProgram Participants\nThe Michigan Summer of Service Learning will provide meaningful service\nopportunities, stipends, and post-service benefits for 350 participants. Stipended\nparticipants will be 17-25 years old and from diverse racial, economic, and educational\nbackgrounds.\nThree hundred entering, current, and just-graduated university students will be\nrecruited from the three campuses of the University of Michigan --- Ann Arbor,\nDearborn, Flint, and from Eastern Michigan University.\nUniversity recruitment efforts will include publicity posters, stories, and\nadvertisements in school and community media, notices in career planning and\ncommunity service offices, and direct mail to campus groups. With assistance from\nthe Office of Admissions and Office of Minority Affairs, special efforts will be made to\nidentify and involve students who come from the target cities of Detroit and\nYpsilanti.\n2\nSelection of university students will be based upon review of a written application\ndesigned for the purpose and, in some cases, a supplementary interview seeking\nadditional information. The aim is to select qualified participants from diverse racial,\neconomic, and educational backgrounds, who have strong commitment to\ncommunity service and who want to make a difference in one of the target cities.\nCommunity agencies will recruit and select 50 community youth to participate in the\nprogram. Each agency will develop its own process for recruitment and selection.\nMost of these youth will be drawn from programs described elsewhere which operate\non an ongoing basis regardless of the fate of this proposal.\nService Activities\nFocus: HOPE\nFocus: HOPE is a non-profit civil rights and human rights organization which aims to\nresolve the effects of discrimination and to build integration in the Detroit area.\nFor the Michigan Summer of Community Service Learning, 50 University\nparticipants will work in the following programs:\n20 university students will work with the Focus: HOPE Food Prescription\nProgram to supply nutritious U.S. Department of Agriculture commodity foods to\nlow income at-risk mothers, babies, and preschool children at five self-centers in the\nDetroit area. This is the largest Commodity Supplemental Food program in the\nUnited States,\n20 university students will work with at-risk children in the Glazer School.\nFocus: HOPE adopted this K-5 school from the public school system for operation on a\nyear-round basis. The university students will tutor children in several skills -\nincluding computer usage - and involve them in environmental improvement\nprojects in the neighborhood, and\n10 university students will work in the Focus: HOPE Center for Children.\nThe Center provides infant and toddler care, preschool children, and a before-after\nschool program for the children of participants in Focus: HOPE employees and\ntrainees, thus linking child care to economic development in areas of high\nunemployment.\nUnited Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit\n(Youth Volunteer Corps)\n(NAACP Detroit Branch)\nUnited Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit (UCS) is a major human\nservices agency working to build strong and caring communities, neighborhoods, and\nfamilies throughout metropolitan Detroit and southeastern Michigan.\n3\nFor the Michigan Summer of Community Service Learning, 100 university students\nwill work with UCS in the following programs:\n20 university students will work with the Youth Volunteer Corps of\nMetropolitan Detroit (YVC): One of the largest youth corps in the nation, YVC brings\ntogether more than 600 young people from diverse backgrounds to serve the\ncommunity. The student participants will work with community youth in packing\nemergency food boxes for shelters and soup kitchens; helping handicapped children\nat day camp and the Special Olympics; beautifying the neighborhoods by helping to\nrenovate housing; working with children by providing tutoring, child care, and\nplayground monitoring; and dramatizing issues of teen interest through the YVC\nTraveling Theater Troupe.\n20 participants will work with the NAACP Thurgood Marshall Community\nDevelopment Corporation: This program is associated with the NAACP Detroit\nBranch, the largest branch of this organization in the United States. The students will\nwork hand-in-hand with community youth in activities designed to promote health,\neducation, and safety of at-risk children through community development.\n40 participants will work with the Special Summer Program: This program\nprovides funding for eighty to one hundred Detroit community and neighborhood-\nbased organizations for leisure, recreation, and educational services for low income\nchildren (ages 6-14) with some special problem or need. The students' university will\nserve as monitors/liaisons to these organizations to assist in their program\nimplementation and assure that they meet their summer objectives of serving at-risk\nchildren.\n20 students will work with the Campership Program: This program enables\nlow income youth (ages 6-21) to experience an outdoor camping experience. The\nstudents will serve as camp counselors, special skills instructors, leadership training\nspecialists, parent liaison coordinators, and assistant camp directors.\nWarren/Conner Development Coalition\n(Youth on the Edge of Greatness)\nWarren/Conner Development Coalition (WCDC) is a neighborhood-based\ncommunity development corporation whose mission is the revitalization of Detroit's\neastside. Youth on the Edge of Greatness (YOE) is a WCDC program which involves\nat risk youth (ages 12-18) in crime prevention, public safety, and community\ndevelopment.\nFor the Michigan Summer of Community Service Learning, 20 YOE graduates\n(community youth) will be hired to serve as team leaders of the project. They will\nwork together with 10 university students to receive community crime prevention\nand public safety training, and to play roles as Crew Supervisors, Crime Prevention\nPractitioners, and Study Group Facilitators and Researchers.\n4\nCrime Prevention Practitioners will form block watches, canvass the\nneighborhood with crime prevention information, provide auto etching and auto\ntheft \"courtesy ticketing\" services, and encourage people to complete anonymous\nreports through the NARC Hotline on crack houses and chop shops.\nStudy Group Facilitators and Researchers will conduct research and propose\nrecommendations on two issues of increasing importance in the community:\nguns/gun violence and public housing conditions. YOE graduates will use the\nresearch and recommendations in meetings with school board members and other\npublic officials.\nLearning Community Coalition\nThe Learning Community Coalition serves a critical need in building community\ncollaboration for the education of at- risk children in Ypsilanti which is suffering\nfrom declining economic conditions.\nFor the Michigan Summer of Community Service Learning, 140 university students\nwill work with the Coalition in the following programs:\nUniversity students and parent/community teams will be given training to\nprovide a multicultural reading program. Teams will work with small groups of at-\nrisk children reading stories, learning some history related to books, choral reading,\nsongs, dance, and creative writing. Children will learn some word processing and\ndesk top publishing skills as they write and publish their own stories.\nNASA Science Program: University students, parent volunteers, and NASA\ncollege students will work in teams to provide hands-on math and science lessons\nalready prepared by NASA. Workshops will include classes at the School of\nEngineering at the University of Michigan and the planetarium at Eastern Michigan\nUniversity.\nMath Program: University students and community volunteers will\ncollaborate in math clubs to help children keep and expand math skills over the\nsummer. Schools will provide books, workbook and hands-on math manipulatives,\nand training to use materials.\nHealth Fitness Program: University students, recreation department staff,\nand parent volunteers will conduct a range of instructional and fitness programs.\nOne goal is to help children develop health awareness, respect for their bodies, and\nlearn activities for individuals and groups to be more physically active. Teens and\nparents will learn coaching and refereeing skills designed to promote the health of at\nrisk children. Participants will activate neighborhoods to sustain their own health\nfitness programs within neighborhood housing and church centers. Ypsilanti\nRecreation Department will provide overall administration and coordination of the\n5\nprogram, some of which will be conducted on the campuses of the University of\nMichigan and Eastern Michigan University.\nB. OTHER PROGRAM ELEMENTS\nUniversity-Community Advisory Committee\nA University-Community Advisory Committee will guide the program. Committee\nmembers will represent the university community agencies in the target cities; and\nother at-large representatives of the community. Emphasis will be placed on\nindividuals who represent the social diversity of the area population, including\nstudents who will be viewed as equal partners and active participants in the process.\nAdvisory committee members will advise and consult with the staff directors in\npolicy, planning, and program decisions. They will meet regularly, provide diverse\nperspectives on arising issues, and help build support for the program in the\ncommunity.\nProgram Management\nThe program will be managed through faculty and staff at the University of Michigan.\nThe Office of Community Service Learning will serve as the focus of activity. This\noffice has ongoing supervision of Project Community and Project S.E.R.V.E.-both\nhigher education leaders in community service learning.