Office of the Dean:
News & announcements from Dean Perritt for the week of
February 1, 1999

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"Strategies for Excellence:  Law as a Profession 1999"

Dear Student: 

Law is a profession.  One of the responsibilities of a law school - a responsibility that Chicago-Kent takes seriously - is to educate and socialize you to assume your professional responsibilities.  To supplement other aspects of its educational curriculum and to reinforce its emphasis on professionalism, Chicago-Kent organized the first Law as a Profession program in 1995.  Each year since then, all law school classes have been canceled one day a year to permit all Chicago-Kent students to attend this one-day program on law as a profession.  The program is mandatory for second year students.  In 1997, the program won the E. Smythe Gambrell Award from the American Bar Association, recognizing it as a model for other law schools around the country. 

The relationship between legal education and professionalism is an important one.  At a recent meeting of the Association of American Law Schools, the President of the American Bar Association, speaking for practicing lawyers, and the President of the Association of American 
Law Schools, speaking for legal educators, agreed on the importance of future lawyers being exposed, while they are in law school, to some of the issues that will confront them in practice and law faculties making it clear that becoming a lawyer represents the assumption of important professional responsibilities. 

Strategies for Excellence: Law as a Profession 1999 is not something that was dreamed up in an ivory tower; it is an important advance glimpse of the real world.  If you engage in it enthusiastically, you will get a sense, not only of the challenges that will confront you after law school, but also of the fun you can have, the power you will have as a change agent and champion of justice, and of the personal fulfillment you can realize. 


Workshop on the International Criminal Court and U.S. National Security

On January 28-29, Chicago-Kent hosted a Workshop on the International Criminal Court and U.S. national Security, organized by the American Academic of Arts and Sciences' Committee on International Security Studies.  Participants included U.S. government officials, NGO representatives and senior people from the international law and national security communities, to review the reasons why the United States objects to the treaty establishing an international criminal court and to determine whether there are changes that might make the treaty acceptable. 


Kosovo and Albania Trips

Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology sent a team to Pristina, 
Kosovo, from 14 to 18 December, 1998, as a part of its "Operation Kosovo." The team, building on relationships established during an initial visit to Pristina in October, 1998, assisted the Pristina office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees organize a comprehensive database of conditions and humanitarian needs in the 1400 villages of the region for use by the International Community in Kosovo. 

The Kosovo team, comprising Chicago-Kent Dean Henry H. Perritt, Jr., Assistant Dean Charles S. Rudnick, and IIT computer engineering sophomore Patrick A. Wagstrom, assisted the Kosovo office of UNHCR implement the first stages of a comprehensive computerized database which contains detailed information gathered from the most seriously affected of Kosovo's 1400 villages. The database system was designed after team meetings with the UN World Food Program representative, the International Rescue Committee, the United States Information Service ("USIS"), the United States Agency for International Development ("USAID"), the International Committee of the Red Cross and other NGOs. 

The team brought hardware for a database/Internet server, and installed it at UNHCR headquarters. The database has information on shelter and destruction of houses, food deliveries, regular and displaced-person population, and is designed to accept security information such as identification of areas with land mines, and places where security incidents have occurred.  It is expected that the database will eventually be accessible through the Internet's World Wide Web, both at a mirror site at IIT and locally in Pristina. The International Committee of the Red Cross is expected to have a separate, but compatible, system also visible on the Internet's World Wide Web, which the team will help design over the coming months. 

A delegation representing Operation Kosovo from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois 
Institute of Technology also visited Tirana, Albania from December 15 until December 18,1998.  The delegation consisted of Chicago-Kent Associate Dean, Harold Krent, Director of Institutional Projects, IV Ashton, and IIT-undergraduate student, Lwin Maung. 

The team's initial goal was to establish the Operation Kosovo computer network in the Tirana office of the Soros Foundation’s Open Society Institute (OSI).  Before leaving the team designed and developed the network in Chicago, then transported and installed it in Tirana.  At the core of the computer network is a high-end Internet server and an Ethernet hub, which creates an information Intranet in Tirana through six external modems. 

The team also connected the Internet server to the World Wide Web through the OSI offices in Tirana.  This was accomplished by suing a VSAT 64 Kbms satellite connection. 

Finally, the Albania team created and installed a database with the purpose of tracking critical information about Kosovar refugees in Albania, including relief services that are provided to the refugees by various international organizations.  This database was designed in cooperation with the Albanian Office of Refugees, the agency responsible for registering and providing assistance to refugees in Albania. 
 

Dean Henry H. Perritt, Jr. 


Archive Links:  Previous Announcements from Dean Perritt

Week of January 18, 1999 
  • Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting
Week of December 7, 1998 
  • Esther Rothstein
  • Soros Open Society Foundation Grant
  • Alumnus Gift
Week of November 30, 1998 
  • Dean Perritt Appointed to Advisory Commission on Internet Privacy
Week of November 23, 1998 
  • Illinois State Bar Association Award
  • Newly Appointed Distinguished Professors
Week of November 16, 1998 
  • Workshop on Genetic Susceptibility to Environmental Contamination
Week of November 9, 1998 
  • Project Bosnia IPRO Installs Ministry of Justice Database Server
  • Assistant Dean for Career Services and Alumnae/i Relations
Week of November 2, 1998 (No new information available) 

Week of October 26, 1998 

  • Illinois Commerce Commission Relationship
  • Judicial Ratings Available
Week of October 19, 1998 
  • 21st Annual Commodities and Derivatives Law Conference 
  • NCAIR Grant 
Week of October 12, 1998 
  • Update on Jacob Corre' 
  • New Graduation Date 
Week of October 5, 1998 
  • Meeting of the National Academy of Sciences 
  • Committee on Global Networks and Local Values 
  • Presentation to the Great Lakes Supreme Court Justices 
  • Jacob Corre's Condition 
  • Dean's Office Seeks Research Assistant 
Week of September 28, 1998 
  • Meeting with Albanian Ambassador to the United States 
  • Meeting with Counselor for Legal Affairs of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China 
Week of September 21, 1998 
  • Illinois Bar Association Award for Project Bosnia 
  • Jacob Corre' 
  • Operation Kosovo Web Site 
Week of September 14, 1998 
  • Meeting with Vice President for Information Technology at Northwestern University 
  • Meeting with Incoming President of the Chicago Bar Association 
Week of September 7, 1998 
  • Chicago Tribune Coverage 
  • New Member of Chicago-Kent's Board of Overseers 
  • ISLAT/AFB Tour and Dinner 
Week of August 31, 1998 
  • David Gerber's Reception 
  • First Meeting of Project Bosnia IPRO 
  • Discussions with Bosnia Refugee Group 
Week of August 24, 1998 
  • Two Faculty Members Visit China 
  • ABA Jurisdiction Project 
  • New Appointments in Student Services 
Week of August 17, 1998 
  • Creating and building momentum: keeping Chicago-Kent a law school ahead of the times 

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