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Teaching Through Tragedy: The Aftermath of
September 11—A Community Service Response
Case Western Reserve Journal
of International Law, Fall 2002, Volume 34, Number 2, at page 205
Matthew Wilkes*
Historically, New York Law School, situated in lower Manhattan since its
founding in 1891, has considered its location to be one of its primary
assets. In the late nineteenth century, when Columbia University's School
of Law was moving uptown, a core of Columbia's students and faculty,
including adherents of its founder and first dean, founded New York Law
School (NYLS). Consistent with a practice-oriented approach to legal
education, New York Law School's founders decided to remain downtown near
the Civic Center, the site of State and Federal courts, City Hall, the
Municipal Building, and offices for numerous City, State, and Federal
agencies. The school also has ready access to the Wall Street financial
district and the many law offices and corporate headquarters in the area.
In addition to enjoying the benefits of its location in what came to be
known as TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal Street), near SoHo (South of Houston
Street), Greenwich Village, Chinatown, and Little Italy, the School also is
within ten blocks of the site of the World Trade Center.
Thus, on the morning of September 11, 2001, the impact of the terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center was felt at the school immediately.
Classes were cancelled that day and those who were at the school, quite a
number of whom had witnessed the impact and the immediate aftermath, had to
evacuate the area and deal with the uncertainty of what to do and how to
negotiate the disruptions to transit and communications systems. By the
end of the afternoon that day, the school was without electricity and
telephone services, and all that goes along with that. The school's
computer system was down, resulting in loss of e-mail and internet access,
which otherwise might have served as alternate means of communication.
Over the next two weeks members of the law school administration engaged in
daily, and at times more frequent, conference calls to plan the next steps
and responses, a process made more difficult due to disruptions to
communications systems that were now experienced across a wider portion of
the metropolitan New York area. An early priority was to account for
students, staff, and faculty, as well as graduates. This was further
complicated by the lack of access to central administrative records held in
the law school's now-inaccessible facilities and the fact that many,
especially those who lived near the law school in an area designated as the
"frozen zone (where little or no access was allowed, except through police
and military checkpoints) had left the area. (The frozen zone initially
had extended from Fourteenth Street, running east and west across Manhattan
about a mile north of the law school, to the southern tip of Manhattan.
Gradually over coming weeks the northern-most boundary of this zone was
moved south toward the law school, though the school remained within the
most restricted area for a considerable time.)
Numerous alternative means of communication were employed in the effort to
account for those connected to the law school, including a personal visit
to the dormitory facility where a number of students reside, establishing
telephone calling trees, email message distributions, many of which were
from faculty to students currently enrolled in their classes, and postings
to an emergency web site that was established remotely through a service
provider in Florida. Again, faculty members fashioned individual messages
for postings to the web to address the concerns of students in their
respective classes, including plans for how the course of study was to be
pursued once classes could resume.
Even when the school remained in a restricted access area, efforts were
made to allow students to gain access to their books that were still at the
school. For those students who lost books in offices that were destroyed
in the disaster, arrangements were made, through efforts by members of the
law school library staff, to replace the books at no cost to the students.
After power was restored to the law school's facilities (an electrical
generator had been set up in one of the buildings to provide temporary
power for the School), there still were difficulties and limitations in
available services, including limited telephone service (local service was
restored well before long-distance service became available); continuing
over a considerable period of time. During the week following the attack,
when access to the area was still strictly controlled, faculty and
administrators attempted to regroup at the law school in preparation for
resuming classes the following week.
At one point a meeting had to be discontinued and the building evacuated in
response to a minor electrical fire in the basement of one of the
buildings. Once it was possible to return and the meeting resumed in an
alternative location. It was not long until the next disruption - a bomb
scare. The warning was relayed to the School through a call received by Con
Edison. This apparently resulted from the fact that their trucks, along
with those from the Fire Department, had been parked outside our buildings
as they responded to the minor electrical fire discovered in the basement
of one of the school's buildings. The telephoned threat forced a complete
evacuation of the buildings, ending the first of the post-September 11 on-
site gatherings convened at the school in the hope of taking steps to
prepare to reopen.
