Every now and then we come across something positive. This is one of those occasions. CLEVELAND, Ohio — Case Western Reserve University is launching an environmental law center, expanding its law school curriculum and offering scholarships to students interested in the field.
The Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law, which the university announced Tuesday, won’t be limited to law students because environmental issues don’t observe the disciplinary boundaries set in academia, Center Director Jonathan Adler said.
In an interview with cleveland.com, Adler said offerings will be designed to reach students and professionals in related fields, including ethics, economics, policy, engineering, public health and more.
It will also serve as a hub for research into environmental regulation, a topic making more national headlines as presidential candidates debateclimate change and the proposed Green New Deal.
The center’s first symposium is scheduled to take place this fall, timed just before the 50th anniversary of the Environmental Protection Agency. Symposiums bring together experts in specific fields to present research.
“We hope that the center will be a place where people can have broad discussions about environmental policies and protection going forward,” Adler said.
The $10 million donation that founded the center is the largest in the law school’s history. Law school alumnus Coleman Burke is the founder of a commercial real estate company that operates in four states.
Burke has spent decades advocating for environmental issues, serving in leadership roles for organizations including the Audubon Society, National Forest Foundation, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Coleman Burke
Board Member
Coleman Burke, of New York, NY, is the founder of the Waterfront Companies, a commercial real estate company situated in four states: New York, Massachusetts, Maine, and Colorado. He has spent 40 years on environmental matters, serving on the Leadership Council of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, as a director of The National Forest Foundation, and as a trustee of The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, among others. He is the Founder of The Susan and Coleman Burke Foundation. He is an avid dinosaur bone hunter and a fly fisherman, camping in the wilds of Argentine Patagonia and the American West. He is fascinated by condors in the Andes and by migratory birds, especially Ospreys, which he tracks to South America from Nantucket and from New York City’s Jamaica Bay. As a member of the Explorers Club, he has led two flag expeditions for dinosaurs in the Santa Cruz Province in Argentina and explored rivers in Tierra del Fuego.
