The Diversity Imperative Revisited: Racial and Gender Inclusion in Clinical Law Faculty

The demographics of clinical law faculties matter. As Professor Jon Dubin persuasively argued nearly twenty years ago in his article Faculty Diversity as a Clinical Legal Education Imperative, clinical faculty of color entering the legal academy in the 1980s and 1990s expanded the communities served by law school clinics and the lawyering methods used to serve clients in significant ways that enriched legal education and the profession. They also broadened clinical scholarship to include deconstructions and reconstructions of clinical teaching, offered crucial role modeling and mentorship to students of color, and helped to elevate cross-cultural communication and multiracial collaboration as core lawyering skills. Professor Dubin catalogued these contributions while pointing to data that showed that clinical faculties remained overwhelmingly White, and he urged law schools to recognize the urgency of diversifying clinical faculty. While there has been some research and scholarship devoted to the gender composition of clinical faculties, to our knowledge, there has been no substantive reexamination of the importance of racial composition since Professor Dubin’s article in 2000, nor any examination of clinical faculty diversity beyond race, ethnicity, and binary gender. The Clinical Legal Education Association created the Committee for Faculty Equity and Inclusion to draw attention to the crisis of diversity among clinical faculties, and to urge law schools to take proactive steps to remedy this longstanding failure. This Essay from the Committee assesses what progress has been made since Professor Dubin’s intervention and interrogates historical trends in the racial and gender composition of clinical faculty from 1980 to 2017, using existing data. We found that there has been limited progress on racial and ethnic inclusion in clinical law faculties. While the total percentage of people of color has grown from 10% to 21%, the inclusion of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous faculty has been largely stagnant. Black clinical faculty members reached 7% of all clinical faculty in 1999 and have never exceeded that percentage. Latinx clinical faculty representation, at 5%, is the same as it was in 1981. Indigenous faculty have never constituted even 1%. Overall, White faculty continue to hold nearly 8 out of 10 clinical faculty positions. With regard to gender, whereas women were underrepresented among clinical faculty in the 1980s, women now outnumber men in clinical faculty positions by nearly 2 to 1. Given that women remain underrepresented in law faculties as a whole, this seemingly positive development in the gender composition of clinical instructors nonetheless raises concerns about internal status inequities and the clustering of women faculty members in non-tenured positions with lower salaries and less job protection, including on clinical, legal research and writing and library faculties. Therefore, this trend may be a cautionary tale for the inclusion of other underrepresented groups moving forward. Acknowledging the limitations of existing data, we offer recommendations for future data collection that would recognize more inclusive identities and backgrounds. We suggest that future research assess job satisfaction and sustainability of faculty positions for people from historically disadvantaged groups to ensure that we are not just providing access to clinical law faculties, but also offering equitable and supportive working environments. New research will be crucial to developing a more meaningful understanding of inequities among clinical faculty, and to assessing equity and inclusion beyond descriptive representation. We conclude with a discussion of best practices for inclusive clinical faculty hiring and suggestions for future initiatives that may make the profession more accessible. Looking back on Professor Dubin’s arguments, we are disheartened by the lack of subsequent scholarship on clinical faculty diversity, particularly with regard to racial and ethnic representation. We are concerned that it reflects a degree of complacency with structural racism at our own institutions and a failure to recognize the dissonance between the values we promote in our lawyering and our participation in maintaining barriers to the profession. We hope this Essay will disrupt that complacency and revive Professor Dubin’s arguments for a diversity imperative, which are even more resonant in the current moment

Application of a stochastic weather generator to assess climate change impacts in a semi-arid climate: The Upper Indus Basin