\nThe program will be directed by two professional staff members, two faculty members,\nand two students with experience in the field. This group will have responsibility for\noverall management, implementation, and evaluation of the program. They will\nhave responsibility for approving and selecting community agencies in accordance\nwith stated purposes and procedures. They will routinely gather information from\nagencies, monitor the scope and quality of activities, and collaborate with the\ncommunity to enlarge and improve the experience.\nProgram directors will select three graduate students to serve a university-community\nliaison, responsible for coordination between program management and community\nagencies. They will review activities with agency field supervisors; meet individually\nwith and monitor progress of student participants and community youth; notify staff\nof significant changes, problems or other developments in the field; and maintain\npositive working relationships with the agency.\nEach community agency will involve its executive director and assign one or more\nprofessional staff to serve as field supervisors for the program.\nOne or more student participants will be designated to serve as team leaders in each\ncommunity agency.\n6\nPlanning for Implementation\nWith the advice and consultation of the University-Community Advisory\nCommittee, program staff will finalize an action plan for implementation. The plan\nwill include the objectives and activities of the program, roles and responsibilities of\nthe participants, and strategies for successful implementation.\nThe planning, implementation, and evaluation of this program will emphasize the\nfollowing principles: mutual agreement on objectives among the program partners;\nrespect for institutional differences and resource capacities; community involvement\nin the identification of issues; youth as competent citizens and community resources\nrather than passive recipients of services; service and learning as recipròcal activities;\nsocial responsibility of the university to the community; and an empowering process\nin which all participants develop as a result.\nSelection of Community Agencies and Field Supervisors\nSelection of community agencies were guided by the collaborative concept. The aims\nof the concept are to assure a quality experience for student participants and\ncommunity youth; to implement needed activities that serve the community; and to\nstrengthen collaboration between the university and community.\nImplementing the collaborative concept means that we limited the number of\ncommunity agencies and drew on the following criteria for their selection: location\nin one of the target cities; capability for accommodating multiple student participants\nand provision of adequate physical facilities for program purposes; and ability to\ninvolve participants in meaningful health, environment, education, and/or public\nsafety projects that improve the lives of at risk children. Each agency executive\ndirector is expected to create and maintain a favorable atmosphere for meaningful\nservice; to identify one or more staff members able to provide quality supervision;\nand to allow staff sufficient time for program preparation, conferences with\nparticipants, and consultation with program staff at the university.\nField supervisors will be identified by the agency executive director and approved by\nuniversity program staff. Persons identified should demonstrate evidence of\ncompetence in student supervision, possess the interest and time for participation,\nand show commitment to the objectives of the program.\nCommunity Service Learning and Learning Contracts\nUniversity student participants and community youth will be viewed as part of a\nprocess in which they develop knowledge and enhance learning while serving the\ncommunity. Knowledge development is not accidental but results from actual\nexperience in conjunction with structured learning activities.\n7\nAt the beginning of the program, each participant will prepare a Learning Contract.\nThis written statement will be shaped by the interests and objectives of the individual\nparticipant and the programs and needs of community agency. Each participant will\nbe expected to read at least one book related to the community service by the end of\nthe summer.\nOpening Orientation and Training\nProgram participants will be expected to participate in an Opening Orientation and\nTraining. The orientation will provide a vehicle for participants to get acquainted,\nbuild working relationships, and develop knowledge for beginning the program.\nWorkshop sessions will include information on the purposes and procèdures of the\nprogram; roles and responsibilities of the participants; functions and services of the\ncommunity agencies; and an assessment of the needs and resources of the\ncommunity, a critical component of the community service learning process. Other\nsessions will include training in practical hands-on skills - e.g., multicultural\norganizing, team building, tutoring younger children - required in each community\nagency. Yet other sessions will emphasize leadership skills, e.g., setting goals,\nformulating strategy, strengthening commitment. With the assistance of the\nUniversity of Michigan Outdoor Recreation Challenge Course, other sessions will\nemploy indoor and outdoor experiential exercises designed to challenge individuals,\ndevelop group cohesion, and build spirit for the program.\nYoung people will be enlisted to serve as workshop trainers in their areas of expertise,\nsuch as the New Detroit Youth Non-Violence Training Program, a group of young\npeople (funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in conjunction with the Center for\nNon-Violent Social Change in Atlanta) who train others in non-violent conflict\nmanagement in urban neighborhoods, and Students Educating Each other about\nDiscrimination (SEED), a group of local youth with a national reputation for\neducating themselves and training others about overcoming racial discrimination in\nmulticultural communities.\nMidsummer Leadership Development Program\nTentatively scheduled for the University of Michigan Fresh Air Camp in Pinckney,\nMichigan, this program will provide an opportunity for participants to step back,\nassess progress, and build momentum for the remainder of the program. Participants\nwill review their own progress in achieving predetermined activity and outcome\nobjectives. They will make decisions about the best use of resources, make changes in\nobjectives or activities as appropriate, and provide feedback to key people. They will\nhave a chance to tell stories, share experiences, strengthen their sense of community,\nand build mutual support.\n8\nClosing Community Conference\nThis conference will provide a closing opportunity for participants to assess their\nexperiences and evaluate the overall program. Each participant will have an\nopportunity to describe his or her individual involvement, the nature and extent of\nindividual learning, the scope and quality of the group process, and the impacts of\nactivities on the broader community. Each participant will describe what he or she\nwill take away from the summer, and how this will affect their future plans. The\nconference will be designed to provide a sensitive ending, and provide information\nessential for future project development.\nPost-Service Learning\nPost-service learning activities will be developed to facilitate continuing education\nand leadership development after the summer program. Activities will include\nopportunities for further reflection, knowledge development, research and writing, in\naddition to follow-up problem solving and program planning.\nProgram participants will also have the option to enroll in Sociology 389/Project\nCommunity, a course offered at the University of Michigan. They will receive 3 credit\nunits from the university for undertaking an academic course of study that builds\nupon the learning of their community service.\nCommunity Education and Network Newspaper\nProgram participants will produce a weekly newspaper to facilitate the exchange of\ninformation about projects within the cities, across communities, and between\nMichigan and communities elsewhere, including information on Summer of Service\nprograms in other areas of the United States. The newspaper will include project\nstories, editorial opinion columns, calendar listings, and other features.\nIn consultation with the University's News and Information Services, program\nparticipants also will formulate a communications strategy designed to extend the\neducational reach to the broadest general audience. The strategy will assure coverage\nin local, regional, and national newspapers, radio, and television.\nVenture Grants Program\nStudent participants and community youth will be eligible to apply for venture funds\nto undertake special service projects of their choosing, e.g., purchasing lumber to\nbuild bookshelves at the local community center.\nParticipatory Action Research\nThe program will promote participatory action research projects that strengthen the\nservice learning and benefit the community. In consultation with the University-\n9\nCommunity Steering Committee and the University Office of the Vice President for\nResearch, we will issue a Request for Proposals inviting university and community\nparticipants to propose research projects consistent with the program objectives.\nSpecial efforts will be made to stimulate projects that develop knowledge to\nstrengthen the health, environment, education, and public safety of children at risk.\nCultural Programs\nStudent participants and community youth will attend at least one cultural\nenrichment program during the summer. Participants also will be encouraged to\noffer cultural programs of their own, building on their experiences during the\nsummer.\nDetroit Rackham Building\nThe Detroit Rackham Building will serve as a base of operations for program\ncoordination and educational activities in that city. The building is located in the\nheart of the city near downtown and accessible to groups from the entire community.