Real situation at Law School
To the Editor:
Your editorial concerning the Rogers Program on Law, Philosophy and Social Inquiry was, frankly, irresponsible. Let me start by making a few necessary corrections. First, the Rogers Program is (unfortunately) not running on a $137 million gift from James E. Rogers. To be sure, Jim Rogers has generously donated over $100 million to the University of Arizona, and for that we should be, first, extraordinarily grateful and, second, very cautious about throwing around such enormous figures. But, obviously, the entire sum is not being dedicated to the Rogers Program.
Second, the Rogers Program does not "consist of about 35 students and faculty attending 10 workshops throughout the academic year." The workshop you refer to is but one small part of a multifaceted program. The other parts include:
* An annual interdisciplinary conference: On January 26 and 27, 2001, the Program will host the first of these conferences, on the topic of Guns, Crime and Punishment in America. The conference will bring together the nation's leading experts from across the country on a wide range of gun-related fields, including gun-oriented policing, gun control legislation, civil litigation against gun manufacturers, Second Amendment controversies and federal sentencing laws for gun offenders.
* Course offerings (for credit!): The Rogers Program annually will sponsor four courses in interdisciplinary legal studies taught by faculty members from the departments of anthropology, philosophy, psychology and sociology. These courses will be open to law and other graduate students, and will enrich greatly the curriculum at the Law School and across the University.
* Funding for scholarships and faculty recruitment: The Rogers Program will be contributing financially to the departments of anthropology, philosophy, psychology and sociology over the course of the next decade to help attract the best graduate students and to provide assistance in recruiting the most talented faculty.
* Joint-degree programs in eight areas: In addition, the Rogers Program will support and help promote eight joint-degree programs leading to J.D./Masters or Ph.D.s in fields ranging from philosophy and psychology to American Indian studies and public administration, and, hopefully in the near future, women's studies.
The workshop which you refer to --- the Workshop on Law and Social Control --- is just a small piece of the picture. It is open to the university public and completely voluntary. It is extremely useful to the approximately 35 students and faculty who are working in the area of socio-legal thought and practice, and has provoked excellent debate. Today, October 19, 2000, Professor Loic Wacquant of Berkeley and of the Centre de sociologie europeenne du College de France will join us at the workshop for a discussion of his paper on the globalization of order-maintenance policing. Next semester, Professor Robert Sampson of the University of Chicago will join us for a similar workshop.
In the near future, we also hope to be adding to the Rogers Program a Visiting Scholars program that will attract interdisciplinary scholars to Tucson, as well as a more regular luncheon series open to the University public (like everything else we already do) and annual publications. We also hope to bring in other disciplines into the interdisciplinary mix. The department of English, among others, has expressed great interest in contributing to the Rogers Program.
The Rogers Program has a unique mission: to critically explore alternative ways of understanding and theorizing the relationship between law and society, to reexamine normative paradigms, and simultaneously to reframe contemporary debates over existing public policies. In this sense, the Rogers Program is one of a kind and, with the collaboration of nationally recognized departments like Anthropology, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology, is likely to propel the University of Arizona to a leading position in interdisciplinary legal studies.
Students who participate in the Rogers Program will be receiving a tremendous benefit to their education - for which they do receive "credit." For law students, it's called a J.D. For other students, it may be a Ph.D., an M.A. or a B.A. Hopefully, in the future, we might be able to set up a Certificate associated with the Rogers Program. But that's not what the Rogers Program is about. It's about enriching our educational experience. It's about bringing outstanding scholars, like Loic Wacquant and Robert Sampson, to the University of Arizona. It's about attracting the nation's leading experts on gun policy to Tucson. It's about enriching our intellectual community at the University. And it's about making the University of Arizona a national leader in interdisciplinary legal research and studies.
Bernard E. Harcourt
Associate Professor
Director of the Rogers Program
