Topic: In The News
Center for Animal Law Studies director comments on animal rights
In an Associated Press (AP) story that has made its way into publications around the world, Pamela Frasch, law professor and executive director of the Center for Animal Law Studies, comments on the growing field of animal law.
For the past 16 years, Lewis & Clark has been at the forefront of this emerging legal field. The school was the first to publish an animal law journal, the first to establish an international conference on animal law and the first to develop an animal law clinic, with full-time faculty.
In the AP article, Frasch points out that animal law is where environmental law was 20 years ago—demand is growing rapidly but much about this legal practice area is still to be tested and developed. In 2000, Lewis and Clark was one of nine law schools to offer animal law studies. Today about 100 do.
Frasch notes that because state laws vary to such a wide extent, there continues to be a mix of inconsistent laws regarding animal rights. “A mouse as a pet has protection. A mouse as a pest can be killed at will. Research mice have no protection. It is the same animal but it is a matter of context.”
San Fransisco Chronicle (San Fransisco, Calif.) More laws being passed to protect animals
MSNBC Animal cruelty laws among fastest-growing
Chicago Daily Herald (Chicago, Ill.) Animal law one of the fastest-growing niches in the industry
Detroit Free Press Animal law makes steady gains in states, experts say
The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah) Animal rights? Some things shouldn’t happen to a dog
Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Animal rights become hot field of legal study
York Daily Record (Pennsylvania) In some states, they shoot dogs, don’t they?
Students contribute to study on Oregon’s dying trees
Ecological data collection conducted by undergraduate students during a College Outdoors trip has been included in a Science journal paper titled “Widespread Increase of Tree Mortality Rates in the Western United States.” The paper discusses the mortality rate of trees in the Pacific Northwest and southern British Columbia. Studies show that the rate of tree death in this area has doubled in only 17 years. This can partially be attributed to the fact that temperatures have risen over one degree Fahrenheit over the past 30 years, leading to droughts and an abundance of insects and disease. Their research contributions on the changing dynamics of western forests has recently drawn the attention of a number of high-profile national and international media outlets.
Lewis & Clark students have collected data for the Franklin lab every August since 2006 as part of the Environmental Service Project. Alum and 2006 Break Away trip leader Brian Erickson ‘06 said, “We returned to plots that were established 30-plus years previously and remeasured every five to 10 years to provide an ongoing image of forest dynamics over time. The students collected high-quality data, worked extremely hard, learned a lot, and had a good time in the process.”
New York Times (New York, NY) Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths
Seattle Times (Seattle, Wash.) Regional warming hurting NW forests, study says
BBC News (London, UK) Climate shift ‘killing US trees’
Preparing students for lives as public leaders
Eban Goodstein serves as a professor of economics at Lewis & Clark. He also directs the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions, a project designed to harness the energy and interests of today’s college students to pressure political leaders to cut carbon emissions and pursue climate change policies. Goodstein insists that his role as educator requires him to help students build critical thinking skills to face the most difficult political, scientific and economic challenges of our time. In this commentary, he calls on his peers to see their roles as not only educators in their fields but guides to our citizenry and future public leaders.
The National Teach-In takes place on February 5 and includes more than 700 colleges, universities, and faith and civic organizations around the country who will discuss the goal of cutting current carbon levels by 40 percent by 2020. This teach-in will include lectures, faculty and student symposia, theater performances, and active engagement with political leaders and their environmental policies.
Watch this video of Eban Goodstein and colleagues discussing the importance of youth involvement in the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions:
Inside Higher Ed (Portland, Ore.) Education or Advocacy? Engaging a Hotter World
The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) National “global warming teach-in” returns to Oregon
Professor questions proposed pipeline in Mt. Hood National Forest
A proposed 47-mile natural gas pipeline through Mount Hood National Forest has raised questions about the Forest Service’s role in upholding environmental standards governing protected areas. According to Forest Service estimates, the Palomar pipeline, slated for construction in 2011, would require clearing more than 700 acres of national forest land, including 100 acres of old-growth forest.
Law professor Dan Rohlf, director of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (PEAC), challenges the Forest Service’s role in the $800 million project. Administrative changes put into effect by the Bush Administration have eased the approval process for pipeline projects, he said.
“When FERC shows up at the door and says we want to put the pipeline here, the Forest Service…says, ‘OK, how do we have to amend our plans to get this done.’ They don’t take as hard a look as they used to,” Rohlf said.
The Oregonian: Forest Service plans to clear legal path for pipeline in Mount Hood forest
Assistant Professor Jeffrey Jones argues for “New Economic Covenant”
While the federal government and economic experts focus their attention and resources on the corporate sector, Jeffrey Jones, assistant professor of law and author of The Unaffordable Nation: Searching for a Decent Life in America, argues in this opinion piece that U.S. workers should not be left out of economic stimulus plans.
“Much has been made about bailing out American corporations and whether government has done enough to help American workers,” Jones writes. “The interests are not opposed. Restoring our economy requires policies that promote good employment.”
The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) A New Economic Covenant
Associate Professor Jerusha Detweiler-Bedell named Professor of the Year
Associate Professor of Psychology Jerusha Detweiler-Bedell has been named the Outstanding Baccalaureate Colleges Professor of the Year Award by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The CASE/Carnegie prize is the only national award for excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.
Detweiler-Bedell, who joined the psychology faculty in 2001, immerses students in interactive and challenging lessons starting in their first psychology course. Students in her Introduction to Psychology class, for example, handle a human brain and imagine themselves as subjects in classic psychology experiments. More advanced students in her Clinical Psychology course assume the roles of therapist and patient as they learn to solve realistic problems. “CASE and the Carnegie Foundation saw in Jerusha what we also see in her: an inspiring and very talented teacher whose pedagogical approach in the classroom and laboratory is informed by excellent scholarship,” said Julio de Paula, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, of the award.
For additional details about Detweiler-Bedell’s award, including her acceptance speech, visit this Lewis & Clark site.
The Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington, D.C.) 4 Faculty Members Are Honored as U.S. Professors of the Year
Inside Higher Ed (Washington, D.C.) Top Profs
USA Today (McLean, Va.) 2008 Professors of the Year prepare students for lifelong learning
The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) Lewis & Clark professor wins national educator honor
Video: Sophomore featured in Project Happiness documentary
For sophomore John-Nuriel Vissell, the key to happiness lies in doing what you love. During Vissell’s senior year at Mount Madonna School in Watsonville, California, his Values Education class was offered a challenging opportunity to evaluate the concept of happiness with two other schools from India and Nigeria. Selected by Project Happiness, a non-profit group inspired by the Dalai Lama’s book “The Ethics for the New Millennium,” these three groups were filmed for an entire school year while interacting with each other through the internet and eventually meeting in India on a trip to visit the Dalai Lama.
For Vissell, this experience was life changing. After his group asked the Dalai Lama how to obtain lasting happiness, Vissell noted, “He sat silent for a while, then responded, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ It was the perfect answer. This was the pinnacle of our work on this project. We ascended the mountain and as soon as we met with him on the summit, he sort of brought us back down to where we started.”
Santa Cruz Sentenial (Santa Cruz, Calif.) Spreading ‘Happiness’ worldwide - one young person at a time
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