Winter 2004 11 Dispatches
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DISPATCHES A Supreme Success Justice tells law students he had help getting to Wisconsin’s highest court. Anthony Davis JDx’05 was JEFF MILLER buoyed by the moment, a slice of history at the UW Law School where the road to fairness for aspiring minority lawyers just became a bit smoother. An African-American in his third year at the Law School, Davis joined about seventy other minority law students in August to welcome freshly sworn-in Wisconsin Supreme Court Jus- tice Louis Butler JD’77, the first African-American to serve on the state’s highest court. “The UW has one of the Justice Louis Butler, the first African-American to serve on the Wiscon- major law-school populations sin Supreme Court, recalls how high above the ground the judges sat of African-Americans,” Davis when he first appeared before the court. He hosted a luncheon with says. “To see that we finally minority students at his alma mater, the UW Law School, shortly after “We took what I would call have a supreme court judge being sworn in. gross liberties with history.” makes you think you can achieve some of the highest Butler, a Milwaukee County Education Opportunities pro- — Ben Karlin ’93, executive levels in the legal system. We’re circuit judge who was appointed gram (LEO), which is seen as a producer of The Daily Show, making strides. It’s a great time by Governor Jim Doyle ’67 to national model for recruiting, speaking at the Wisconsin Book to be in law school.” fill a supreme court vacancy, supporting, and retaining Festival in October about Amer- With minority students lauded those efforts in his first students from traditionally ica (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide making up about 25 percent of public appearance after his underrepresented communities. to Democracy Inaction, which he its enrollment, the Law School investiture. The fifty-two-year- “I did not get here by myself. co-authored with Daily Show is one of the brightest diversity old judge grew up on Chicago’s I appreciate the LEO program and host Jon Stewart and David success stories on campus. It south side, where his exposure all that it does for all of the citi- Javerbaum,EPIL a OshowG writer.UE has graduated more than one to bias and his subsequent zens of Wisconsin. These are the EPILOGUE thousand lawyers of color, struggle to succeed convinced types of programs that pave the prompting National Jurist mag- him that all people need to have way for everyone else.” azine this year to feature the an equal shot at opportunity. Considered one of the rea- school as one of those that “I’m standing on other peo- sons why the Law School has have supported students of ple’s shoulders,” Butler told par- made strides in diversity, “the LEO color and women. ticipants in the school’s Legal program was started many years Speaking in (Many) Tongues With more than a million speak- many unusual ones, such as options to enrich their under- ers, Yucatec Maya is the most Ojibwe, Yoruba, Quechua, and standing of the world.” common of the twenty-eight Urdu. Why such a broad menu? Almost all undergraduates dialects descended from the Language classes aren’t just arrive having taken at least one great Mayan empire. It is also the about acquiring a new tongue, foreign language in high school, sixty-sixth language now taught says Sally Magnan, director of but Magnan says surveys indicate at UW-Madison — more than at the UW Language Institute; they that most are sampling their sec- any other U.S. university. also help students explore and ond, or even third, language on Offered for the first time this expand their opportunities. campus. Many are also adding a fall, Yucatec Maya joins an exten- “The ability to speak another language as a second major to sive list of tongues that includes language opens all kinds of appeal to globally minded all the usual suspects — Spanish, doors,” Magnan says. “We want employers. French, Italian, et cetera — and to give our students a variety of — M.P. 10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES ago by white students who have encouraged a strong, indi- Administrators often talk of a criti- looked around and said, ‘We’re vidualized approach to support- cal mass, where diversity builds missing something by not having ing students of color as they work upon itself to attract and inspire a diverse student body.’ Not every toward becoming lawyers. Krans- even more diverse classes. Success law school has embraced the berger says the school’s leaders stories such as Butler’s can offer notion of social change like this have long realized that a legal such momentum. As Nenye law school did,” says Beth career is a way to gain access to Uche, a first-year law student Kransberger JD’93, assistant power and opportunity and that from Nigeria, said after hearing dean at the school. promoting diversity improves the Butler, “I know I can do it, and my Administrators and faculty at future leadership of the nation. children can do it, and the people the Law School have embraced And the Law School may see coming up behind us can do it.” 633 long-term diversity efforts and more payoff for those efforts. — Dennis Chaptman ’80 Number of Sellery Hall residents who participated in a game of telephone in September, setting A Season for Politics — and the Boss a world record as the biggest session of the traditional game, One of the advantages of being a accepted the invitation. After the his presence. “At least now I in which a phrase is whispered swing state is the chance to see Boss reached the top of the stairs can walk around the house and (and usually distorted) from per- the candidates up close. But to join the students on the porch, know the man I worship was son to person in a line. After 633 when Democratic challenger John senior Erin Prendergast handed here,” she says. whispers, “Go Big Red” came Kerry announced that he would him a bottle of Capital Amber. The irony is that Larson’s out as “UW-Madison rocks.” stage a major political rally in late “I had a feeling he would roommates weren’t exactly October in the heart of Madison, come up,” Prendergast says. Springsteen’s biggest fans. When senior Sonya Larson was more “Who wouldn’t want a beer?” reporters flooded into the house excited about who he was bring- Springsteen and his to interview the girls about their ing with him. entourage posed for pictures brush with fame, one asked A volunteer for Kerry’s cam- and listened to Kerry’s speech them to name their favorite EPILOGUE paign for president, Larson is also for about twenty minutes. But Springsteen song. They all stared an avid Bruce Springsteen fan. So he wasn’t the students’ only when the rock star said he would celebrity guest. As Springsteen TIMES\WWW.MERLIN.NET.COM THE CAPITAL join Kerry at the rally, Larson lis- mingled, NBC anchor Tom tened to all of her ten Spring- Brokaw came scurrying up the steen albums to get ready. stairs, nearly tripping over some “I fall asleep to his music computer cords in the hallway. every night,” she says. “We offered Tom Brokaw a On the day of the rally, while beer, too,” Prendergast says. Larson ushered some of the esti- “But he didn’t take one. He mated crowd of eighty thousand wasn’t as much fun as Bruce.” through metal detectors, her Meanwhile, a roommate roommate, senior Danya Bader- called Larson to tell her that her Natal, was back at their West idol was watching the rally from Washington Avenue apartment, her porch. She sprinted several Invited by the hand-drawn sign on the left, Bruce Springsteen and scribbling an invitation to Larson’s blocks through crowds and tight spouse Patti Scialfa joined a group of students on their second- favorite musician. She wrote, security, but it was too late. By floor balcony during a rally for presidential candidate John Kerry. NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and several bodyguards stood alongside. “Bruce, come up for a beer,” on the time she ran up the stairs, a flattened cardboard box and Springsteen had left, her room- hung it from their second-story mates told her. blankly at one another. “None of porch, which overlooked the “It was tragic,” Larson says. us could think of a song.” Pren- stage where the rally took place. “I cried all day.” dergast says. Bader-Natal never expected Larson says she is still upset “I have ten of his albums,” what happened next. After playing that she missed an opportunity says Larson. “I can’t believe they two songs and introducing Kerry, to meet the singer, but she is didn’t even know one song!” Springsteen saw the sign — and happy he graced her home with — Joanna Salmen x’06 WINTER 2004 11 DISPATCHES Barn Again Landmark status may bring new life for historic dairy barn. Climbing to the rafters of UW- once-cutting- Q AND A Madison’s old dairy barn, Jerry edge facility JEFF MILLER Jeff Kirsch Apps ’55, MS’57, PhD’67 became obso- inhales deeply and smiles. “I lete, and in Talk about revenge. Thirty-nine miss that smell,” he says. recent years it years after being eliminated in Indeed, the fragrant air created has served as the seventh round of the by the barn’s newest inhabitants little more National Spelling Bee, Jeff — two of the university’s quarter than a storage Kirsch MA’76, PhD’80, a lec- horses — is good news.