\nThe building has offices, classrooms, and other facilities for individual and group\nmeetings, evening and weekend programs, technical assistance, community\nconsultation, and other supportive services. Special programs might include skills\nsessions in organizational development and community capacity-building, urban\naffairs, and multicultural education.\nMultiplier Effect and Middle Schools\nThe program will demonstrate a multiplier effect by engaging additional participants,\nespecially middle school children, in community service learning activities. For\nexample, support will be offered to Detroit Summer '93 --- a voluntary program\nwhich involves young people from Detroit and nationwide in efforts to research river\npollution, turn vacant lots into playgrounds, and rehabilitate houses - for activities\nthat involve middle school children in the process.\nThe program also will identify representatives of area middle schools, and involve\nthem in meetings designed to formulate strategy for strengthening community\nservice learning in the schools. These meetings will include teachers, parents, and\nchildren themselves, and will be first such meetings of their kind on an areawide\nbasis.\nSustainability\nAt the University of Michigan, the University Task Force for Community Service\nLearning has been established to assess the status of community service learning\ncampuswide, and to propose new initiatives and pilot programs worthy of external\nfunding and national recognition.\n10\nDuring the summer, the Task Force members will formulate a two-phase strategy for\nsustaining the program in subsequent summers without funding from the\nCommission on National and Community Service. First, they will identify and\ninvolve campus and community groups with interest in community service\nlearning. There are many university programs and nonprofit community-based\norganizations which already collaborate together, and which offer an excellent\nfoundation on which to build new initiatives.\nSpecial efforts will be made to increase university-community collaboration in\nDetroit. The University has personnel with knowledge and skills that could\ncontribute to the Detroit community, and the present program will allow us to\nstrengthen planning and coordination of activities which have operatèd independent\nof one another for years.\nSecond, the Task Force will identify public and private institutions which show\ninterest in proposals to strengthen community service learning. They will consult\nwith the University's Division of Research Development and Administration to (1)\nscreen funding sources by subject and field of interest (2) identify potentially\ninterested institutions (3) investigate grants history and (4) initiate contact for possible\nproposal preparation.\nThey also will compile a list of government, private corporation and nonprofit\nfoundation funding opportunities interested in funding proposals to strengthen\ncommunity service learning. They will produce an information packet on funding\nopportunities for community service learning for distribution to interested\nindividuals and groups on campus and in the community, and make this\ninformation available to other programs supported by the Commission on National\nand Community Service.\nIn recognition of its importance, the University will create a paid position for\nsomeone who will have primary responsibility to strengthen national service\ncommunity service learning and to plan for sustaining the present program in\nsubsequent summers.\n11\nC. ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY\nThe University of Michigan\nThe University of Michigan is strategically situated for this initiative. The University\nhas a long tradition of voluntary community service - from its historic role in the\nfounding of the Peace Corps, to the active involvement of more than 5500\nundergraduate and graduate students in local nonprofit and community-based\norganizations today. The University has a record of collaboration with organizations\nin these cities, experience in the placement of students within them, and expertise in\nthe management of community service learning programs.\nThe University's Office of Community Service Learning - which includes Project\nCommunity and Project S.E.R.V.E. - is regarded as an exemplary office of its kind\nnationwide. In 1992, for example, Good Morning America featured a program\nsegment on student community service at Michigan. Correspondent Bettina Gregory\nbegan the broadcast by saying: \"In 1960, John Kennedy conceived the idea for the\nPeace Corps here at the University of Michigan right where I am standing now.\nThirty-two years later students are turning not to government programs to serve their\ncountry. They're taking matters into their own hands by volunteering.\"\nIn 1992, Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton stood a few steps away from this place,\nreiterated the story about the founding of the Peace Corps, and challenged a new\ngeneration of university students to serve their country through his proposed\nprogram on national service.\nThe Michigan Summer of Community Service Learning will draw upon the\nextensive resources of the University, including its libraries, museums, and other\nfacilities. Special efforts will be made to inform and involve university units already\nactive in the target cities, to encourage exchange among them, and to increase\nintegration of the university with the overall community. Units that are already\nactive include architecture and urban planning, business administration, education,\nengineering, Institute for Social Research, Institute of Public Policy Studies, Literature\nSciences and the Arts, medicine, natural resources, nursing, political science, public\nhealth, social work, and sociology.\nFor example, the School of Social Work has a nationally recognized practicum\nprogram which places more than 600 students in social agencies and community-\nbased organizations in the three target cities. The School of Public Health has a major\nCommunity-Based Public Health Initiative which involves faculty and students in\ngrassroots health promotion in the neighborhoods of Detroit and Flint.\n12\nFocus: HOPE\nFocus: HOPE is a nonprofit civil and human rights organization. Founded in 1968, its\npurpose is to resolve the effects of discrimination and to build integration in the\nDetroit area. Its programs include:\nFood Prescription Program: Started in 1971, this is the nation's largest Supplemental\nFood Program for low-income, nutritionally at risk mothers, babies, preschool\nchildren, and senior citizens. Each month, Focus: HOPE supplies a nutritious\nselection of U.S. Department of Agriculture commodity foods to eligible persons at\nfive self-serve centers in the Detroit area.\nCenter for Children: This Center provides infant and toddler care, preschool\neducation, and a before-after school program for the children of Focus: HOPE\nemployees and trainees. The Center showcases the value of linking child care to\neconomic development in areas of high unemployment.\nK-5 Glazer School Program: Focus: HOPE has adopted Glazer School from the Detroit\nPublic Schools to provide educational programs for at risk children in grades K-5 in a\nDetroit neighborhood. The school is open year-round, and includes intensive efforts\nto tutor the children in school subjects and community themes, and to involve them\nin activities designed to improve the neighborhood environment.\nFAST TRACK: This is a seven and one-half week school to work transition program\nwhich upgrades the academic skills and discipline of recent high school graduates to\nthe levels needed for further technical training, high education, or employment.\nPersonal computers are used for intensive, self-paced math and reading instruction.\nSmall group sessions cover math concepts, computer applications, communications,\nand technical career options in manufacturing. Youths who achieve FAST TRACK's\ndemanding productivity and performance requirements are assured entry in the\nMachinist Training Institution or placement assistance in growth-opportunity\nemployment.\nMachinist Training Institute (MTI): This program provides state-licensed, industry\nspecific training in precision machining and metalworking. The MTI basic course,\nfull-time for thirty-one weeks, combines practical hands-on experience with classes in\napplied mathematics, manufacturing theory, graphics, quality control, and\ncommunications. Master craftsmen teach machine tool set-up and operation,\nincluding computer control, in the MTI's large and well-equipped shop laboratory.\nAn advanced course of pre-engineering study and computer-integrated applications is\nalso offered, full-time for twenty-one weeks.\nOther Programs: Focus: HOPE informs the public and its volunteers through\npublications, group presentations and tours, videotape documentaries and public\nservice announcements. Special events such as the Walk for Justice and Holiday\nMusic Festival bring thousands of people together to affirm their commitment to\n13\nintegration. Share With a Senior and Family to Family organize community concern\nfor poor seniors and families during the Christmas holidays, and Focus: HOPE's\nJournalism Olympics stimulates civil rights awareness at area high schools.\nUniversity Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit\n(Youth Volunteer Corps)\n(NAACP Detroit Branch)\nSince 1917, United Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit (UCS) has been in\nthe forefront of community human services by fulfilling its mission of building\nstrong and caring communities, neighborhoods, and families throughout\nmetropolitan Detroit and southeastern Michigan.\nAs the area's primary community planning and problem-solving organization, UCS\nbrings people and organizations together to identify and seek solutions to human\nservice needs, paying special attention to emerging social issues.\nUCS provides community-based planning and problem-solving leadership through\nthe partnership efforts of more than 800 volunteers and 100 staff members. These\nefforts include research, planning, community service and demonstration projects,\ninformation and referral, volunteer training and placement, coalition-building,\npublic advocacy, and promoting citizen involvement in community affairs.