Assessing local climate change impacts requires downscaling from Global Climate Model simulations. Here, a stochastic rainfall model (RainSim) combined with a rainfall conditioned weather generator (CRU WG) have been successfully applied in a semi-arid mountain climate, for part of the Upper Indus Basin (UIB), for point stations at a daily time-step to explore climate change impacts. Validation of the simulated time-series against observations (1961–1990) demonstrated the models’ skill in reproducing climatological means of core variables with monthly RMSE of <2.0 mm for precipitation and ⩽0.4 °C for mean temperature and daily temperature range. This level of performance is impressive given complexity of climate processes operating in this mountainous context at the boundary between monsoonal and mid-latitude (westerly) weather systems. Of equal importance the model captures well the observed interannual variability as quantified by the first and last decile of 30-year climatic periods. Differences between a control (1961–1990) and future (2071–2100) regional climate model (RCM) time-slice experiment were then used to provide change factors which could be applied within the rainfall and weather models to produce perturbed ‘future’ weather time-series. These project year-round increases in precipitation (maximum seasonal mean change:+27%, annual mean change: +18%) with increased intensity in the wettest months (February, March, April) and year-round increases in mean temperature (annual mean +4.8 °C). Climatic constraints on the productivity of natural resource-dependent systems were also assessed using relevant indices from the European Climate Assessment (ECA) and indicate potential future risk to water resources and local agriculture. However, the uniformity of projected temperature increases is in stark contrast to recent seasonally asymmetrical trends in observations, so an alternative scenario of extrapolated trends was also explored. We conclude that interannual variability in climate will continue to have the dominant impact on water resources management whichever trajectory is followed. This demonstrates the need for sophisticated downscaling methods which can evaluate changes in variability and sequencing of events to explore climate change impacts in this region

Thermodynamically consistent description of the hydrodynamics of free surfaces covered by insoluble surfactants of high concentration

In this paper we propose several models that describe the dynamics of liquid films which are covered by a high concentration layer of insoluble surfactant. First, we briefly review the 'classical' hydrodynamic form of the coupled evolution equations for the film height and surfactant concentration that are well established for small concentrations. Then we re-formulate the basic model as a gradient dynamics based on an underlying free energy functional that accounts for wettability and capillarity. Based on this re-formulation in the framework of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, we propose extensions of the basic hydrodynamic model that account for (i) nonlinear equations of state, (ii) surfactant-dependent wettability, (iii) surfactant phase transitions, and (iv) substrate-mediated condensation. In passing, we discuss important differences to most of the models found in the literature.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figure

Revision of basal macropodids from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area with descriptions of new material of Ganguroo bilamina Cooke, 1997 and a new species

The relationship of basal macropodids (Marsupialia: Macropodoidea) from the Oligo-Miocene of Australia have been unclear. Here, we describe a new species from the Bitesantennary Site within the Riversleigh's World Heritage Area (WHA), Ganguroo bites n. sp., new cranial and dental material of G. bilamina, and reassess material previously described as Bulungamaya delicata and 'Nowidgee matrix'. We performed a metric analysis of dental measurements on species of Thylogale which we then used, in combination with morphological features, to determine species boundaries in the fossils. We also performed a phylogenetic analysis to clarify the relationships of basal macropodid species within Macropodoidea. Our results support the distinction of G. bilamina, G. bites and B. delicata, but 'Nowidgee matrix' appears to be a synonym of B. delicata. The results of our phylogenetic analysis are inconclusive, but dental and cranial features suggest a close affinity between G. bilamina and macropodids. Finally, we revise the current understanding of basal macropodid diversity in Oligocene and Miocene sites at Riversleigh WHA

Sustainability of water resources management in the Indus Basin under changing climatic and socio economic conditions

Pakistan is highly dependent on water resources originating in the mountain sources of the upper Indus for irrigated agriculture which is the mainstay of its economy. Hence any change in available resources through climate change or socio-economic factors could have a serious impact on food security and the environment. In terms of both ratio of withdrawals to runoff and per-capita water availability, Pakistan's water resources are already highly stressed and will become increasingly so with projected population changes. Potential changes to supply through declining reservoir storage, the impact of waterlogging and salinity or over-abstraction of groundwater, or reallocations for environmental remediation of the Indus Delta or to meet domestic demands, will reduce water availability for irrigation. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; The impact of climate change on resources in the Upper Indus is considered in terms of three hydrological regimes – a nival regime dependent on melting of winter snow, a glacial regime, and a rainfall regime dependent on concurrent rainfall. On the basis of historic trends in climate, most notably the decline in summer temperatures, there is no strong evidence in favour of marked reductions in water resources from any of the three regimes. Evidence for changes in trans-Himalayan glacier mass balance is mixed. Sustainability of water resources appears more threatened by socio-economic changes than by climatic trends. Nevertheless, analysis and the understanding of the linkage of climate, glaciology and runoff is still far from complete; recent past climate experience may not provide a reliable guide to the future

