Climbing Above the Culture Clash

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Professor Robert Volk (’78) recalled Margo’s dedication. “I first met Margo when I was a student at BU Law, working in the law library. From time to time, I would be sent to the Dean’s Office to make deliveries and run errands for Margo. She seemed to run the law school. When I joined the law school in 1980, first with the Morin Center, and then as director of the Writing Program, I learned that Margo really did run the law school! Her hard work and dedication to the law school cannot be overstated, and we will all miss her.” Margo was witness to great transformations at BU Law. She made the move from the School’s former location on Beacon Hill at 11 Ashburton Place to its current site at 765 Commonwealth Avenue. At the start of her career, BU Law graduated around 90 people each year. Today, the School graduates nearly 500 J.D. and LL.M. students. “We’ve become quite a different law school in the years Margo has been here. And Margo reminds us that we were just a little downtown law school,” said Professor David Seipp, who worked with Margo in her efforts to preserve and document BU Law’s history. Through all the changes, her dedication to the School’s community never faltered. It was the connections she made over the years that she valued most about her experience at BU Law. “For her, it wasn’t just, ‘Oh, I met you; hello, goodbye,’” said Irene Moustakas, director of Personnel Services at BU Law and a close friend of Margo’s since Margo hired her in 1951. “It meant a great deal to her to have that contact with students. She liked it, and they appreciated it. They appreciated that someone cared about them enough to stay in touch. She went out of her way to be nice to them and ask about their families.” BU Law and Boston University honored Margo many times for her unwavering support. She was the first recipient of the Student Bar Association award honoring outstanding service and contribution to the student body in “ Margo was a rare and delightful person,” said Dean Maureen O’Rourke. “She nurtured and supported our law students and alumni for more than half a century. ” 1987. Later that year, she received the John S. Perkins Distinguished Service Award. This award is presented annually by the Boston University Faculty Council for those who have “served the University with great distinction and have made important contributions toward the goals of the University.” In 1988, Margo received the Silver Shingle Award, the highest honor given by the law school, for Distinguished Service to the School of Law. She received the Gerard H. Cohen Award in 1995. At the reception for the latter honor, a description of Margo’s accomplishments stated, “By 1983, she had total responsibility for the operational budget, personnel and payroll, faculty appointments, accreditation reports and countless other administrative duties. She was literally a one-woman administration.” Professor Seipp noted, “We’ve essentially been replacing Margo with whole staffs.” At the 125th anniversary of Boston University School of Law in 1997, the Annual Alumni Gala was held in honor of Margo for her 50 years of service to the School. Margo told BU Today, “I can’t imagine anyone having a better time anywhere than I’ve had here…. I’ve enjoyed my years here so much that they haven’t seemed like work.” Robert Kent (’49) said in his speech honoring Margo during this event, “It is often said that no one is indispensable. Maybe so, but this woman came close.” “The larger part of Margo’s effect has not come from her ability to administer, advise and direct the life of the School,” said then-Dean Ronald A. Cass in a letter announcing the event. “It has been a simple and rare quality: she loves people so readily and fully that we cannot help falling in love with her.” This seemed especially true for the law students at the School whom Margo cared for long past their graduations. “I first met Margo 53 years ago when I was a first-year law student,” said Morton Aronson (’59). “She had great empathy and understanding of the trials and tribulations of law students. Margo always went the extra mile to be helpful.” In many cases, her service to the students is what alumni remember best about their experience at BU Law. “She stayed in touch with graduates throughout the country — and the world, for that matter. To the students, although she never admitted or acknowledged it, she really functioned as the School’s ‘go to’ person. She was the one a student would turn to in the event of a problem or question,” said Paul Sugarman (’54). “Margo is synonymous with the Boston University School of Law.” It was clear that Margo loved the law school, and the School of Law was fortunate to have been her second home for so many years. “Margo Hagopian is one of a kind,” said Sugarman. “There is no mold, and I doubt that there will ever be another Margo.” • 24 | Boston University School of Law | www.bu.edu/law
Q&A with Professors Linda McClain and Katharine Silbaugh Professors Offer Course on Gender, Law & Public Policy This Fall Over the past few decades, the conversation about gender and the law has expanded beyond feminist legal theory to include a much broader discussion of social and political equality across a wide spectrum of situations. Ending gender discrimination and securing women’s rights has become a priority for some policymakers, including President Obama, who appointed a new White House Council on Women and Girls. An August 17, 2009, article in The New York Times Magazine titled “The Women’s Crusade” asserted that the oppression of women and girls worldwide has become the human rights cause of our time. Family definition, same-sex marriage, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, black masculinity issues, reproductive rights, freedom from domestic violence, and work-life balance are just a few of the topics encompassed within the broad category of gender today. This past spring, Professors Linda McClain and Katharine Silbaugh pioneered the new BU Law colloquium “Research on Gender, Law & Public Policy.” The course allowed second- and third-year students at BU Law — along with BU professors and political science graduate students — the opportunity to meet with experts in the field to discuss their works in progress. Using gender as a lens through which to view many different topics in law and policy, Silbaugh and McClain capitalized on the wealth of experts at BU and in the region. In structuring the course, McClain and Silbaugh chose to expose students to a range of different methodologies and perspectives, enlisting experts in law, history, political science, social policy and literature who are exploring issues of gender, law and public policy. Students were asked to examine scholarly work, think critically about it and become familiar with some of the varied approaches scholars may take when examining a topic. McClain and Silbaugh answer questions about the Gender, Law & Public Policy course, which McClain will teach this fall. Pnina Lahav. And there was student interest in bringing in high-level scholars who have developed expertise across different areas that touch on gender. Linda McClain: I think that a lot of pressing issues of law and policy involve gender in some way. By that, I don’t mean simply questions of women’s basic equality, but also issues about things like family definition, the rights of gay men and lesbians and of transgendered persons, just to name a few. Q: What did you hope to accomplish with this course LM: [We hoped to give] students a chance to see how very significant law and policy issues involve gender questions, and also to give them the chance to meet and interact with leading scholars who make gender a focus of their scholarly work — not just law professors, but also people in some other disciplines as well. Q: What was your primary motivation for developing an upperlevel course on law and gender Kate Silbaugh: We wanted to capitalize on expertise that Linda and I share, as well as [BU Law professors] Kristin Collins and Fall 2009 | The Record | 25
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