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Art Pope angling for influence at NC Central Law School?

Submitted by James on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 11:59am

More puppies for the mill? This alert via anonymous email.

Art Pope is putting together a Constitutional Law Center at NC Central University's Law School. It is his existing NC Institute of Constitutional Law, but is being put at the law school and will focus on 1868 Constitution and Reconstruction/civil rights and other history issues. It will work with the history and business departments thus giving Pope even broader influence at NCCU. Bob Orr will be director.

The faculty's curriculum committee met this week. Full faculty vote is next week. The idea was to do this at Carolina but they didn't want the entanglement. Neither did Campbell. Central is so strapped for cash given the budget that it will do it. Faculty has to approve it. Some faculty don't like the arrangement but most seem willing to go with it. Once they do, administration officials will have to approve it which won't be a problem. Then it goes to the Board of Governors for the system. It has all happened VERY quickly and quietly. some body needs to make this public.

Ah yes, the Puppymaster never fails. Find the poorest and most oppressed among us and exploit them for personal gain. To my knowledge, UNC at Chapel Hill told Pope to go (expletive deleted) himself. So did Campbell? Now he's offering this historically black institution an offer they can't refuse.

Will the NCCU faculty agree to become part of Pope's Plantation? Will the Student Store be taken over by Maxway? We'll soon find out.

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Comments

To my knowledge

Submitted by James on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 12:02pm.

I don't know for a fact that Mr. Pope has made a firm offer to purchase NCCU, but it's certainly his MO. This is from an anonymous email.

They need to refuse

Submitted by scharrison on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 12:35pm.

If the faculty/trustees at NC Central thinks the man behind this debacle:

With protesters shouting in the background, the school board in Raleigh voted 5-to-4 to develop attendance zones closer to students’ homes. Advocates say the new plan will spare children long bus rides, while opponents claim it will lead to racial “resegregation” and more concentrated poverty in certain schools.

has nothing but "good intentions" about a relationship with their school, they need to think again. Hard.

Not only will this relationship taint the University's curriculum, the tainted "research" produced will be used in an attempt to justify regressive policies that would hurt the vast majority of the students, families and alumnus of the school. And it will have the NCCU stamp of approval on it.

Julius Chambers

Submitted by gregflynn on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 12:56pm.

1936: Oct 6: Julius Chamber is born in Mount Gilead, NC

1948: Twelve-year old Chambers decides to become a lawyer when his father is deprived of payment by a white person and can’t hire a lawyer of his own.

1950: Fourteen-year old Chambers joins book club because of limited access to libraries, and attends Peabody high school in Troy, 12 miles away from Mt. Gilead.

1954: Graduates from high school, enters North Carolina College (called NCCU in 1969)

1955: As a freshman at NC College, is forced off of an interstate bus by the driver because he refuses to move to the back and give up his seat to a white person.

1958: Graduates from North Carolina College with a BA in history, summa cum laude.

1959: Receives MA in history from University of Michigan and enters UNC-CH law school in the fall.

1961: Elected editor in chief of UNC-CH law review, and becomes the first African American to hold position at any historically white school in the South.

1962: Graduates from UNC-CH with a law degree, first in his class. He is the first black student to be editor-in-chief of the Law Review.

1964: Receives Master’s in law degree from Columbia University and in June founds Chambers, Stein, Ferguson, & Atkins in Charlotte, the first integrated law firm in North Carolina.

1965: On January 19, Chambers represents 41 black plaintiffs in a suit to integrate the Shrine Bowl football game, a high school all-star event played every year in Charlotte. Five days later, his car is dynamited as he meets with African Americans in a nearby church. On January 29, arsonists firebomb his house. In November, files Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education suit on behalf of ten black families whose children had been denied admission to all-white schools.

1967: Becomes one of the first black lawyers accepted to the North Carolina bar association.

1971: Chambers’ office is fire bombed February 4. On April 22, he argues and wins Swann vs. Mecklenburg in Supreme Court, which upholds use of busing to achieve desegregation. Also wins Griggs v Duke Power Co. in Supreme Court (Title VII discrimination case).

1972: Joins UNC Board of Governors, representing NCCU.

1977: Resigns from BOG two years before term ends in protest of desegregation policy he said was “window dressing” and with the board’s delay in further integrating the universities and improving the opportunities for black students.

1993: Becomes chancellor of NCCU. He takes job at a time of financial and athletic troubles—the athletics department had accumulated nearly $900,000 in debt, and its former director was indicted on charges of receiving kickbacks.

2001: Retires as Chancellor of NCCU

2002: Becomes Director of UNC Center for Civil Rights.

2011: Sees his life's work dismantled by Art Pope

My letter to NCCU

Submitted by James on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 1:12pm.

Dean Pierce.

I'm writing to call your attention to an anonymous email I received today about Mr. Pope's plans involving the NC Central Law School. The email is posted on my personal blog, BlueNC.

http://bluenc.com/breaking-art-pope-buy-nc-central-law-school%3F

By way of background, I will be taking the LSAT in October, with NCCU at the top of my list of potential schools. Just to say it, any affiliation with Mr. Pope's burgeoning empire of influence would be problematic for me on many levels.

Best regards,

Word from NCCU

Submitted by James on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 3:51pm.

"It's just a proposal."

Riiiiiiiight.

Official response from the Dean

Submitted by James on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 6:24pm.

Thank you for the information. Justice Robert Orr is a former adjunct professor at our law school and he has presented the proposal.

I encourage you to prepare well for the LSAT. I would hope that you are taking an LSAT prep course that could improve your performance. I welcome your application to the NCCU School of Law.

Raymond C. Pierce
Dean and Professor of Law
North Carolina Central University
School of Law

Prepare for the LSAT? Hmmmm.

Submitted by James on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 6:25pm.

Prepare for the LSAT? Hmmmm. I hadn't been planning to do that. Maybe I'll have to rethink.

Heh. You better do good

Submitted by scharrison on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 7:11pm.

We have a reputation to uphold, you know. :)

NCCU downgraded by Moody's

Submitted by James on Fri, 08/26/2011 - 7:53am.

Just the kind of distress that has the Puppymaster licking his chops.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/26/1437052/nccu-credit-rating-is-cut...