Deans Office

A reminder about our commitment to equality, inclusion, and civil rights

Marking Three Years Since the Pitt Law Faculty Statement Repudiating Racism

Dear Pitt Law Community,

During the summer of 2020, many members of our community were saying the names George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Recognizing the responsibility to model leadership in addressing racial injustice within the United States and the legal profession, the Pitt Law Faculty convened to issue a unanimous statement repudiating racism. In the statement, the faculty acknowledged its responsibility, individually and collectively, to identify structural inequalities and hold itself accountable to engage in the work necessary to dismantle the systems of oppression that perpetuate racial inequities in our society and our community. You may read the full statement here.

This June marks three years since the faculty issued its statement. We were aware then and are aware now that centuries of structural oppression and injustice will not be eradicated in three years. The faculty’s commitment, supported wholeheartedly by the Dean’s Office, was to begin the necessary work. This Administrative Statement aims to provide a brief update on the efforts Pitt Law and its faculty, individually and collectively, have made in several domains to do just that.

Curricular Enhancements:

• Prof. Dave Herring initiated and leads Pitt Law’s involvement with The Neighborhood Academy Social Justice Education Initiative. This project engages Pitt Law students and students from Pitt’s Social Work and Education schools to teach a social justice course at The Neighborhood Academy. All students in this charter high school are Black and in serious financial need. Course projects involve implementing change within the Pittsburgh community. The course is a part of the Academy’s intensive college preparatory program to break the cycle of generational poverty.
• Prof. David Harris created and taught a new course, The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, in which law students and incarcerated students study fundamental issues in criminal law alongside one another, with most class sessions taking place at the correctional institution.

Experiential Learning:

• Prof. SpearIt hosted ABA Legal Education Police Practices Consortium Fellows, who work in tandem at law schools nationwide to address systemic racism as it manifests in criminal law and policy.

Programming and Events:

• With critical startup funding of $250,000 from the Eberly Foundation and a $400,000 grant from The Heinz Endowments, the law school has established a new Civil Rights and Racial Justice Center. The Center facilitates community-engaged teaching, research, and service and serves as an active intellectual hub for students, faculty, and community members collaborating on civil rights and racial justice projects. 
• The Office of Equity and Inclusive Excellence (OEIE) hosted Student of Color visitation days for students from Cheyney and Lincoln Universities (Pennsylvania’s HBCUs) to visit Barco and explore their interest in applying to law school. 

Supporting a Pipeline into the Profession:

• OEIE, in collaboration with Duquesne University and the Pittsburgh Legal Diversity & Inclusion Coalition, created a mentoring program for 2L and 3L students of color.
• Pitt Law partnered with McGuire Woods to offer LSAT test prep scholarships to PA HBCU students.

It can feel like little has changed these last three years, and indeed too little has. From fair housing to wrongful convictions, police shootings to health injustice and beyond, institutionalized racism and oppression continue to plague our society. We have only begun the work. And in that context, we are encouraged by the progress this community has made and energized and committed to the much greater work ahead. We invite all of you to join us in that effort. 

Sincerely,

Interim Dean Haider Ala Hamoudi

Vice Dean Jerry Dickinson