The University of Oregon School of Law is the recipient of a $263,000 grant from the United States Information Agency to establish a new "University Partnership" program with Ukraine’s Lviv State University and the Lviv Commercial Academy. The goals of the new program are to support locally based reform in teaching and learning methods in legal education in Ukraine. The program will provide curriculum reform; experiments with distance learning techniques between Ukraine and the United States; and provision of needed computer and communication equipment to Lviv. The partnership effort involves the writing and publication of law textbooks by Ukrainian legal scholars in areas including environmental, administrative, constitutional and commercial law. It also provides support for the Lviv Environmental Law Clinic and a Lviv Business-Trade Law Clinic; for teaching exchanges between Ukrainian and Oregon law teachers; and for English-improvement classes for visiting Ukrainian law teachers. The English classes will be provided in cooperation with the UO’s American English Institute.

The UO School of Law received a coveted $155,000 grant from the Institute of Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School for a two-year sentencing seminar and workshop program. The UO was one of only two schools in the nation awarded funds this year. The project will provide students in-depth study of sentencing philosophies and policies as well as the opportunity to meet with trial judges and other legal practitioners to discuss case studies and explore effective sentencing options. "This project will have a long-term impact in Oregon by providing sentencing training to state trial judges, lawyers and individuals working in the corrections and treatment fields," said UO law professor Margie Paris, who is coordinating the project. "It is exciting to be able to provide this opportunity for our students and the state." The program is modeled after successful programs offered at the University of Minnesota, the University of North Carolina, Oklahoma City University and Yale University and was developed in consultation with the Effective Incarceration Project of the Citizen’s Crime Commission in Portland. The Institute of Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School is funded by the Edna McConnel Clark Foundation.

Rennard Strickland, dean of the University of Oregon School of Law, was elected recently to the board of the Northwest Area Foundation, located in St. Paul, Minn. Established in 1934 by Louis W. Hill, son of Great Northern Railroad founder James J. Hill, the foundation helps communities most in need in an eight-state area to "work toward a balanced and sustainable system that will reduce poverty; stimulate economic growth; sustain the natural environment; and develop effective institutions, relationships and individuals." In addition to Oregon, states included in the area are Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington. Since its inception, the foundation has granted $269 million to nonprofit groups. In the fiscal year ending Feb. 28, 1998, assets were approximately $440 million and 43 grants were made totaling $5.7 million.

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