Despite the difficulties and disruptions encountered in preparing to
resume classes, the faculty shared plans with one another about how to
address what had happened while also preparing to reengage with the
substance of the academic program. Teams of mental health professionals
who had come to the school on a volunteer basis participated in planning
sessions held at the school. Counseling was made available to students,
faculty, and administrative staff. The director in the law school's new
Office for Public Interest and Community Service was assigned
responsibility for coordinating counseling services. There were counseling
and discussion sessions, held both in groups and for individuals, that
continued to be made available at no cost over a period of months.
Resuming classes
The date for reopening the law school was set for Monday, September 24. As
it happened, while the school by then would have been closed for nearly two
whole weeks, several scheduled holidays occurred during this period,
resulting in the loss of only seven class days. Rescheduling was arranged
to make up classes, either by lengthening class meetings or adding
sessions, including some now held on weekends. It was determined that the
fall semester schedule of classes would end as originally designed and that
the final examination schedule would proceed as originally planned.
Once the fall term resumed, the faculty adopted a policy to allow students
to choose to take one of their courses that semester on a pass-fail basis,
with the choice to be made once the student had knowledge of the grades
that would have been received absent the election of the option.
(Accompanying this policy was the understanding that the law school was
prepared to make additional arrangements to respond to needs of members of
the student body who faced extraordinary demands at that time, including
police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical service personnel, a
number of whom are enrolled as Evening Division students. Many now were
called upon to work long shifts and were faced with demanding and stressful
work in the aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center.) The
faculty also decided to extend the period of tenure eligibility by one
semester, in recognition of the extent of disruption to normal work
experienced here during the fall 2001 semester.
Upon reopening the law school buildings for classes to resume, there was a
strong effort put forth to make the return for students a welcoming one.
This was in the face of the fact that the law school was to remain in the
limited access and cordoned-off "frozen zone for weeks to come. Early on
there were a large number of wrecked vehicles that had been moved from
nearby the World Trade Center site and deposited on streets near the law
school. Trucks rumbled past the law school transporting remnants removed
from the World Trade Center site, to be taken to nearby barges for water-
borne removal from Manhattan, while water was sprayed on the streets in an
effort to control the dust falling from the trucks. The military and law
enforcement presence around the area remained strong and very visible, and
concrete barriers were placed around the many nearby government office
buildings and other strategic facilities, including the courts, police and
fire stations. Telephone and power lines now ran along the surface within
aboveground shells constructed to contain them, to enable electrical and
communications services gradually to be restored to the area. Finally,
smoke and accompanying odors remained a palpable presence, an inescapable
reminder that continued even after many weeks and months had passed,
contributing to continuing concerns about air quality and safety in the
area.
In the face of all this, the welcoming back effort was led by the dean,
Richard Matasar, who, together with associate deans, personally greeted
students at the entrance to the building. What proved in hindsight to be a
lighter note, though at the time it was quite indicative of the tension
that remained in the atmosphere, was the initial response of a student who
wondered what possibly could have happened now that caused the deans to be
meeting students at the door of the law school.
Once classes resumed discussion sessions among faculty and administrators
continued to be held, to provide a chance to check in with one another
about how we as individuals and as a group were responding and what issues
remained as we went about our business in what continued to be a difficult
working environment. An example of efforts of this sort was a discussion,
facilitated by the school's mental health consultant, Dr. Judith
Rosenberger, on the subject of "Balancing Empathy and Academics. Also
accompanying reentry to the academic program a series of town meetings and
teach-ins were held, starting even before classes resumed and continuing
over a period of weeks, with participation by both full-time and adjunct
members of the faculty as well as students, including a panel organized by
the South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA).
Another event of this type, held at the law school on October 3, 2001, and
open to the public, was a symposium on "Responses to the September 11th
Events: Causes, Reactions, Long-Term Solutions. It was sponsored by the
New York City and NYLS Chapters of the National Lawyers Guild, the NYLS
Office for Public Interest and Community Service, the NYLS Latino Law
Students Association, the NYLS Public Interest Coalition, and Phi Alpha
Delta of NYLS, with organizational leadership by NYLS Professor Carlin
Meyer. Panelists included Manning Marable, of the Institute for Research
in African-American Studies at Columbia University and co-founder of the
Black Radical Congress, Donna Lieberman, Interim Executive Director of the
New York Civil Liberties Union, Abdeen Jabara, a civil rights lawyer and
past president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Michael
Ratner, former national president of the National Lawyers Guild and legal
director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and with Ron Daniels,
Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and former
Executive Director of the Rainbow Coalition, as moderator.
