TO THE EDITOR:
At the Feb. 18 meeting of the UNC Board of Governors’ working group on centers and institutes, Steven Long claimed that the Center for Civil Rights at UNC-Chapel Hill is “not an academic center.” As students at UNC law school, we experience firsthand the center’s involvement in academics. The center offers continuing legal education (CLE) for faculty, students, and practitioners. The center produces scholarship; one example, the Inclusion Project, documents and analyzes residential segregation in communities across North Carolina.
The center organizes annual conferences on civil rights issues and community-based lawyering. Staff members teach courses at the law school and have students gain practical experience in civil rights law through internships, pro bono projects and events. These experiences complement — and enhance — what students learn in the classroom.
The center is one of the best ways for first- and second-year students (who cannot participate in the law school’s clinics) to get hands-on experience. We cannot learn to be effective lawyers without having the opportunity to work with individuals and communities that need access to the legal system.
Those of us — and there are many — who pursue public interest law are attracted to the UNC law school not only because of excellent faculty and classes but because of the education and training we will receive at the Center for Civil Rights. Perhaps the working group of the current Board of Governors is not interested in students — and future lawyers — like us.
Andrew Frost
Chairman, UNC National Lawyers Guild
Joseph Bishop
