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Lewis & Clark faculty, students and trustees cheered as Sen. Gordon H. Smith presented President Michael Mooney and Board Chair Charles J. Swindells with a king-size $1-million check on Nov. 19 to help commemorate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The initial grant will cover architectural and engineering costs to design Bicentennial Hall, a center dedicated to studying the impact of the expedition on America. Before the applause had time to subside, Smith surprised the audience by announcing a second $1-million grant to establish the Crime Victim Law Institute at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College. "I love history," Smith revealed, while presenting the check for Bicentennial Hall. "During my college years, I was particularly interested in a course on the Age of Enlightenment. I felt great pride in the work of Thomas Jefferson and in his initiative to send Lewis and Clark to find the Northwest Passage. "It is appropriate," he continued, "that this noble College, which bears the name of these two Enlightenment figures, receive the funds to commemorate the work they did in the age of the American Enlightenment. "Pushing for this funding has given our state and Lewis & Clark College the ability to share the expedition's story of exploration and discovery with the nation," Smith said. "Those who visit our state during the bicentennial will be met with an experience unique to the Pacific Northwest, enhanced even more by the unparalleled collection of printed materials showcased at the namesakes' college." "This honor is of special significance to the College," President Mooney said. "During the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the nation will celebrate two great explorers, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson to undertake a journey of discovery. We celebrate them, not only because they were courageous men, but because they were serious scientists who studied the people, the geography, the birds and the plants of the West, and who participated in laying the foundation for the American Enlightenment. "The College is in a position to play a distinct role in the national celebration by focusing on the intellectual context and meaning of the expedition and its influence on the formation of the American mind. "I am grateful for the support of our congressional delegation: Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Darlene Hooley and David Wu, and Senators Gordon H. Smith and Ron Wyden," Mooney said. "Senator Smith was tireless in his efforts to persuade colleagues of the benefits of this project, and we owe him a special debt of gratitude." Crime Victim Law Institute "The grant for the Crime Victim Law Institute is the first grant of its kind, and this College is getting it," Smith emphasized. "We go to a great deal of effort to protect the rights of the accused," he noted. "With this funding, the law school will be able to explain legal issues related to crime victims. It's a whole new area of law, and I'm excited about that." "This initiative places our law school at the forefront of one of the most important emerging areas of law," said James Huffman, dean of the law school. "The Senate wants to encourage the expansion of educational opportunity and scholarship in a rapidly emerging area of law that previously has received inadequate attention," said Professor Douglas Beloof, a nationally recognized expert in the field of crime victim law, who teaches at the law school. Since the late 1970s, laws of victim participation, protection and privacy have flourished but have been largely ignored by legal academics and law school curricula, according to Beloof. "The Crime Victim Law Institute will help to establish the study and understanding of victim laws," he said. "It will educate law students and lawyers in legal issues in crime victim law, will produce scholarship on the subject and will be a national resource for people interested in crime victim law." Ultimately, the institute will include a legal clinic where law students will help the director to prepare briefs to defend victim rights in state and federal jurisdictions. Beloof published the first case book on the subject, Victims in Criminal Procedure (Carolina Academic Press, 1999), and recently published an article, titled "The Third Model of Criminal Process: The Victim Participation Model," which adds the value of the privacy of the victim into criminal procedure. "We are grateful for the bipartisan support and cooperation from Senator Smith and Senator Wyden in pursuing this appropriation," said Huffman. "We also appreciate the bipartisan efforts of Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. Without the enthusiasm and commitment of those four senators, the creation of the Crime Victim Law Institute would not be possible." |
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