The return to classes also afforded opportunities to pursue the continuing
effort to account for all concerned. It was known that some number of New
York Law School students had placements through the School's Externship
Program and Workshop courses, in offices in and around the World Trade
Center, as well as some number who had work-study or regular employment in
offices there. Not surprisingly, the number working in such positions is
even greater among the School's part-time students, many of whom work full
time, including a substantial number employed as members of uniformed
services, whether as police officers, firefighters, or emergency medical
team personnel. With all this, after all the efforts to account for those
connected to New York Law School, the result was the fortunate discovery
that all students, staff, and faculty were safe. Sadly, however, it was
learned early on that one of our graduates had been lost; then, after a
period, news came about another lost, and then a third. Now, even months
later, news has been received about a fourth graduate lost.
Efforts to Support and Respond to the Urge to Serve and Contribute
A notable and widespread response to this crisis was manifested in a
dramatic upsurge in interest of many people to engage in volunteer efforts,
to find some way in which to help those suffering as a result of the
devastation. It was observed on a number of occasions that at times there
were many more volunteers available than there were opportunities to put
them to work. However, it also was clear that the need for social
services, and the accompanying lack of sufficient support for their
delivery, was present before this tragedy and clearly would continue long
afterward.
The challenge became one of harnessing the available resources, applying
them wisely, and, further, maintaining the commitment to respond over time.
(A proposal looking to the longer-term prospects, both in attempting to
continue the spirit of service and volunteerism that emerged while also
potentially serving as part of the effort to establish a suitable memorial
to those lost in the tragedy, appears as an addendum to this piece.)
Following are some highlights of activities in this vein emerging from New
York Law School over the past several months. A significant aspect of the
response is that it was immediate; the creation of course offerings and
volunteer projects responding to the tragedy was accomplished in time so
that students could plan their spring semester schedules and register to
participate in the various offerings, as described below.
September 11 Law School Pro Bono Coordinating Committee — In response to
emerging needs for legal services connected to the disaster, and even
before classes at New York Law School resumed, Professor Stephen Ellmann,
Associate Dean for Faculty Development, convened a meeting at the Law
School on September 21st. The intent was to bring together clinical law
teachers and others in legal education to meet with representatives from
organizations providing legal services, including those working through bar
associations to coordinate pro bono activities among the private bar.
Among those attending was Robert MacCrate, senior counsel at the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm and former president of the New York State Bar
Association and of the American Bar Association. Mr. MacCrate observed that
the gathering represented an historic occasion and that it deserved to be
named, both to memorialize the gathering itself and to provide a banner
under which to operate continuing efforts to bring the bar and the academy
together with legal services providers. The name chosen was the September
11 Law School Pro Bono Coordinating Committee. Minutes of that meeting and
a report on efforts of the law schools represented, both assembled by
Professor Stephen Ellmann and some of which is reflected in this document,
are found on the NYLS web site (http://www.nyls.edu).
Institutional contributions New York Law School was able to offer included
making its facilities available to lawyers from the community. Lawyers
from the nearby court facilities, the Legal Aid Society (which had been
displaced from their downtown Manhattan offices), and other offices were
able to use the law school Library. The DC 37 Municipal Employees Legal
Services program arranged to use the Law School's clinic interviewing rooms
to meet with their clients, since their building was not accessible. The
New York County Lawyers Association moved at least one training program to
the law school, since their building, across the street from the site of
the World Trade Center, was also not accessible.
A graduate now working at the law school volunteered her assistance to do
research for the Legal Aid Society on service availability for undocumented
immigrants, and she recruited a current student to give additional help;
another alumna worked with law student volunteers at the Family Assistance
Center established just a few blocks from the law school. The law
school also made its facilities available for community groups and
organizations seeking to address issues growing out of the World Trade
Center Disaster. This included, in addition to meetings of the local
Community Board, a hearing for the "Ground Zero Elected Officials Task
Force chaired by Congressman Jerrold Nadler, seeking to provide information
to, and to gather information from, small business owners in the downtown
area who were facing difficulties as a result of the disaster.