\nInitiated by UCS in 1991, the Youth Volunteer Corps (YVC) brings together diverse\nethnic, social, economic, and geographic backgrounds. They gain practical, satisfying\nexperiences in volunteerism, learn about teamwork, and improve interpersonal\nrelationships and personal skills by working together on projects which improve the\ncommunity.\nYVC is one of the largest youth corps in the nation. More than 600 young people\ndonate thousands of hours to community service projects during this year-round\nprogram. Programs include packing emergency food boxes for shelters and soup\nkitchens; helping handicapped children at day camp and the Special Olympics;\nbeautifying neighborhoods by helping to renovate housing; helping seniors with\ncleaning, gardening and simple home repairs; working with children by providing\ntutoring, child care and playground monitoring; and dramatizing issues of teen\ninterest through the YVC Traveling Theatre Troupe.\nYVC members and those they help are from all areas of metropolitan Detroit. The\nyoung people volunteer at human service agencies such as Gleaners Community\nFood Bank, Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, Coalition on Temporary\nShelter, Project S.A.V.E., Grateful Home, Inc., and many others.\nYVC believes that young people are the single biggest asset for changing the\ncommunity for the better. The program helps them grow and gives them\n14\nopportunities to learn that cooperation, determination and teamwork are successful\ntools for change.\nWarren/Conner Development Coalition\n(Youth on the Edge....of Greatness)\nWarren/Conner Development Coalition (WCDC) is a neighborhood based\ncommunity development corporation whose mission is the revitalization of Detroit's\neastside. The community is beset with the economic and social problems of industrial\nand retail decline, unemployment, crime, and blight. It also is an area of considerable\nstrength, with a racially and economically diverse residential population, several\nactive neighborhood organizations, and a spirit of commitment to the future.\nFounded by community leaders, WCDC is a membership organization, whose\nconstituents include neighborhood councils and block clubs, retail and industrial\nfirms and business associations, public and private community service institutions,\nand hundreds of individual residents. Members elect the 25-member Board of\nDirectors which is equally divided among residents, businesses, and institutions.\nWCDC has an operating budget of $1.5 million, 20 public and private funders and 40\ncorporate contributors, and a staff of 38 members. WCDC takes a comprehensive,\ncollaborative approach to community development, operating several model\nprograms in the areas of Youth and Family Development, Economic Development,\nand Community Education and Organizing. The coalition has an operating budget of\n$1.5 million, and WCDC recently won the Crains Detroit Business Award for Best\nManaged Nonprofit in Metropolitan Detroit.\nWCDC has a wide range of activities. In the area of economic development, Detroit\nEast Community Development Corporation was incorporated to strengthen\ncommunity control of the neighborhood economy. An initial project of the\ncorporation is Mack-Alter-Square, a six-block commercial strip and community center\nfor an area previously littered with burned-out houses and boarded-up buildings.\nYouth on the Edge of Greatness (YOE) was created in 1986 to involve at-risk youth in\na program of academic support, character development, and employment\nopportunities. Funded as a national demonstration by the U.S. Department of Health\nand Human Services Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, YOE engages 60 young\npeople (ages 12-18) in crime prevention and community development. The program\ndemonstrates that at-risk youth are more likely not to use or sell drugs or alcohol if\nthey have strong social support and serve their community.\nYOE members are recruited through the WCDC network of block clubs, community\ngroups, schools, social agencies, and probation officers. They participate in an\nextensive program of life skills planning, job readiness training, cultural awareness,\nfamily counseling, academic support, and recreational activities.\n15\nLearning Community Coalition\nThe Learning Community Coalition was established to bring together K-12, higher\neducation, business, government, parents, and other community stakeholders to\npromote effective learning experiences for at risk children and their families in\nschools and neighborhoods in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The Coalition forms community\nteams and coordinates many programs through \"Opportunity Centers\" for children in\ncommunity sites and college campuses on weekends, during evenings, and in the\nsummer. Special efforts are made to connect community residents with teachers and\ncounselors in order to support the learning of children in their schools and\nclassrooms.\nThe Coalition serves a critical need for community collaboration in the education of\nat risk children in two cities suffering from worsening economic conditions. Teenage\npregnancies, school drop-out rates, poor standardized test performances among\nminority students, increased violence in schools and neighborhoods, drug and\nalcohol abuse, high unemployment rates - these are facts of daily life in these cities.\nPublic agencies, community organizations, and local schools have programs for at risk\nchildren and their families, but they have lacked the coordination needed to build\nsupport for quality services at a time when needs are increasing.\nThe Coalition was formed in response to these conditions, and takes an old African\nproverb as its operating principle: \"It takes an entire village to raise a child.\"\nD. NATIONAL LEADERSHIP TRAINING\nProgram participants will make a commitment to attend national training activities\norganized by the Commission on National and Community Service. The training\nmay include: (1) 5-day training for participants, including program leaders and mid-\nlevel supervisors, tentatively scheduled for June on the west coast and (2) Closing\nweekend summit tentatively scheduled for the end of the program in August in the\nWashington, D.C. area.\nE. NATIONAL THINK-TANK ON COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING\nThe University of Michigan will work in consultation with the Commission on\nNational and Community Service to host a special invitational conference on\ncommunity service learning. This conference will recognize the increasing\nimportance of the field, and include invitations to selected participants from other\nSummer of Service programs and elsewhere.\nF. PROGRAM EVALUATION\nProgram staff will monitor and evaluate the program throughout, both by informal\ndiscussions and formal written responses to a questionnaire designed for the purpose.\n16\nThis evaluation will help identify program strengths and improvements while work\nis underway.\nProgram participants will be asked to evaluate their experience and major points of\nlearning through a written pretest and posttest questionnaire seeking both open and\nclosed ended responses on content and process. They also will be asked to evaluate\ntheir experience and learning 6 and 12 months after the summer.\nEvaluation will employ measurable criteria relevant to community service learning.\nFor example, university students will be evaluated according to their levels of\ncommitment to social responsibility by the Social Responsibility Inventory developed\nby one of our program directors; academic learning with emphasis on the role of\nexternal forces; and non-academic learning, e.g., interpersonal development,\nleadership skills.\nEvaluation will be viewed as part of the national effort to develop a model for the\nevaluation of community service learning, and to disseminate its content and process\nfindings as a contribution to knowledge about the effects of community service\nlearning.\nG. INSTITUTIONAL AND PERSONNEL INFORMATION\nThe University of Michigan and the community agencies which will serve as its\ninstitutional partners have records of excellence in the leadership and management\nof community service programs, as described elsewhere in this proposal.\nThe individuals who will lead and manage this program are highly experienced and\nwell qualified for their responsibilities. They have extensive experience in\nrecruiting, selecting, and supervising youth participants in community service\nprograms, and in the facilitation of the service learning process.\nAt the University of Michigan, the program will be managed by two professional\nstaff members, two faculty members, and two students with experience in the field.\nThe following five persons are already committed to the program, with one of the\nstudents to be recruited:\nJennifer Bastress\nJennifer Bastress is a nationally recognized collegiate spokesperson for the\ncommunity service movement. She is the Chairwoman of Youth Service America's\nYouth Action Council, Chairwoman of the Training Track for C.O.O.L.'s National\n\"Into the Streets\" Program, Co-Chairwoman of the University of Michigan's Project\nS.E.R.V.E. Student Board of Directors, and a member of the President's Advisory\nCouncil of the Michigan Campus Compact. She has participated in the Youth\nService Congressional Roundtable, and planned the first conference of the Student\n17\nMarty Duckenfield and Lorilei Swanson,\nSERVICE LEARNING: MEETING THE NEEDS OF YOUTH\nATRISK. Clemson: National Droport Prevention Center,\nService Learning\nClemson university, 1992.\nChapter One\n\"I like the program because / get to help little kids who are falling behind in\ntheir work. There are two that are going to pass because / helped them.\"\nMichael, a high school student who tutors elementary at-risk children\n(Montemayor, 1990).