view . spring 2009
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The idea of a school
of higher
learning as separate and distinct from the
community stems back to Plato when he
formed The Academy in 387 BC. This
sacred sanctuary for learning existed
outside the city walls of Athens. The
term “town-gown” eventually was coined
to describe what was often a fractious
relationship. But there are positive signs
that things are warming up. Increasingly,
cities and universities are joining together
in mutually beneficial partnerships to
promote regional vitality as well as
university development.
“ [We] should recognize that a
university of today must contribute to
changing the communities around it,
and at the same time be willing to be
changed by these communities,” said
University of Windsor President Alan
Wildeman at his October 2008
installation address.
The University of Windsor is married to the City of Windsor
and the County of Essex as surely as if a judge had joined them.
Each has the power to positively impact the other. And each has the
responsibility to do so.
The University of Windsor Faculty of Law’s very foundation is
built on providing access to justice for all. These words are brought
to life each day in the heart of downtown
Windsor, where its Mediation Services
office sorts out legal problems for those
who cannot afford a lawyer. For example,
when the bank was about to repossess
one woman’s home when she was unable
to afford the payments, she turned to
Mediation Services. The organization
sorted out the legal complications involved
with the mortgage and provided medical
documentation of her mental health
problems, establishing that she had been a
victim of elder abuse. The bank dropped
its legal proceedings and she was able to
keep her home.
“She was just so ecstatic. She was
elderly so she didn’t understand all the
legal terms because I was also dealing
with her law firm,” said Barbara Opalinski,
a third-year law student who worked on
the woman’s file at the newly opened
downtown Mediation Services office. “She
didn’t understand everything that was going on and she was just so
excited that she could go on with her life.”
In fact, the woman is one of several hundred people helped
by the office, which has a settlement rate of between 75 and 85
percent. Opalinski says she wonders what clients like this woman
and others who benefit from the law school’s clinics – Legal
Opposite page: Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis , Dr. Alan Wildeman, and Essex County Warden Nelson Santos.
Law student Barbara Opalinski.
BY PAUL RIGGI
UNITED
STAND
we