Office for Public Interest and Community Service — Within New York Law
School, the Office for Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS),
having begun operations during summer 2001, became a central collection
point for information about pro bono service opportunities, including, as
described further below, those available to students, whether the setting
involved: 1) an academic credit-bearing offering; 2) a paid work-study
position; or 3) volunteer community service work.
Office of Public Affairs — OPICS was able to use electronic media (both
through web postings and mass e-mail distributions to specified audiences)
as means of communication. This involved working with the School's Office
of Public Affairs, under the direction of Altagracia DilonČ Levat,
Associate Dean for Public Affairs. That office has oversight
responsibility for the school's web site (www.nyls.edu), which was then
undergoing a redesign process. It proved an effective means for getting
the word out and providing updates about new public service opportunities
as they became available.
Announcements posted to the school's web site pertaining to disaster relief
operations in need of volunteer assistance included those from Safe
Horizon, New York City's leading provider of victim assistance and violence
prevention services. The organization became deeply involved in responding
to the grief and hardships caused by the World Trade Center disaster, and
at a certain point was the only organization providing immediate financial
assistance to all victims of the disaster. The school's web site, along
with mass e-mail distributions, was used regularly to relay this
organization's calls for assistance, including requests for volunteers to
work at the Family Assistance Centers that had been set up to provide
coordinated responses to those in need of services.
Other calls for volunteer assistance that were posted included those from
the American Red Cross and from Bouley Bakery, a restaurant located nearby
the law school that was working around the clock, eventually with a
contract from the Red Cross, to provide food services for rescue and
recovery workers at the World Trade Center site.
Another call for assistance that was posted to the NYLS web site came from
the Arab American Family Support Center, which, given the feeling of
possible danger threatening this community, sought volunteers to accompany
women and children to buy food and to walk to and from school. Also posted
was the call that came from this group as part of their effort to create a
list of "Arab professionals and intellectuals and university students that
could be provided to media representatives calling the Center. New York
Law School Professor Sadiq Reza, a member of the faculty who is an American-
born Muslim with Indian heritage, made himself available as a spokesperson
concerning Islamic issues, both to this group and as a participant in
educational panels and discussions organized within the law school.
From these postings we received reports back from students and others,
including graduates and adjunct faculty teaching at the Law School, who
were using the information provided to learn of volunteer opportunities
which they then pursued, some quite intensively. This even included some
from out of town who had no prior connection to the Law School and who, in
preparation for coming to New York and seeking to offer help, had found our
postings through web searches and who we then were able to assist in
linking with organizations seeking volunteers. The reports of the
experiences of volunteers seeking to help those suffering losses from the
attacks were that the work was both rewarding and, not surprisingly, at
times draining and emotionally very difficult.
Justice Action Center — OPICS worked in cooperation with the Law School's
Justice Action Center, and Professor Richard Marsico, the Center's Program
Director who also teaches in the law school's Civil and Human Rights
Clinic, to assist in development of new offerings to provide vehicles
through which students could participate in responding to emerging needs,
as highlighted below.
Poverty Law Seminar and Workshop: Civil Legal Services in a Time of
Critical Need — This example of a newly created credit-bearing offering is
taught by Adjunct Professor Raymond Brescia,, a staff attorney with the
Urban Justice Center (UJC), a civil legal services office. The course
offers students the opportunity to assist in providing civil legal services
to financially needy clients who were victims of the World Trade Center
disaster.
Students work at the Urban Justice Center under the supervision of UJC
attorneys and advocates, and the available work is quite varied in nature.
Primarily, students provide direct assistance to those coming before
government entities and private groups dispensing aid. In addition, with
the economic aftershocks of the tragedy placing added stress on already
overburdened systems dispensing unemployment benefits, welfare, disability
benefits, and Medicaid, students have the opportunity to work with the
economic victims of the disaster, to serve as advocates to help them gain
access to desperately needed services. Finally, students have the
opportunity to provide technical assistance to community groups concerned
about the economic effects of the disaster on low-income communities and
the impact that redevelopment efforts will have on such communities.
The seminar portion of the course provides students an overview of the law
and policy relating to the legal advocacy they are to provide. This
includes Medicaid, unemployment benefits, and welfare and disability law.