\nINTRODUCTION\nMiddle school students planting shrubs at a day care center. First graders\nmaking centerpieces for a senior citizen's luncheon. A tenth grader helping a\nsecond grader with math. Ninth graders proposing a carefully designed environ-\nmental clean-up project at their city council meeting. What do these activities have\nin common? Each incorporates service into the learning process.\nA grassroots movement involving America's young people as active partici-\npants in their communities is gathering momentum. The success of local service\nlearning projects has gained dedicated advocates for youth service activities\nacross the country. Now, with the passage of the National and Community Service\nAct of 1990 by Congress and the recommendations of the President's America\n2000 initiative, this exemplary learning strategy is also being linked to school\nreform.\nOf even greater significance to those who work with at-risk students, service\nlearning is a potentially powerful dropout prevention tool. Analysis by the National\nDropout Prevention Center (Duckenfield, Hamby & Smink, 1990) revealed that\ntwelve strategies were seen to be most successful in dropout prevention. Several\nof these practices-especially mentoring and tutoring, flexible schedules and\nalternative programs, school-based management, community and business col-\nlaboration, and workforce readiness and career counseling-are strong compo-\nnents of a well-designed school-based service learning program. Other researchers\n(Peck, Law & Mills, 1989) have determined that successful programs for at-risk\nyouth should incorporate course work which emphasizes practical, real-world\nproblem solving; experiential, hands-on learning; and experiences with respon-\nsible and mature adults. These same components are fundamental to service\nlearning programs. Thus, service learning combines the best dropout prevention\npractices and provides practitioners with an innovative way to reach students at\nrisk.\n6\nService Learning\nability to take risks and accept challenges\na sense of usefulness and purpose\npersonal values and beliefs\nresponsibility for one's self and actions\nself-respect\nSocial Growth includes the social skills which are necessary for relating to\nothers in society.\ncommunication skills\ninterpersonal skills\nleadership skills\nability to work cooperatively with others\na sense of caring for others\na sense of belonging\nacceptance and awareness of others from diverse and multicultural backgrounds\npeer group affiliation\nIntellectual Growth encompasses the cognitive skills necessary to enhance\nacademic learning and acquire higher level thinking skills.\napplication of knowledge, relevance of curriculum\nproblem-solving and decision-making skills\ncritical thinking skills\nskills in learning from experience\nuse of all learning styles\ndevelopment of a positive attitude toward learning\n8\nService Learning\nTwelve year old James comes home every day to an empty house,\nusually feeling lonesome, with little interest in doing his homework. One\nday, bored with TV, James went outside looking for something to do. The\nother boys in the neighborhood were equally restless, and together they\nbegan to roam the streets. They ran into Arthur who offered them some\nbeer he had found in his parents' refrigerator. Everyone had some, and\nsoon the group got rowdy. Somehow things developed into a rock throwing\nfight, and James was hit over his left eye. He figured he'd have to come up\nwith a pretty good story to tell his mother.\nSchools have the potential to create an environment that provides positive\nalternatives to adolescent risk taking. Because it is accessible to the majority of\nyoung people, school is the logical place where intervention programs such as\nservice learning can be implemented. Service learning allows all students to\nactively participate in a community that truly needs their services. In return,\nstudents develop qualities that fulfill many of their developmental needs and\nprepare them for a successful transition to adulthood. Many at-risk students fail\nto make this transition because they are more vulnerable to the adverse conditions\nof our society. Typically, these students come from low income or single parent\nhouseholds; have parents who practice high-risk behaviors; have a history of\nacademic failure; and exhibit low self-esteem (Dryfoos, 1990). The efforts of\nsociety to meet the developmental needs of these at-risk students are often\ninsufficient. Schools can fill this void through a revitalized curriculum incorporating\nservice learning for all students with at-risk youth benefiting the most because they\nhave so much more to gain.\nTwelve year old Joseph has been spending several of his afternoons\nwith a seven-year old child named Aubrey at the elementary school. Aubrey\nis having trouble with math, and Joseph has been matched to help him in\nthe school cross-age tutoring program. Joseph has seen how Aubrey looks\nup to him and values his assistance, and he knows that he is helping Aubrey\ndo well in school. This has made Joseph feel pretty good about himself.\nWhen he does get home, his own homework seems more important than it\nused to. Joseph is finding school a much more pleasant place to be be-\ncause his own math skills have improved from his tutoring experience.\n10\nService Learning\nAt both the state and local level, there has been controversy about requiring either service\nlearning courses or hours of service prior to graduation. Service learning courses can be\nvoluntary or mandatory. Mandatory programs can motivate students who would never\nnormally volunteer, contribute more hours of work to the community, and expand the range of\na school's educational mission (NCPC, 1988). On the other hand, voluntary programs attract\nstudents truly committed to serving others rather than those who do not care to get involved.\nVoluntary programs are also more manageable because fewer students participate (NCPC,\n1988).\nLevel Four: School-Wide Integration\nThe final and highest level of implementation is community service as a school-wide theme.\nA variation of this level of implementation is a community service focus in an entire school\ndistrict. This approach to integrating service into the academic curriculum is rare but highly\ndesirable. In this type of school or district, service to others is woven into many courses and\nserves as an organizing principle for the total academic program (Conrad and Hedin, 1987).\nThe school itself is organized to serve the community and the curriculum centers on addressing\nthe real issues of the community (Cairn & Kielsmeier, 1991). As an example, students from\nseveral classes could serve the local nursing home in unique ways applicable to their course\ncontent. Science students could teach nutrition to the elderly; English students could write\nletters to an adopted grandparent; and industrial arts students could build ramps for the\nhandicapped. This level of implementation has the potential to reach all students rather than\na few motivated students who choose to become community service providers (Conrad and\nHedin, 1987).\n12\nService Learning\nprovides students with the opportunity to ask questions and explores potential experiences\nand issues that they may encounter during their service (Boyce and Cairn, 1991)\nCertain skills may need to be acquired before actual participation. General service skills\ninclude cooperation, communication, organization, responsibility, problem solving, and\nawareness of working with special populations. The service project may also require that\nparticipants learn techniques that require hands-on experience. Technical skills include\nlearning how to take water samples, certification in CPR, or learning the correct way to push\na wheelchair.\nTraining is an ongoing process; it continues until the completion of the service project. Follow\nup occurs every time there is contact between the supervisor and the student. It is a time to\naddress problems, raise important questions, enhance learning, and improve the performance\nof students (Boyce and Cairn, 1991). At some point all service projects end, and closure\nbecomes important. Closure helps participants formally deal with the issues that surface when\na service relationship is over. It is also a time to recognize the accomplishments of each\nstudent and celebrate a job well done.\nACTION\nAction is the actual service of caring for others performed by the student participating in the\nservice project. The service itself must be engaging, challenging and meaningful (MSSA,\n1989b). There must be a real need in the community for the service, and students must play\na significant role in designing the service experience (Cairn and Keilsmeier, 1991). It may also\nbe necessary to adjust the initial service plan as new information is gained and new\ncircumstances are encountered (MSSA, 1989b). Students can participate in service activities\nthrough direct service, indirect service, and civic action.\nDirect Service\nDirect service requires personal contact with people in need. This type of service is generally\nthe most rewarding for students because they receive immediate positive feedback during the\nprocess of helping others. Examples of direct service are a 12th grade student counseling an\nincoming 9th grade student or a 5th grade student serving meals at a soup kitchen. \"Whenever\npossible, students should be encouraged to commit to direct service projects that last for\nseveral weeks or months. This gives students time to feel they have made a contribution, to\ndevelop friendships with the people they are serving and serving with, and to understand better\nthe problem they are working to solve\" (MSSA, 1989b).\nIndirect Service\nIndirect service activities are commonly implemented in schools because they are easy to\norganize. These activities involve channeling resources to the problem rather than working\ndirectly with an individual who may need service. Examples of indirect service activities include\nparticipating in a bike-a-thon to raise money for muscular dystrophy patients and collecting\ncans of food for local disadvantaged families. This type of service may be of the least value\nto students because they are so far removed from the need and do not directly experience the\nbenefit of their efforts (MSSA, 1989b).