The Daily OrangeLaw students participate in policy program
By Darren Benda
Posted: 8/31/06, 11:16 PM EST Section: News
Four Syracuse University students from the College of Law were chosen this past summer to participate in the first ever Burton Blatt Institute scholarship program, which focuses specifically on disability policy leadership.
After a rigorous application process, the first four inaugural graduate students who represented SU were second-year law students Michael King, Emily Cosentino and Bert Kaufman and third-year law student Annette Sawicki.
"My summer experience would have felt incomplete without actually seeing language that I wrote included in the legislation," Kaufman said. "But to know that several paragraphs of a 278-page bill now provide accessible housing for individuals with disabilities, a national disability service and other policy improvements really made this experience an unparalleled one."
The Disability Policy Leadership program was designed to send students to Capitol Hill to study public policy law firsthand. However, while participating in the eight-week program, the students also learned the difficult process of making laws through the perspectives of disabled people, said William Myhill, a professor of law and senior research associate at BBI.
While on the trip, the students followed numerous members of Congress and senators through the legislative process in order to learn how to research and compose regulatory issues that impact disabled people, Myhill said.
BBI established this program to promote the late Burton Blatt's ideology. Blatt, who passed away in 1985, was a centennial professor at SU.
"(He) was truly a great leader. He systematically took care of mental retardation in numerous state institutes in the 1960's," said Myhill.
Blatt also founded the Center of Human Policy at SU, which was created to promote a more open center of education for disabled people.
"Blatt was instrumental in bringing civil rights to the mentally disabled, which previously were neglected," Myhill said.
The Burton Blatt Institute, which is offered only at Syracuse, created a program that would follow Blatt's ideas for years to come. Through the help of BBI Chief Operator Peter Blanck and BBI Executive Director Brian McLane, the DPL program was launched in the summer of 2006.
The program took place in Washington D.C., and couldn't have taken place without the help of BBI's Washington coordinator, Michael Morris, who specializes in disability law, and Hannah Arterian, dean of the School of Law, Blanck said.
After a rigorous application process, the first four inaugural graduate students who represented SU were second-year law students Michael King, Emily Cosentino and Bert Kaufman and third-year law student Annette Sawicki.
"My summer experience would have felt incomplete without actually seeing language that I wrote included in the legislation," Kaufman said. "But to know that several paragraphs of a 278-page bill now provide accessible housing for individuals with disabilities, a national disability service and other policy improvements really made this experience an unparalleled one."
The Disability Policy Leadership program was designed to send students to Capitol Hill to study public policy law firsthand. However, while participating in the eight-week program, the students also learned the difficult process of making laws through the perspectives of disabled people, said William Myhill, a professor of law and senior research associate at BBI.
While on the trip, the students followed numerous members of Congress and senators through the legislative process in order to learn how to research and compose regulatory issues that impact disabled people, Myhill said.
BBI established this program to promote the late Burton Blatt's ideology. Blatt, who passed away in 1985, was a centennial professor at SU.
"(He) was truly a great leader. He systematically took care of mental retardation in numerous state institutes in the 1960's," said Myhill.
Blatt also founded the Center of Human Policy at SU, which was created to promote a more open center of education for disabled people.
"Blatt was instrumental in bringing civil rights to the mentally disabled, which previously were neglected," Myhill said.
The Burton Blatt Institute, which is offered only at Syracuse, created a program that would follow Blatt's ideas for years to come. Through the help of BBI Chief Operator Peter Blanck and BBI Executive Director Brian McLane, the DPL program was launched in the summer of 2006.
The program took place in Washington D.C., and couldn't have taken place without the help of BBI's Washington coordinator, Michael Morris, who specializes in disability law, and Hannah Arterian, dean of the School of Law, Blanck said.
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