In addition, the seminar covers practical skills, including administrative
advocacy and interviewing. It deals with ethical issues that arise in
dispensing and receiving aid in the wake of a tragedy. Finally, the
seminar addresses policy and legislative issues involving post-disaster
reconstruction efforts.
Project to Provide Corporate Legal Services for Distressed Small Businesses — Another example of a program emerging in response to critical needs
identified in the community is the creation, under the inspiration and
direction of Professor Anthony Fletcher, of a project to provide Corporate
Legal Services for Distressed Small Businesses. The project is designed to
provide assistance to those small businesses in the downtown area
experiencing difficulties as a result of the September 11 disaster. It has
emerged as a project with the promise of offering badly needed services,
and eligible student participants are able to receive compensation through
the Federal Work-Study Program for their work on the Project. Student
participants receive excellent hands-on training, thus giving them an
opportunity to learn practical business law skills while they serve others.
Students are supervised in developing practical skills needed to assist the
small business enterprise, with particular emphasis on the challenges faced
by these businesses within an economically distressed environment. This
Project also explores the typical legal and economic challenges generally
faced by small businesses (including, but not limited to, inability to
raise capital and obtain insurance coverage). A primary objective of the
Project is to expose students to the practical mechanics of corporate law
and to equip them with the requisite substantive legal skills needed in the
role of the corporate lawyer as a planner and counselor to a small business
enterprise.
Students complete basic corporate law workshop sessions that include a mix
of lectures and simulation exercises designed to address the expected range
of legal problems likely to be encountered, beginning with intake
procedures and extending through the period of active representation.
Matters covered range from incorporating the small business to
renegotiating leases to providing application assistance for federal and
state loan and grant assistance. Students, under faculty supervision,
participate in advising and providing counsel to proprietors and/or
managers of small businesses in connection with the development of long-
term business plans, relationships with vendors and suppliers, and
rudimentary corporate statutory compliance.
Furthermore, the Project emphasizes practical skills associated with client
representation in this context, including interviewing clients with varying
degrees of business sophistication, identifying legal issues, and helping
in development of proposed legal and economic models for economic growth.
Students analyze the extent to which corporate law accommodates the
distressed small business and provides the necessary tools to redress
adverse residual effects in contexts such as this. It is contemplated that
the Project, initially offered on a pilot basis, has the potential to
develop into a regular curricular offering, expanding the nature of
clinical services offered by the school.
Economic Literacy Consortium — This is an effort operating under the
umbrella of New York Law School's Justice Action Center and is led by New
York Law School Professor Karen Gross, a recognized expert in the field of
bankruptcy law. Professor Gross's work in this area, including her
collaboration with Fordham University School of Law Professor Susan Block-
Lieb, involves conducting programs to assist those facing conditions of
financial hardship as well as programs to "train the trainers. A session
of the latter kind was offered to community service providers with the
expectation that, following the training, they could then go out into the
communities they serve and provide their constituencies with the debt and
money management skills they need. The design of this program, and another
debtor education program offered to the public and entitled "Dealing with
Debt in a Time of Uncertainty," placed an emphasis on providing assistance
to those facing financial burdens and difficulties as a result of the World
Trade Center tragedy.
In addition to these initiatives, Professor Gross's ongoing financial
literacy / bankruptcy debtor-education programs, for which Helena Prigal,
Director of Public Interest and Community Service, provides administrative
support, offer opportunities for student involvement and have ongoing
relevance to the legal needs of those suffering as a result of the World
Trade Center attacks.
The New York Law School Community Fund — "Helping our community rebuild.
This is a philanthropic initiative by the law school with the stated
intention to support recovery efforts in the downtown area. The
administration of the fund is being handled through the law school's
Institutional Advancement Office, headed by Associate Dean Barbara
Leshinsky, who is charged to convene a committee composed of faculty,
students, and staff representatives to help determine the best use for the
funds collected and generated by the School for this purpose.
Employment-related legal services for low-wage and immigrant workers
affected by the World Trade Center disaster — The National Employment Law
Project (NELP), The New York Legal Aid Society, and MFY Legal Services have
implemented a project to provide employment-related legal services to low-
wage and immigrant workers directly or indirectly affected by the attack on
the World Trade Center. The project works with labor and community
organizations to educate their constituencies about relevant legal issues,
such as wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance and disaster
unemployment assistance, and reemployment programs and benefits, and to
identify potential clients. NELP sought law students able to make a
substantial commitment to participate in the project (asking for
approximately 15 hours per week during the spring 2002 term).
