For their class gift, the 星空传媒 School of Law class of 2023 raised money for a land acknowledgment marker. The money the class raised was matched by three alums from the law school class of 1958 -- George Aronoff, Jim Berick and Robert Reitman.
鈥淲e are pleased to announce the installation of the marker in the law school courtyard where it will be read by generation after generation of law students,鈥 said law school co-dean Jessica Berg. 鈥淭his is a great way to pay tribute to the Indigenous peoples who inhabited University Circle, the modern home of our law school,鈥 added co-dean Michael Scharf.
The law school鈥檚 marker reads: 鈥淲e express our gratitude and appreciation to those who lived and worked here before us; those whose stewardship and resilient spirit makes our residence possible on this traditional homeland of the Lenape, Shawnee, Wyandot, Ottawa, Potawatomi and other Great Lakes tribes.鈥
After the Revolutionary War, the U.S. military waged a series of campaigns against the Great Lakes tribes to pave the way for westward expansion and settlement in Ohio. The law school鈥檚 installation of the land acknowledgment marker comes at a time when this history is due to debate over a proposal of the U.S. Forest Service to