Density functional approach for inhomogeneous star polymers

We propose microscopic density functional theory for inhomogeneous star polymers. Our approach is based on fundamental measure theory for hard spheres, and on Wertheim's first- and second-order perturbation theory for the interparticle connectivity. For simplicity we consider a model in which all the arms are of the same length, but our approach can be easily extended to the case of stars with arms of arbitrary lengths.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitte

Natural flood management: does age of forest influence flood mitigation?

Forestry has the potential to alleviate flooding by delaying the downstream passage of flood flows, reducing the volume of runoff through interception (Calder et al. 2003) and promoting rainfall infiltration into the soil (Forest Research, 2010). However, it is difficult to predict how much a forest needs to grow, before there is any significant effect on soil properties to increase the capacity to 1) store water, 2) increase soil infiltration, 3) slow water and reduce water flow connectivity to rivers. The structural coupling between plant roots and soil environment determines flow paths through the soil, where root growth and die-back influences soil hydraulic properties, increasing macropore distribution (Bengough, 2012) and soil permeability. We test the hypothesis: as the forest grows soil permeability below forests will increase, due to increasing macropore structure

Development of soil hydraulic properties below grassland, ancient forest and plantation forests

Woodlands in particular have the potential to alleviate flooding by delaying the downstream passage of flood flows, reducing the volume of runoff through interception (Calder et al. 2003) and promoting rainfall infiltration into the soil (Thomas & Nisbet, 2006). The natural processes which occur below ground to enable a change in hydraulic pathways and storage are complex and are dependent not only on geology, but also on landuse. We focus this study on below-ground changes that influence soil water characteristics, such as soil hydraulic conductivity, soil water retention and soil structure, which are all important in understanding how the planting of trees can mitigate localised flooding

PROCEE: a PROstate Cancer Evaluation and Education serious game for African Caribbean men

Purpose – Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in men in the UK. Black men are in a higher prostate cancer risk group possibly due to inherent genetic factors. The purpose of this paper is to introduce PROstate Cancer Evaluation and Education (PROCEE), an innovative serious game aimed at providing prostate cancer information and risk evaluation to black African-Caribbean men. Design/methodology/approach – PROCEE has been carefully co-designed with prostate cancer experts, prostate cancer patients and members of the black African-Caribbean community in order to ensure that it meets the real needs and expectations of the target audience. Findings – During the co-design process, the users defined an easy to use and entertaining game which can effectively raise awareness, inform users about prostate cancer and their risk, and encourage symptomatic men to seek medical attention in a timely manner. Originality/value – During focus group evaluations, users embraced the game and emphasised that it can potentially have a positive impact on changing user behaviour among high risk men who are experiencing symptoms and who are reluctant to visit their doctor

Spin transport in higher n-acene molecules

We investigate the spin transport properties of molecules belonging to the acenes series by using density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green's function approach to electronic transport. While short acenes are found to be non-magnetic, molecules comprising more than nine acene rings have a spin-polarized ground state. In their gas phase these have a singlet total spin configuration, since the two unpaired electrons occupying the doubly degenerate highest molecular orbital are antiferromagnetically coupled to each other. Such an orbital degeneracy is however lifted once the molecule is attached asymmetrically to Au electrodes via thiol linkers, leading to a fractional magnetic moment. In this situation the system Au/n-acene/Au can act as an efficient spin-filter with interesting applications in the emerging field of organic spintronics.Comment: 13 pages,9 figure