\n14\nService Learning\nReading\nA classroom reading assignment associated with the community service project greatly\nenriches the students' learning experience. This method differs from discussion in that an\nentire literary work is read rather than a brief excerpt. High school students can read Silent\nSpring by Rachel Carson or elementary students can have The Lorax by Dr. Seuss read to\nthem to enhance service associated with an environmental project.\nWriting\nWriting is a natural outgrowth of discussion and assigned reading. Writing can include\nletters, essays, stories, newspapers, and journals. Journal writing is an excellent way for\nstudents to explore their service experience on a very personal level. Keeping a regular\njournal enables students to think about what is happening as a result of their service\nexperience. It causes them to gain insight into understanding themselves and how they relate\nto others. Questions are helpful in directing the students' work beyond the obvious\nobservations. The National Crime Prevention Council (1988) provides excellent examples of\nguided journal questions.\nWhat was the best thing that happened today at your site? How did\nit make you feel?\nWhat thing(s) did you like the least about today at your site? What\nmade you dislike it?\nWhat compliments have you received today, and how did they make\nyou feel? What have you learned about yourself and the people you\nare helping?\nHow have you changed or grown since you began to volunteer at this\nsite? helping? What have you learned about yourself and the people you are\nProjects\nProjects developed by students raise their awareness about issues associated with service.\nMany methods can be employed to accentuate the skills of each subject area. Projects may\nvary from posters, plays, and multimedia presentations to political campaigns and research.\nWhen students develop their own projects, their creativity is expressed and their learning\nbecomes more meaningful. Middle school students may interview older citizens in their\ncommunity and document a local oral history. Elementary school students may star in a video\non school safety created and directed by high school students.\n16\nWINGSPREAD\nSPECIAL REPORT\nPrinciples of Good Practice For\nCombining Service and Learning\nby Ellen Porter Honnet and Susan J. Poulsen. The Johnson Foundation\nThese Principles result\nPREAMBLE\n1\nfrom extensive consultation\nWe are a nation founded upon active\nwith more than 70\ncitizenship and participation in community\nAn effective\norganizations interested In\nservice and learning. Those\nlife. We have always believed that\nprogram engages\nconsultations were\nindividuals can and should serve.\npeople in\nconducted by the National\nIt is crucial that service toward the\nresponsible and\nSociety for Internships and\ncommon good be combined with reflective\nchallenging\nExperiential Education\nlearning to assure that service programs of\n(NSIEE).\nhigh quality can be created and sustained\nactions for the\nIn May, 1989, a small\nover time, and to help individuals appreciate\ncommon good.\nadvisory group met at\nhow service can be a significant and\nWingspread to compose the\npreamble and the language of\nongoing part of life. Service, combined with\nlearning, adds value to each and transforms\n2\nthe ten Principles.\nThe Johnson Foundation\nboth.\nAn effective\nrecognizes and thanks all of\nThose who serve and those who are\nthose who have had a hand in\nserved are thus able to develop the informed\nprogram provides\nthe development of these\njudgment, imagination, and skills that lead\nstructured\nten Principles of Good\nto a greater capacity to contribute to the\nopportunities for\nPractice For Combining\ncommon good.\nService and Learning.\npeople to reflect\nThe Principles that follow are a\ncritically on their\nstatement of what we believe are essential\nservice\ncomponents of good practice. We invite you\nto use them in the context of your particular\nexperience.\nneeds and purposes.\nDesigned to be used as a gatefold poster\n3\n6\n8\n10\nAn effective\nAn effective\nAn effective\nprogram\nAn effective\nprogram matches\narticulates clear\nprogram includes\nprogram is\nservice providers\nservice and\ntraining,\ncommitted to\nand service needs\nlearning goals for\nsupervision,\nprogram\nthrough a process\nmonitoring,\neveryone involved.\nthat recognizes\nparticipation by\nsupport,\nand with diverse\nchanging\nrecognition, and\npopulations.\n4\ncircumstances.\nevaluation to meet\nAn effective\nservice and\nprogram allows for\n7\nlearning goals.\nthose with needs\nAn effective\nto define those\nprogram expects\n9\nneeds.\ngenuine, active,\nAn effective\nand sustained\nprogram insures\n5\norganizational\nthat the time\ncommitment.\nAn effective\ncommitment for\nprogram clarifies\nservice and\nthe responsibilities\nlearning is\nof each person\nflexible,\nand organization\nappropriate, and in\ninvolved.\nthe best interests\nof all involved.\nMAY 12 '93 11:13AM GOV REL/U-REL/EVENTS\n5/15/93\nP.2/2\nMembers of Task Force on Community Service\nThe University of Michigan\n\\ Eli Segal meeting at\nMichigan Union\nMs. Lisa Baker - Director of Public Affairs\nMr. Thomas Butts - Associate Vice President for Government Relations and Executive Director of the\nUniversity of Michigan Washington, D.C. Office. Directs the activities of the Washington office and\nserves as principal liaison between the federal government and the Ann Arbor campus.\nJudith Cawhorn - SOS Crisis Center Works with volunteers.\nBarry Checkoway, Ph.D - Professor of Social Work and Professor of Urban, Technological and\nEnvironmental Planning, College of Architecture & Urban Planning\nMark Chesler, Ph.D. - Professor of Sociology, College of Literature, Science & the Arts.\nFrank Cianciola, M.A. -Associate Dean of Students. In charge of maintenance and programming for\nthe Michigan League, the Michigan Union, & North Campus Commons, Greek Liaison, Student\nOrganization Development Center, Office of Service and Community Learning, Major Events and\nstudent activities and programming.\nMs. Linda Forster - Assistant to Executive Director of University Relations. Staff to the Task Force.\nSarah Gegenheimer - UM Undergraduate On the Project S.E.R.V.E. Board, Greek Liaison.\nCharlie Grose - UM Undergraduate - External Co-Chair for Project S.E.R.V.E. Board\nDr. Walter Harrison - Executive Director, Office of University Relations. Principal spokesperson for\nthe University. Oversees federal relations, news and information services, marketing\ncommunications, and Michigan Radio.\nDr. Maureen Hartford - Vice President for Student Affairs. Oversees policy and judicial matters,\nOmbudsman, Health Service, Campus Information Center, Counseling, services for students with\ndisabilities, emergency services, crisis lines, multicultural organizations: International Center, lesbian\nand gay programs, minority peer advisors, Career Planning & Placement and Housing (family\nhousing, conferences and catering).\nJeffrey Howard - Director of Community Service Learning. Include Project Serve, a community\nvolunteer program and source for alternative career information and Project Community, where\nstudents can get credit for volunteer activities.\nBarbara Isreal, Dr.P.H. - Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education,School of\nPublic Health and Adjunct Assoicate Professor of Sociology.\nClaudette Rowley - Project S.E.R.V.E. Graduate Intern from the School of Social Work.\nGreg Shannon - UM Undergraduate - Project S.E.R.V.E. Board. Coordinator of the Alternative\nWeekends Program, a spin-off of the Alternative Spring Break Program.\nSharon Sutton, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Architecture, College of Architecture & Urban\nPlanning\n11 May 1993\nMr. Eli Segal\nANNE PERCY KNOTT\nDirector, Office of National Service\nAssistant Dean\nRoom 145, O.E.O.B.\nLaw School Campaign\nWashington, D.C. 20500\nDEVELOPMENT\nAND ALUMNI\nDear Mr. Segal:\nRELATIONS\nTHE UNIVERSITY\nThe Law School is delighted that you will be our honored guest speaker at\nOF MICHIGAN\nCommencement on Saturday, May 15. The Class of 1993's graduation\nLAW SCHOOL\npromises to be even more splendid than 1967's.\n721 South State Street\nAnn Arbor, Michigan\nEnclosed for your information and approval are proposed itineraries for\n48104-3071\nMrs. Segal's and your day on campus. Please have Karen confirm these\nTelephone: 313 998-6132\narrangements with me.\nTelefax: 313 998-7340\nAlso included are some materials describing our clinical programs. \"An\nOverview: The Current Programs\" provides general background\ninformation. The pamphlet and accompanying newsletter describe\nProfessor Jeff Lehman's program of Law School Support for Community-\nBased Economic Development in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods.\nThis pilot program offers a model for other law schools in urban areas\nacross the nation.\nI thought you might also enjoy our Law School video, which visually\ncaptures the Cook Law Quadrangle and recalls the experience (pain?) of\nbeing a first-year law student. It's actually raising a lot of money for our\nLaw School Campaign.\nWe are all looking forward to your visit to Ann Arbor.\nSincerely,\nanne Percy Knott\nAnne Percy Knott\nencs.\ncc: Karen Ewing w/ itineraries (via FAX)\nCOMMENCEMENT ADDRESS\nDELIVERED BY\nJOHN H. PICKERING\nUNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LAW SCHOOL\nMAY 10, 1992\nDean Bollinger, members of the graduating class, parents\n(and others who have paid the freight), friends\nThank you, Dean Bollinger, for that generous introduction.\nIt is a privilege to give today's commencement address. I never\nthought, when I graduated 52 years ago from the Law School, I would\nhave this honor.