Friday, October 30, 2015
Indiana’s Oldest College Newspaper
Hallward-Driemeier’s sixteenth Supreme Court ruling proves to be more than sweet BY Maria Mendez and Maria Rummel
The journey from the classroom to the Supreme Court is not an easy one, but DePauw University alumni Douglas Hallward-Driemeier reached his destination. He has gone before the Supreme Court 16 times, and his case on marriage equality has been the pinnacle of his success. Hallward-Driemeier returned to DePauw on Monday evening as part of this year’s Ubben Lecture series. He discussed the influence his family, DePauw and his own marriage have had in helping him become part of this case and the way these factors influenced his arguments. On June 26, 2015, same sex couples were officially recognized in the constitution for equal marital rights as opposite sex couples. He referred to that day as not just the highlight of his professional career, but one he holds to be as personally important to him as his own wedding and the birth of his children. “Now as I sat in the court room waiting for my turn to argue in the Supreme Court there came a moment where I felt how physically tense I was,” Hallward-Driemeier said about his experience in front of the Supreme Court defending this historic argument. “I thought of the hundreds of thousands of people whose happiness was riding on this case and I felt the burden of their hopes. Then I realized it was not their burdens that were holding me down but the hopes that were lifting me up.” Hallward-Driemeier’s involvement with the Obergefell case started in his hometown of St. Louis. There he was raised in a home that taught him
Committee to review events of Sept. 23, hope to report to campus by end of semester BY ALISON BAKER
news@thedepauw.com
news@thedepauw.com
Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, attorney and 1989 DePauw graduate, speaks to students, faculty and community members on Monday evening about his journey from Greencastle to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he helped persuade them to rule in favor of same-sex marriage this past summer. REBECA BAGDOCIMO / THE DEPAUW to respect all people and this value instilled on him by his parents would later help him feel comfortable advocating for progressive change in America. In just third grade, HallwardDriemeier stood against discrimination for the first time. As a homework assignment he wrote about his best friend moving away because his school district was joining with other
districts that included students of color. Through his young words, he expressed how the reason why his best friend moved away made him sad. His teacher made him
ubben cont. on pg. 2
vol. 164, issue 16
President Brian Casey announced an Independent Review Panel this Tuesday which is set to examine the events of Sept. 23 and report their findings back to the university. The idea of a third party committee arose from conversations with the mayor, police departments and members of the community. Casey had also mentioned it at the October faculty meeting and in an earlier email. “I had multiple meetings with the mayor and police to have all sides agree to do this,” he said. The third party committee, intentionally formed by Casey, consists of Myra Selby, Joe Slash and Troy Riggs. He reached out to people in the Indianapolis/Indiana community, people on campus sent names and he talked with board members and people at other universities. “I wanted to generate a long list of people,” said Casey during a phone interview on Thursday. Casey detailed a number of criteria each member embodies. They have done work in the area of civil rights, community work or police work, so they know that area; they are immediately recognized as people of considerable success and ability; they are independent from both Greencastle and DePauw University. Selby, Slash and Riggs have been given a specific charge by Casey to address a number of topics: preparedness of the university
and city officials, how the roles and responsibilities of the offices and agencies were understood/can be better clarified in the future, internal communication both formal and informal from the university/city, how the university’s response affected student feelings of safety and security and equality of treatment. The committee will also consider the future, “How might DePauw and the City of Greencastle and its offices continue to develop open lines of communications and jointly-understood priorities and practices to develop increased trust in service of creating a safe and secure community?” They are aiming to have their report by the end of the semester. “The findings will be made available to the city and to the university and then I will make them public,” said Casey. The panel at this point has had one preliminary meeting to introduce themselves to each other and accomplish basic blocking. “They have to do a lot of review,” said Casey. “There’s a lot of information about that day, about policies.” There are also plans in the works to have a forum for the community to have the opportunity to talk to Selby, Slash and Riggs. The review panel is just one effort to work on the campus, inclusion and the nature of diversity on DePauw’s campus. Casey also has additional steps in the works that he will announce early next week. “This is not it,” he said. “This is just one part of a multi-part effort to work on diversity and inclusion on this campus.”