Message from the Dean
Dear Widener Law Commonwealth Community:
Like commonwealths of old, the Widener Law Commonwealth community is composed of people of good faith who have come together for the good of society. As a community of students, faculty and staff, we condemn absolutely and without hesitation racism and violence. We abhor and denounce the murder of George Floyd and the violence inflicted upon countless others.
As Widener University President Julie E. Wollman has said, “Our anger and anguish over injustice points to what needs to be done. We must listen to those who are not heard. We must use our voices to demand compassion and justice. We must move from sadness and shock about what is occurring to act, as individuals and as a society, to make change.”
We take seriously our responsibility to educate students to become lawyers. We recognize that we and the attorneys we train are part of the very system of privilege that today and throughout our country’s 400-year history has so often failed African Americans and other people of color, those with less advantage, those in the LGBTQIA community, Native Americans, the disabled, and immigrants.
We must challenge ourselves now, as an institution and as individuals, to identify the concrete ways that we are contributing to the problem. Only with that knowledge, can we then ask ourselves: What can we do to make sure that those around us, those we represent, those we teach, those we work with, can breathe and are seen and heard and afforded dignity and equal protection under the law and in every regard?
We stand with all those demanding justice and remind ourselves that with the privilege gained by having a license to practice law comes an unbending responsibility to do better, to help and not to hurt, and to uphold and protect the values of our Constitution for every, single American.
Dean Christian Johnson
Interim Dean-designate Michael Hussey