Through this project, students are trained to assist with client screening
and intake and in the litigation of individual cases as appropriate. A
student from New York Law School was designated by NELP to be the student
clinic coordinator for the project, while another NYLS student worked on
the project through the MFY Legal Services office; both receive financial
support from the Law School through the Federal Work-Study Program. When
NELP put out a call for law students fluent in Spanish and/or Chinese
dialects who can serve as translators during the weekly clinics set up to
provide employment-related legal services, seven NYLS students (five from
the first year and two from the second year) responded. These students then
participated in an Employment Law/Translator Training for law student
translators, covering such topics as how to do intake, issue-spotting for
unemployment insurance, employment and wage discrimination issues, as well
as how to be an interpreter in a legal setting.
Further developments — Another example of the continuing nature of the
commitment to examine subjects arising in this context is reflected within
the academic program through another curricular addition, designed by
Professor Stephen Ellmann to be offered during the 2002-03 academic year.
It is a three-credit course focusing on "The Constitution and Terrorism,
and its description states:
This course will study the issues, unfortunately likely to remain
timely, emerging from our response to terrorism on and after September
11, 2001, with a primary focus on United States constitutional law but
some attention to international and comparative constitutional law as
well. Since the response to terrorism raises issues both of
constitutional powers and of constitutional rights, this course will
address a wide range of questions, including issues of executive and
legislative power to begin, pursue, and end wars; emergency powers;
the guarantee of habeas corpus and the suspension of that guarantee;
the application of the constitution to the actions of the US and its
allies abroad, to the rights of aliens here at home, and to prisoners
taken in the war against terrorism; the constitutionality of military
tribunals; and questions of civil rights and liberties under the
First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments, ranging from
free speech to racial profiling to the creation of national identity
cards.
Recognition for some of the work described above has come from sources such
as PSLawNet. (Public Service Law Network Worldwide — PSLawNet — describes
itself as "a global network of some 120 member law schools and nearly
10,000 law-related public service organizations and offices around the
world.) In October 2001, New York Law School and Pace University School
of Law were honored as joint recipients of PSLawNet's 2001 Pro Bono Publico
Award, for the efforts the schools were making in response to the World
Trade Center attacks.
The Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) each year awards its Stuart and
Ellen Filler Fellowship to a social justice organization for the purpose of
enabling that group to hire a law student to participate in its work. This
year the award has been made to New York Law School's Office for Public
Interest and Community Service and the school's Justice Action Center "for
their collaborative work with legal service organizations on behalf of
individuals, community groups, and small businesses harmed by the events of
September 11.
Of course, even now we do not yet know the full ramifications to emerge
from this fateful year. The experience of confronting terrible loss that is
beyond our control highlights by contrast the fact that the course we
choose to follow in the aftermath of this tragedy does remain within our
power to determine, individually and collectively. If we find it within
ourselves to draw from this experience lessons leading to the exercise of a
greater sense of compassion and deeper capacity for understanding, these
redeeming values can constitute, even in the face of great catastrophe, a
longer term victory for those forces for good we would wish to draw upon as
guides in coming days, providing a base of constructive lessons to be
reflected upon in future years.
At an immediate level there is a question to address regarding the legacy
we wish to create for the benefit of the next and future generations. From
this will flow whatever promise of security and possibility for fulfillment
the future holds for them. Addressing this reality may be a particularly
salient factor in the lives of those engaged in the educational enterprise
and who define their work to include efforts to advance the state of
humanity and promote processes that enable us to transcend our ordinary
limitations, rather than succumbing to and collapsing within and under
them. Certainly that is part of the challenge those in the academy can
choose to set for themselves. In particular, it is difficult to imagine
how those in legal education, who examine societal mechanisms established
to address disputes and differences, and ideally to bring to bear a spirit
of justice, would be able to ignore this aspect of their work.
