Remembering Judith Faust, social worker, teacher

Judith Faust

Judith Faust, instructor emerita at the School of Social Work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), and an extraordinary human being, died Sunday. 

Judith was a dear friend of mine and my wife's when we lived in Arkansas in the 20-aughts. I am sorry that, since moving to the northeast, we did a poor job staying in touch beyond the occasional greeting card. Judith died comfortably in hospice from cancer, a friend caring for her, Amy Freer, reported on Facebook.

Judith continued teaching in the Arkansas Public Administration Consortium (APAC) after retirement. Her personality juxtaposed an earnest commitment to good works and a light-hearted spirit. Here is her APAC biographical statement, which I suspect she wrote.

Judith Faust sometimes describes herself as "an organization junkie," having long been fascinated by how organizations work, and especially by what community-based nonprofits can accomplish. She's retired from the faculty at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, having for two decades taught graduate students in social work about nonprofit management and community practice. Her own work has included directing a program for runaway and homeless youth, a management-support organization for Arkansas nonprofits, and the state's Division of Children and Family Services. She volunteers presently with KUAR, the Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, and pretty much whomever asks her.

In case you wonder about such things, her undergraduate degree—a double major in journalism and philosophy—was earned from the University of Kansas, and her graduate degree—an MSW with a concentration in community organization and planning—from Tulane University.

We were privileged for many years to share a book group with Judith. She was thoughtful and insightful, and always we looked forward to delighting in her erudite company. Her home was packed with books, filling every available space, with shelves built into every corner and nook. You could pull down any title, and she could recall her impression of it, as well as the time of life in which she had read it and how it shaped her worldview.

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With his permission, I share from Facebook (Nov. 10) the well stated sentiments of our friend Andrew Eshleman, now a philosophy professor at the University of Portland. Andrew succinctly captured my own experience, memory, and impression of Judith better than I can.

Just learned that a former colleague, Judith Faust, has died. We became friends while working together on the Faculty Senate at UALR, and she gets a good bit of the credit for showing me how that sort of work could be a rewarding and meaningful part of my career. But, oh!—then to see (from afar after moving away) her ongoing grit, honesty, thirst for understanding, and embrace of what's rich and beautiful in every nook and cranny of life during a long battle with cancer.

Here's Judith, from a few years back, to members of an email group following her difficult journey: "I think I'm finally coming out of the emotional woods. And those are the woods that count, aren't they? Life happens, in its glory and cruelty and ordinariness and all the uncounted shades between, and how we are, how we really are, is about how we experience it."

Then, with her signature honesty, she would acknowledge the ongoing struggle to experience things as she hoped as challenges multiplied. What a privilege to walk a little bit of life's path with such a soul.

Amy on Facebook wrote: "For those asking, while she did not outline wishes for a funeral service, donations on her behalf to one the following charities (hand-picked by Judith herself) would be most welcome:"

• Progressive Arkansas Women (PAC)
• ACLU of Arkansas
• Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts
• Little Rock Public Radio (KUAR/KLRE)
  
• Central Arkansas Library System Foundation
  

Judith touched many, many lives and left them better than she found them.

Law student vets collect food for hurricane victims

VLA members
UMass Law photo

Massachusetts State Rep. Chris Markey (D-Bristol) presented a citation to the Veterans Law Association (VLA) at UMass Law yesterday in recognition of the group's collection of about 300 pounds of nonperishable food for residents of Florida and North Carolina impacted by recent hurricanes.

Timothy Trocchio, 3L and Army veteran, accepted the citation for the group, which also recognized the work of the Student Bar Association. It's my privilege to serve as faculty adviser to the VLA.

Rep. Markey and Trocchio
UMass Law photo

VLA student leaders have brimmed with initiatives this academic year to support veterans in the law school and in our state and local communities, besides coordinating service work such as the food drive. The organization board comprises Trocchio, president; Sean Pillai, vice president; Cameron Sweeney, treasurer; Bryce Mayo, secretary; and Morgan Richter, social media manager. Pillai and Mayo are vital contributors in my Comparative Law class this semester; they and Sweeney are alumni of my Torts I & II.

Law students speak to barriers to legal education

Quinn, Spangler, D'Arcangelo, West, and Wood
Presumed ©; used with permission.

A gifted group of law students shared their personal experiences in access to legal education at the National Lawyers Guild "2024 #Law4ThePeople Convention" in Birmingham, Alabama, Friday.

UMass Law NLG chapter members formulated and proposed the program, "Changing The World, One Legal Education At A Time," which was accepted in a competitive selection process. Here is the abstract:

The panel will consist of law students with lived experience addressing the barriers, opportunities, and realities of accessing a legal education as members of underrepresented populations. Framed by issues of persistent inaccessibility, the panel will share the unique challenges they encountered while applying to and attending law school. Furthermore, each panel member will deconstruct how the barriers they’ve encountered influenced their career trajectories following graduation. In addition to their stories, Dean Quinn will share administrator perspectives on outcomes of programs and support for underrepresented populations unique to their school. Finally, the panel will discuss where they see opportunity for improvement.

