CLEVELAND — The U.S. News and World Report lists Cleveland State University’s law school as one of the top institutions in the state to pursue a degree in law. The northeast Ohio law school recently announced that they are making changes to the college’s name.
Cleveland State University Law Student Robert Dinkins Jr. knows exactly why he’s studying to become an attorney
“In order to help people, you have to know the rules,” he said. “And one of the best places to know the rules is from the place where it all starts, which is that law school.”
Dinkins Jr. is in his final year of his legal studies and is preparing to graduate at the end of this school year from CSU. He said attending this school is one of the best decisions that he’s made yet.
“I’m a graduate of the College (of) Wooster, so still having a lot of different connections in Ohio was good as well as the financial cost of it,” he said.
The university that Dinkins Jr. attends is making some changes, recently announcing that they will remove the name Cleveland-Marshall from its college of law.
“The way that the main change was like portrayed for many different students was the previous name was John Marshall, and he owned a lot of different slaves,” Dinkins said. “But not only did he own slaves, but he was also a supreme court justice. So there were many times when he could have freed the different slaves, not only his own, but just a majority of them in America. And there were plenty of opportunities for him to do that, and he refused to do that.”
CSU said in a statement that its board of trustees voted unanimously to accept the recommendation raised by their president Laura Bloomberg and a university committee.
Dinkins Jr. thinks the university’s decision is a wise one.
“Why should we continue to honor someone who had the power to help people but chose not to help them?” he said.
But the school’s name change isn’t the only change that he has witnessed as a student.
“I definitely feel like there’s a subtle shift where many students are carrying a lot more about the many different social issues that are affecting many people,” he said.
Upon graduation Dinkins Jr. has a goal to represent personal injury clients at the court house. He hopes after leaving, positive changes continue to proceed.
“I would like to see more professors of color, more students of color,” he said. “I’d also like to see more scholarship opportunities for these different groups. I’d also like to see a lot of these groups have more academic support in terms of not only being able to do well on the bar exam, but also being able to secure jobs once when they graduate.”