\nI begin with these familiar lines from Charles Dickens:\n\"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,\n=\nThese words were as apt when I graduated in 1940, and they are as\napt today, as when Charles Dickens wrote them about the French\nrevolution.¹\nOn the good side, we have the end of the Cold War and the\nemerging democracies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.\nBut just as the world seems to be improving, things at home are\nworse. Distrust of our institutions increases. Incumbency is a dirty\nword, like liberal and taxes. The verdict in the Rodney King case and\nthe resulting riots starkly reveal serious flaws in our social and legal\nstructure. As the noted New York Times columnist, James Reston,\n1/\nTale of Two Cities, C. Dickens.\n- 2 -\nasked in his recent memoirs - Now that we are at peace with the\nworld, why aren't we at peace with ourselves? In the few minutes I\nhave, I shall try to suggest some answers, and what lawyers can do to\nhelp.\nBut first, I must say the last two decades have not been\ngood for the image of lawyers. In the seventies there was the\nWatergate coverup that drove President Nixon from office. As his\nWhite House counsel, John Dean, confessed, \"an awful lot of lawyers\"\nwere involved. I agree those lawyers were an \"awful lot\", not just in\nnumbers, but also in character. They were a blot on our profession,\nbut we survived.\nThe excesses, the materialism and the greed of the eighties\nhave further tarnished the legal profession. Merger mania flourished,\nlawyers went to jail for insider trading, and a noted federal judge asked\n\"Where were the lawyers?\" when the savings and loan industry\ncollapsed. \"Where were the lawyers,\" indeed? This cry from a judge\nwho had been the chief enforcement officer of the Securities and\nExchange Commission underscores what the general public does not\nappreciate -- that roughly 95% of our law enforcement is voluntary. It\nhappens because ethical lawyers carefully advise clients about the\nrequirements and limitations of the law.\nBut damage has been done to the profession. Many major\nfirms are retrenching, jobs are scarcer, and lawyer bashing is again a\nfavorite sport, from the White House to the comics. Anti-lawyer jokes\nare legion. The latest one I know, which I hope you have not heard, is\nan argument between St. Peter and the Devil over responsibility for\nrepairing the gate between Heaven and Hell. St. Peter said his record\nshowed it was the Devil's turn, but the Devil refused. St. Peter then\nthreatened to sue, and the Devil laughingly replied, \"Pete, where will\nyou find a lawyer?\"\n- 3 -\nA recent report of the President's Council on\nCompetitiveness² asserts that major reforms are needed in our legal\nsystem to restore our competitiveness in world markets. Speaking to\nthe American Bar Association last August in support of the report, Vice\nPresident Quayle was critical of the legal profession and asked whether\nwe need 800,000 lawyers. As I listened I wondered -- with everything\nthat is already being blamed on the lawyers, is it really fair to blame us\nfor one more thing -- are we lawyers really to blame because the public\nlikes Japanese cars, VCRs, and stereos? I was struck, however, that\nthe question about our need for 800,000 lawyers deserves serious\nconsideration, but the jokesters are already at that also -- here is one\nexample: according to the usual reliable sources, Government\nprojections show that by the year 2020 -- if present trends continue --\nthere will be more lawyers than people in the United States.\nBe that as it may, the Vice President's query - -- do we need\n800,000 lawyers - -- also brought to mind Shakespeare's famous line:\n\"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.\nThat is hardly what the Vice President had in mind, and the line itself is\none of the most misunderstood in all literature. Taken in context, it is\na pro-, not an anti-lawyer statement. England was in the turmoil of the\nWar of the Roses -- a bloody civil war. The line was spoken by a\nfollower of the rebel Jack Cade who preached anarchy and was killed\nbecause of the excesses he and his followers committed after they had\ncaptured London. Properly understood, the statement shows why we\nneed lawyers. It also suggests to me the paradox of the Vice\nPresident's query -- that we may have too few rather than too many\nlawyers, or at least too few doing some of the things that desperately\nneed to be done.\n2/\nAn Agenda for Civil Justice Reform in America (1991).\n31\nHenry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene Two.\n- 4 -\nWhat the public, and even some lawyers, fail to understand,\nI\nis that Shakespeare was saying that lawyers, with all their faults - and\nthere are many -- are necessary if we are to have the system of\n\"ordered liberty\" that is essential for a fair and just society.⁴/\nThis brings me back to the Rodney King verdict and the\nriots that followed. The King verdict is not the first, nor will it be the\nlast, time that a jury does something wrong, unjust -- even bizarre -- in\nthe eyes of the public. But what was unusual was the anger and the\ndestruction that followed. Politicians are pointing fingers at each other\nand avoiding positive stands for fear of alienating this or that voting\nbloc. We have seen the tentative steps, the charges and\ncountercharges, the withdrawals and the reassertions that the Great\nSociety of President Lyndon Johnson is -- or is not -- responsible for\nthe riots. Incidentally, it was on this campus that President Johnson\nannounced the Great Society program in his 1964 commencement\naddress and it was here that President Bush criticized the Great Society\nin his commencement address last year. Happily, no one has tried to\nblame the University of Michigan for the Los Angeles Riots!\nAs the dust settles over Los Angeles, the public is calling\nfor solutions, not scapegoats. These solutions will not be easy, nor\nwill they come from efforts to achieve partisan advantage. They will\ncome from non-partisan efforts to use the best thinking of all parts of\nthe political spectrum -- conservative, liberal and independent and of\nthe diverse elements of our society. Here is where there there is a\ngreat - indeed a noble -- role for lawyers to play. At this great Law\nSchool, you have been trained to solve problems. You have also\nlearned, I fondly hope, that with your professional license -- with your\nmonopoly to serve the public -- comes some sense of professional\nobligation. So, in a sense this can be the best of times for lawyers.\nThere is much work to do, if we are to remedy injustice, rebuild\ncommunities, restore trust, improve race relations and do the many\nother things that are needed to repair and renew our social compact --\n4/\nCf. Palko V. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319 (1937).\n- 5 -\nto bridge the huge gap between what we say and what we do as a\nnation. Lawyers are needed for these tasks, for history teaches that\n11\nthere can be no free and just society without lawyers.\nJust as Jack Cade and his followers wanted to do away\nwith lawyers, the first step of any totalitarian regime is to kill, or at\nleast stifle, lawyers, and to bend the legal system towards its bidding.\n=\nLawyers are dangerous people when they are true to the ideals of their\nprofession. For then they believe in and serve such goals as freedom,\njustice, and a system in which the rights of the individual are protected\nagainst the tyranny of the mob and the excesses of autocratic or\nmajoritarian rule. Therefore\nIt is no accident that the intellectual leaders of our\nRevolution and the drafters of our Constitution were mainly lawyers.\nIt is no accident that dictatorships -- whether of the right\nsuch as Hitler or Mussolini or of the left such as Communist China and\nthe Soviet Union of Stalin - have followed Shakespeare's line quite\nliterally.\nIt is no accident that lawyers stood tall against the tyranny\nof the Stuart monarchs, epitomized by Sir Edward Coke's great\nstatement that no man is above the law a principle that the\nWatergate prosecutors asserted and the Supreme Court sustained by\nholding that our President, like the Stuart kings, is also bound by the\nlaw.\nAnd it is no accident that as the winds of freedom blow\nacross China, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union the need for\nlawyers and a fair legal system is recognized. Indeed, one of our\ngreatest exports now are lawyers. American law firms are rushing to\nopen offices in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Hundreds\nof American volunteer lawyers are helping these countries restructure\ntheir legal and their government systems and learn how to do business\nwith the West.\n- 6 -\nSo I say there is a paradox in the Vice President's question\n-- instead of having too many lawyers, we may have too few. There\nare challenging opportunities before us and much to do if we are ever\nto achieve our lofty ideal of \"Equal Justice under Law\" the ideal\nwhich is inscribed above the great doors of the Supreme Court - -- but\nwhich we are far from meeting today.\nDespite the work of the Legal Services Corporation, which\nthe Reagan administration did its best to kill, and despite the massive\nefforts of the private bar, it is estimated that only 20 percent of our\npoor and disadvantaged citizens have access to justice to remedy their\ngrievances. Regrettably, but understandably, when our citizens believe\nthere is no justice for them, they feel alienated and shut out, and they\nare moved to act, like Jack Cade and his followers did and like the\nunhappy recent events in Los Angeles following the acquittal of the\npolice officers charged with using excessive force against Rodney\nKing.\nRioting and violence cannot be condoned, but as lawyers\nwe need to understand something about their causes and we need to\nseek remedies. The King acquittal and many other things demonstrate\nthat our legal system is far from perfect and that change is needed.