Promoting a caring approach to thinking about the real-world implications
of, and outcomes that can be expected from, processes that are the subject
of study in law school, particularly with respect to methods for addressing
differences and resolving disputes, can be accomplished by incorporating
relevant material and exercises into study lessons. This approach has the
potential to exert a powerful influence on the nature of the lessons
students draw from their studies and can thereby prove to have a salutary
effect on the path taken by decision makers of the future. Though work in
the academic world may be a step removed from the arena where policy
decisions are implemented, there is in this realm the opportunity to study,
reflect upon, plan, and propose thoughtful approaches that can lead to
better solutions and resolutions in the world.
Key questions that remain concern the depth and duration of the commitment
to continue to pursue the good work and spur to volunteerism witnessed in
the extraordinary circumstances experienced here. Following is an addendum
describing a wider-reaching proposal seeking to give continued attention to
such matters, including how these might be addressed on a considerably
broader scale, as part of an effort to realize a degree of longer-lasting
good even in the face of such tragic circumstances.
Addendum
[Note: The material in the addendum appeared originally in the fall-winter
2001 issue of the New York Law School magazine, In Brief, as part of a
special section concerning the effects of September 11 and its aftermath on
those connected to this law school.]
Redevelopment with heart: A suggestion for the development of an active memorial — in the spirit of service
By Matthew Wilkes, Associate Dean for Public Interest and Community Service
As we consider approaches to the redevelopment of downtown Manhattan, we
ought to contemplate how to keep alive the expressions of deep caring and
generosity of spirit that emerged in the aftermath of the great tragedy of
September 11. A possibility is to consecrate the site of the World Trade
Center by creating there as a core element, along with whatever memorial
and other appropriate development that emerges, a world service and
volunteer center.
Such a facility can honor those who did so much in the face of extreme
conditions and can help to continue the spirit of active service and
volunteerism that was summoned from deep levels as individuals responded to
this crisis, and to one another. Inspired by both individual and
organizational responses to this tragedy, the proposal is to create a
center to assess, and further refine, methods for effective delivery of
essential services in times of critical need.
For example, a central tenet that emerged as a guide in responding to this
crisis came from the urge to create more supportive and streamlined methods
to deliver assistance. The proposal now is to retain this sense of urgent
humanity and to continue to develop approaches that remove unnecessary
barriers, confusing dead ends, and other maze-like diversions often faced
by those seeking assistance. Ideally, approaches that avoid these pitfalls
will become the norm for delivering social services, and not only under
extreme conditions.
By focusing on the roles played by the "helping professions," both
uniformed services and others, the center can serve as a training venue and
offer opportunities for hands-on placement experience, geared to address
both domestic and international rescue and relief efforts, responding to
natural and any other disasters we may face.
The basic components of the proposed design include development of: (1)
coordinated and humane service delivery systems; (2) career training for
the helping professions; and (3) research, study, and means for
dissemination of information concerning, improved methods of service
delivery.
The idea is to constitute a living memorial designed to sustain, learn
from, and continually regenerate the inspirational ways of being and acting
that emerged on the part of so many who were touched by this tragedy. This
can serve to reinforce and keep alive the core values we share, with an
emphasis on mindful responses based in compassion, understanding, and a
recognition that, beyond responses to basic physical needs, emotional and
mental health needs of victims and rescuers alike deserve attention. A
complementary response to these concerns can be realized in the physical
environment as well, such as through the creation of a meditation garden,
to benefit all who come to the site.
The generative power for this project, to be drawn and built upon, is based
in the collective and continuing urge to help and to express our better
selves that became so palpable and dramatically visible at this time. Like
a stone dropped into a pool, the movement begun here can help to create
waves of caring and goodwill, continually expanding outward and across the
artificial divisions that often separate us.
Such a center, dedicated to service, can be part of a series of projects
developed at the site to reflect and promote the finest aspects of
community in New York, from a spirit of access and inclusiveness, to
support and appreciation for creativity, expressed through the arts,
education, philanthropy, and civic consciousness, demonstrating how diverse
groups can prosper together, celebrating differences along with all they
have in common. Developing means to recognize, reinforce, and propagate a
spirit of mutual care—expressed through giving, healing, learning, and
planning for better outcomes—can contribute to the ongoing recovery
process, serving both as source of remembrance and of hope.
* Associate Dean for Public Interest and Community Service, New
York Law School.
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