CPS and Minority Contractors: Is This Really Such A Mystery?

The Enquirer now reports that Cincinnati Public Schools has "reached out" to minority contractors in an effort to increase minority involvement in CPS's ongoing construction projects. The Enquirer describes the new plan as "experimental." My question: this isn't really as difficult as CPS is making it out to be, is it?

CPS has insisted (sincerely, I believe) that it is committed to minority involvement in its construction contracts. It seems befuddled as to how to get there. But there exists, within Cincinnati, a working model as to how to use race-neutral means to achieve significant minority participation in construction: the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Some time ago, the inestimable Dan Hurley did an excellent segment on Newsmakers on how the Freedom Center was able to achieve contracting out 40% of the work to minority-owned firms. I'll not recount the process here in great detail, but perhaps CPS Board members should follow the link and watch the video.

It should be noted that involving minority-owned firms doesn't necessarily ensure the employment of minority workers. That's a whole other blog post, I think. But I can't figure out why CPS is having such a hard time doing something that was accomplished just a few years ago in Cincinnati.

Finally, this is probably the right time to note my disagreement with Griff's post on Christopher Smitherman's arrest last week. Mr. Smitherman and Rev. Foster were acting in the best tradition of the civil rights movement: engaging in civil disobedience to bring attention to an important social problem. They demonstrated peaceably and offered no resistance to the police when arrested. And prior to their protest, they had exhausted other means to bring about change, having petitioned CPS several times to redress their concerns. Their actions are akin to the Flannery Five's sit-in in Steve Chabot's office to protest the Iraq war back in 2006. You may disagree with their viewpoint, but their actions are consistent with a rich tradition of American activism.

WOXY.com Halting Broadcasts

WOXY.com announced via its website that effective today, March 23rd, it is shutting down broadcasting due to a lack of funds. I hope they can continue operating, but this type of step indicates thier financial backers are unable to carry on support of the station. They may need another white knight. Good luck to the whole WOXY staff. I hope they are back on the air soon.

UPDATE: CityBeat's Mike Breen has a blog post including reference to a Facebook post from a long time WOXY staff member. The future does not look promising.

UPDATE #2: WOXY staffer Joe Long shared his thoughts on WOXY going silent via his music blog: www.eachnotesecure.com.

UPDATE #3: Jason at the Cincinnati Man has more, including a response from WOXY owner Future Sounds.

Chase Dean Misunderstands Professionalism

Chase Law School (part of NKU) has made some national news this week, and not in a way that will make its administration happy.

Last week, Chase scheduled a mandatory lecture on "professionalism" for its first-year students. Such events are relatively commonplace. They're boring. They have little to do with what first year students are studying at the time, and first-year students aren't really able to put a lecture on professionalism into context, as most haven't so much as set foot in a law firm yet. But nonetheless, law schools love to schedule these kinds of events.

For some reason, Chase's administration thought the perfect time for the relatively useless exercise was Thursday night--right in the middle of the first round of the NCAA tournament. And during Kentucky's first round game. The results were predictable. Students showed up, and (as is common at law schools these days) had their laptops open to "take notes." Of course, CBS was live-streaming the tournament, so students with laptops turned the game on (without sound). Others used their phones to check scores or text friends.

So who cares? The panel of speakers, seated at the front of the room, couldn't have seen what was on the laptops. Apparently, one of Chase's deans was in the back of the room. He saw the laptops, and was not pleased. So he sent a nastygram strongly-worded email to the entire 1L class, telling them how "rude" and "unprofessional" they were. And now, the email has made its way to Above the Law, a blog with a national following devoted largely to law school news.

As a UC Law alum, I'm always happy to make fun of Chase. My glee at pointing out that the law school began at the Cincinnati YMCA knows no bounds. ("Where'd you get your law license--the Y? Oh, yeah, never mind....) Here, any ridicule needs to be reserved for Chase's administration, not its students. They scheduled a lecture to be attended primarily by twenty-somethings fresh out of college in the middle of the first round of March Madness and expected that attendees' attention wouldn't be diverted? Seriously?

Law school administrators often fall into the pattern we see here: treat law students as if they were still in high school, with little control over their own schedules or (frankly) lives, and then chide them for not being "professional." They forget that professionals have at least some control over their own calendars. Walk into the courthouse on Opening Day. You won't see anyone. Why? Because no one wants to schedule anything then. If a lawyer is a basketball fan, do you think he scheduled client meetings or court appearances last Thursday or Friday? Do you really expect a bunch of kids from Kentucky to abstain from March Madness?

Lawyers have lives outside of their practices. Law students are usually told during law school orientation to try to maintain some sort of life outside of their studies. Then, for the next three years, administrators and professors pretend as if law school is life. Such mixed signals will inevitably yield unhappy results.

A Pledge For Local TPers, If They Are Serious

Loki at Cincyvoices has formalized a pledge that local TP members should consider if they are really serious when they spout off about being against all forms of socialism.

Conservative Politics: The Junior High Edition

We have rock throwing at the local Democratic Party HQ and people wonder who could have been egging on the stormtroopers?

Someone needs to remind the right wing crazies that the world isn't going to end because of health-care coverage. Seriously, it's not.

Also, I really wonder if Ohio TPer's know anything about Federal Preemption. I mean, sure, they could try to coin their own currency or try to ignore the 14th Amendment, but we had a war about a 150 years ago that decided all of that rather definitively.

Where did the Republican grown-ups go?

Will Local GOP and TP's Denounce This?

As of this morning the National GOP has been silent on the use of racial slurs towards members of the US Congress by TP protesters, as well as anti-gay comments towards Rep. Barney Frank and someone spitting on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

These are hopefully not the views of the local TP or GOP, but those movements/groups have been surrounding themselves with people who do use hate as a weapon, so they need to be responsible and speak out against this. It would be an honorable gesture and clear sign that these groups are not sympathetic towards racism or homophobia. The level of hate that as brewed inside the TP movement has been more caustic and intense then anything short of the radical anti-abortion movement from the late 80's early 90's. Many theories have been raised that point to the irrational fear people have now that a black man is President as being a cause of vehemence been shown leading up to this vote.

The sad truth is that there is a lot of racism and bigotry on the right-wing of American politics against blacks, Latinos, and Gays. It does not take much to stand up and denounce hate. Just a press release would be a start. A better place to have started would have been the "Tea Party Pledge" to have included an idea including equality for all. The problem is, I don't think they could get consensus on that type of idea. That is the clearest sign that there are problems and the TP/GOP leadership can't ignore them and expect their members to be civil when they foster and fuel hate.

Gumption Awards Taking Nominations

Cincinnati's Charter Committee has announced it is taking nominations for the Charles P. Taft Civic Gumption Award through Sunday March 21st, so there is still time to honor local leaders who "exhibit courage and common sense in leadership."

To make a nomination, please fill out the form found on the Charter Website.

Send in your completed form to info@chartercommittee.org by the end of the day tomorrow.

For more information on the award, please check out the Charter Committee website.