\nWe have a legal system that is truly in crisis. Many of the\nrecommendations of the President's Council on Competitiveness are\nsound and should be adopted. Others should be seriously debated.\nBut the report fails to address one of the most important issues of our\nsociety - the pressing need that many of our citizens have for access\nto justice.\nCourts throughout the country are underfunded and\noverworked. The drug problem is literally swamping the courts' ability\nto handle civil dockets. The lack of funds is so acute that our trial\ncourts in the District of Columbia face the prospect of ending jury trials\nin August, three months before the end of the current fiscal year.\n- 7 -\nWe like simplistic solutions, but I submit that it is no answer\nto arrest more people on drug charges, when we lack the court\nfacilities to process them and the prisons to hold them.\nLikewise, I submit, it is no answer to impose the death\nsentence for more and more crimes. I am personally opposed to the\ndeath sentence on both moral and practical grounds. There is no\nevidence whatsoever that it has ever stopped crime. The State of\nMichigan is to be applauded for continuing to be one of our states that\nhave no death penalty.\nNor is it any answer to cut off habeas corpus review by the\nfederal courts when statistics show that almost 50 percent of state\ndeath penalty cases are reversed because of constitutional error.\nYet there is a public clamor for these simplistic solutions.\nThey are easier than attacking the social causes of crime, broken\nfamilies, homelessness, inadequate education and lack of economic\nopportunity. They are less expensive than providing competent\ncounsel for those accused of murder, than providing decent housing,\ngood schools and job opportunities, than furnishing lawyers to help the\npoor get their rights less expensive, that is, until we consider the\nenormous cost of crime and urban riots which vent the frustration of\nthose who feel left out riots that simply compound rather than solve\nthe problems and that leave us anguished night after night as we\nwatch the televised scenes from Los Angeles.\nWe are a litigious -- perhaps overlitigious -- society, but too\nmany of our citizens remain shut off from the means to redress their\ngrievances. That is why the American Bar Association has led the\nfight to improve the delivery and the availability of legal services to\nthose who need them why it has fought to preserve and expand the\nLegal Services Corporation against the administration's effort to kill or\nhobble the Corporation -- why it has encouraged law firms and lawyers\nto do pro bono work why it supports prepaid legal insurance plans --\nwhy it has a death penalty representation project to provide competent\ncounsel for those faced with the death penalty why it supports full\n- 8 -\nfunding for the courts and adequate compensation for our judges - and\nwhy it supports efforts to reform our legal system and improve the\nadministration of justice.\nFew, if any, of us will ever be called on to be great\nchampions of liberty -- to be heroes of the Bar like Sir Thomas More,\nLord Coke, Abraham Lincoln, Clarence Darrow and Justice Thurgood\nMarshall who risked or even lost their lives in upholding justice.\nBut we need present day heroes - lawyers who on either\na full or a part time basis -- fight to uphold the rights of the individual,\nto protect the innocent, to see that no one is put to death without the\nfullest measure of due process, to represent and help the poor, the\nhomeless, the disadvantaged, and the elderly get redress of their\ngrievances, to oppose discrimination in all its ugly forms, to promote\nracial harmony, to help fledgling businesses and minority enterprises,\nand to work in neighborhood offices in the ghettos to advocate what\nneeds to be done.\nThis work takes dedication, skill and the willingness to\novercome or accept barriers.\nOne barrier is the large and unwarranted compensation\ndifference between the public and the private sectors. There was no\nsuch difference when I graduated, and it was not a financial sacrifice\nto become a government lawyer or a professor. Indeed, the rewards\nfor government service or law school teaching were often better, and\nmore secure than private practice.\nA second barrier - one that unfortunately compounds the\nfirst is the high cost of law school and the resulting debt burden that\nmuch too often dictates career choice. My tuition was $200 a year as\nan out-of-state student (in 1937 to 1940), as contrasted with more\nthan $17,000 now. This cost and debt is forcing too many of our best\nand brightest into private practice at the expense of government,\nacademia, and public service.\n- 9 -\nOther barriers are the growing emphasis on the bottom line\nand specific requirements for billable hours. Happily, many firms and\nlawyers still believe there is more to being a lawyer than making\nmoney, and more lawyers and law firms are doing pro bono work than\never before. According to the latest information from the American Bar\nAssociation there are approximately 850 bar sponsored pro bono\nprograms involving about 125,000 lawyers, and there are many more\nlawyers doing pro bono work on their own outside of these bar\nsponsored programs. Many large firms do pro bono work directly for\norganizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Lawyers'\nCommittee for Civil Rights under Law, the Women's Legal Defense\nFund, the Legal Counsel for the Elderly, and many others. I am\nenormously proud that my own firm does a substantial amount of this\nwork and has recently made a gift of $500,000 to this Law School to\nsupport scholarships with one of the requirements being a commitment.\nby the student to devote at least 10 percent of his or her professional\nlife to pro bono, public service, or professional activities.\nSo, everything is not all gloom and doom. There are bright\nspots, but voluntary efforts can do only so much. That is why we\nmust have an effective, fully funded Legal Services Corporation, why\nwe must have public defender systems at state expense, why we must\ndo something about the pay difference between the public and the\nprivate sectors, why we must find ways to help students who want\ncareers in public service or public interest, and why we must increase\npro bono services.\nAnother bright spot, and the most exciting change in the\nprofession since my graduation, is the increasing numbers of women\nand minorities in our ranks. They bring a richness and a diversity\nheretofore lacking, but they are yet to achieve their full potential.\nBecause of the length of time involved in coming up through the ranks,\nthere are still too few minority and women partners in law firms, too\nfew in leadership positions in the bar, and too few on our courts. But\nthat too is changing -- perhaps not as fast as some of us would like,\nbut it is changing -- particularly with the help of the American Bar\n- 10 -\nAssociation's Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the\nProfession, and its Commission on Women in the Profession.\nWe hear much these days about the decline of\nprofessionalism, and the lack of civility in the bar. There are some\nproblems that do need correction, but most lawyers are decent,\ntrustworthy, ethical practitioners. An example of the problem,\nhowever, was a recent story in the Washington Post about events at\nthe Harvard Law School which quoted a student as saying, \"This is\nnot a gentle place. A gentle lawyer is a bad lawyer.\"\nI do not know whether the Harvard Law School is or is \"not\na gentle place.\" I do know and am proud that this school has not had\nthe well publicized problems of Harvard. I also know from 52 years of\nexperience that the young man is in for a great shock. Unlike the\nsports arena where nice guys are supposed to finish last, the law is still\na place in which nice persons can and do finish first. Rude, angry,\nbumptious, or devious behavior is self defeating. Success with clients,\ncourts, opponents and other colleagues at the bar depends upon\ncourtesy, consideration, integrity, and a reputation for good\nprofessional work, not on bluster or braggadocio.\nI could go on and on, but I must close with a few words of\nhope. You are entering a noble, if misunderstood, profession one\nthat has stood strong against tyranny and for individual rights from the\ntime of Magna Carta. Not all of you can be heroes, but you can, by\nthe way you act, make a difference, and that difference can be vital --\njust as alumni giving is vital to the life of this Law School.\nThese are exciting times - and perhaps the best and the\nworst of times - to be a lawyer. I hope these musings of mine - from\nthe perspective of half a century - will tell you something of what it\nmeans to be a lawyer and the challenges ahead. You may take them\nas unabashed idealism - and they are that. But there is another ideal --\nthe necessity of making a living. That living is easier to those who\npractice the idealism of our profession. I have had a fine and bully\ntime myself. I wish you all success and happiness, and I charge you to\n- 11 -\ndo your part to advance the lofty goals of our profession. Go with a\npassion for justice -- go with a dedication to work for the public good.\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nWASHINGTON\nMay 6, 1993\nMEMORANDUM FOR MACK McLARTY\nFROM:\nHoward Paster HP\nSUBJECT: Dave McCurdy and Bill Ford\nAt the request of the White House, Chairman Ford has offered to\nRepresentative McCurdy:\n1) The opportunity to be the first co-sponsor of the bill after\nthe members of the Committee; and\n2) The very valuable opportunity to be the first witness at the\nfirst hearing, appearing even before the Administration\nwitnesses.\nMy judgment, confirmed by the Vice President, is that the\nChairman has acted fairly at our behest.\nIn addition, we had hand delivered today a Presidential letter to\nDave McCurdy taking special recognition of his extraordinary\neffort on this project.\nEli - - In response to\nour recent v.s.t.\nDesk med"
}