The panel comprised 3Ls Daniela D'Arcangelo and Liz West, and 2L Rebecca Wood, chapter president. Wood, an alumna of my Torts I & II classes, appeared on The Savory Tort in the summer in recognition of her having won a prestigious Rappaport Fellowship. The panelists were accompanied by 2L Wyatt Spangler (featured), an NLG chapter member who contributed vitally to the program, and Assistant Dean of Public Interest John Quinn, who participated also as a panelist.

'Repay evil with blessing,' Apostle Peter writes

North Scituate Baptist Church, R.I.
Swampyank at English Wikipedia
via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

With Election Day tomorrow, this might be an opportune moment for a message of peace and non-retribution.

Last week I had the privilege of sharing the word of 1 Peter 3:8-9 at the nearby Rhode Island church of a dear friend and pastor while he was away from the pulpit. (Oct. 27, below.)

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

The pastor had preached the preceding week on the flaws of human criminal justice. So I started by shifting the focus to civil justice and the fundamental question, as framed by my late friend and mentor Professor Marshall S. Shapo, A injures B and could have avoided it; what should society do? 

Professor Shapo was well schooled in the Old Testament and knew the teaching of Exodus, an eye for an eye. The New Testament put another spin on the problem and confronts the contemporary Christian litigator with a vexing challenge. 1 Peter 3:8, et seq., is only a piece of the solution, and I don't purport to have it all worked out. Nevertheless, and at risk of some hypocrisy, I found a starting point in the verses.

I thank the pastoral and worship teams and congregation of North Scituate Baptist Church, Rhode Island, for their kindness, hospitality, and indulgence of my ramblings, which I hope were motivated by the Spirit. (Full service.)

A reminder that The Savory Tort is a personal blog. What I write here is not representative of my employer nor communicated in my public capacity, even if some content also serves the professional interests of my teaching, research, and public service.

New book spotlights freedom of press in film

My friend and colleague Helen J. Knowles-Gardner, formerly a political science professor and now research director at the Institute for Free Speech, along with co-author Professor Emeritus Bruce E. Altschuler and Professor Brandon T. Metroka, has published a gratifyingly compelling new book, Filming the First: Cinematic Portrayals of Freedom of the Press (Lexington Books 2025).

The engaging cover art was created by illustrator Doug Does Drawings (X, Etsy, Instagram, YouTube).

Here is the publisher's description of the book:

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits Congress from abridging freedom of the press. But, as the printed press has been transformed into mass media with Americans now more likely to get their political information from television or social media than from print, confidence in this important, mediating institution has fallen dramatically. Movies, in their role as cultural artifacts, have long reflected and influenced those public attitudes, inventing such iconic phrases as “follow the money” from All the President’s Men and “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore” from Network. Filming the First: Cinematic Portrayals of Freedom of the Press analyzes eighteen films that span from Citizen Kane to Spotlight showing changes in how the press have been portrayed over time, which voices receive the most attention and why, the relationship between the press’s “Fourth Estate” role and the imperatives of capitalism, and how, despite the First Amendment’s seemingly absolute language, the government has sometimes been able to limit what the public can read or view.

I was privileged to review an advance copy of the book and am quoted aptly on the back cover: 

Filming the First is a deeply thought-provoking exploration of America's cinematic engagement with "the press." Through the revealing social implications of the big screen, Filming the First interrogates press freedom from yellow-journalism sensationalism to Watergate and Vietnam heroics, to the existential threat of misinformation. Organizing eighteen films into ten thematic chapters, Filming the First embraces both classics and the avant-garde and treats readers to perspectives on mass media from the reverent paean to the ruthless critique. Knowles-Gardner, Altschuler, and Metroka locate their diverse film selections each in its social, cultural, and legal context. Upon each exposition, the writers relate key takeaways to the perils and uncertainties that surround the business of media in our polarized present day. Filming the First is a thrill ride for film buffs, free speech aficionados, and anyone willing to engage with the struggle to define media's place in modern democracy.

If I ever again have the freedom to teach an indulgent topical seminar, this book is at the top of my list.

Here is the table of contents.

Chapter 1. Censorship in a Time of War: Good Morning, Vietnam
Helen J. Knowles-Gardner

Chapter 2. A Media Mogul Battles Against His Fictional Doppelganger: Citizen Kane and RKO 281
Bruce E. Altschuler

Chapter 3. Heroic Newspaper Reporters, Editors, and Publishers Battle the President – All the President’s Men and The Post
Bruce E. Altschuler

Chapter 4. Technology Transforms the Press into the Media: Network and The Social Network
Bruce E. Altschuler

Chapter 5. “How Can We Possibly Approve and Check the Story…?”: Good Night, and Good Luck and The China Syndrome
Helen J. Knowles-Gardner

Chapter 6. Testing the Limits of Freedom: Denial and Deliberate Intent
Helen J. Knowles-Gardner

Chapter 7. Responsibility Matters: Shattered Glass
Helen J. Knowles-Gardner

Chapter 8. Creating Protagonists, Competing Interests, and Uncertain Legal Standards: The People vs. Larry Flynt and Citizenfour
Brandon T. Metroka

Chapter 9. A Tale of One Press Clause and Two Journalisms: Spotlight and Out in the Night
Brandon T. Metroka

Chapter 10. Mainstream Press Negligence and its Effects: The Normal Heart and Tongues Untied
Brandon T. Metroka