Law School Bound
Calling it “an important moment in the life of the College both immediately and for the long term,” President Jeremy Travis addressed an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd for the opening of The Pre-Law Institute on February 7. To address the needs of the many students and alumni who are interested in pursuing a legal career, the Institute will provide comprehensive support services including an array of activities, preparations and advisement for those whose career aspirations include attending law school. This Institute is welcome news for the increasingly large number of alumni who apply to law schools years after their graduation from John Jay. The Institute will provide alumni and students with a centralized place where they can register for practice LSAT examinations, receive help with law school selection, advice on their personal statements and letters of reference, and much more. Alumni interested in taking advantage of these services should contact: Professor Stephanie Herman, Esq., Director of the Pre-Law Institute, at: sherman@jjay.cuny.edu or call 212-237-8116. The Institute is also looking for alumni who have law degrees and can serve as mentors to our students. If you are interested, contact Tricia Garcia of Alumni Affairs at: trgarcia@jjay.cuny.edu or calling 212-237-1103.


Going Global
Reliable crime statistics form the basis of effective policing policies and crime prevention strategies locally, nationally and internationally. In January the College entered into partnerships with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol to examine and help verify the quality and consistency of their crime data. “We are honored to be the first and only college in the United States to enter into partnerships with UNODC and Interpol,” said President Jeremy Travis who also noted that “our work with these prestigious agencies not only affirms the College’s leadership role in the criminal justice arena in the U.S. but abroad as well.” Project Director, Marilyn Rubin, Professor of Public Administration and Economics, noted that the John Jay research team will evaluate data received by UNODC and Interpol with a view toward identifying anomalies. For Interpol, the partnership will prepare a series of reports on their international crime statistics, along with an assessment of the research and methodological issues raised by the project. For more information, click here.

Evelyn J. Laporte (BS ’79 & MA ’81)
For Evelyn Laporte, “There is no better job in the world than that of being a judge.” Judge Laporte, who sits in Manhattan Criminal Court, was elected to the bench in November 2004 taking up her gavel in January 2005. When she says there is no better job, it is not just cliché. She has sampled numerous jobs – so many in fact that they could easily fill several lifetimes.

She arrived in New York in 1973 from Puerto Rico not speaking English. “I was constantly struggling with the English language,” she says. After spending some time at two other CUNY colleges, she found her way to John Jay. Like many students, Laporte had to work many jobs just to get by. She did babysitting, was a telephone operator and even worked in a meat factory making hot dogs. It wasn’t easy and often she was working more than three jobs at once while taking classes and helping to support her family back in Puerto Rico. Laporte noted that she “would always try to approach my professors because of my handicap with the language. I was sometimes afraid to participate in class because I was embarrassed. I always looked for extra help.” And she found that help at John Jay, a place she describes as “special, very special.”   At the College, one of her teachers was Professor Emeritus of Economics, Lawrence Kaplan. “He gave so much of himself to help me. He coached and counseled me. He went the extra mile, with so much passion, as he did for all his students,” she recalled, “he believed in me – he was the mentor that I had never had before.” After receiving both her BS and MA from John Jay, she attended Antioch School of Law in Washington, DC and in 1986 she earned the law degree she sought for so long. She returned to New York and once again worked at a series of jobs. But this time the jobs – still a couple at a time – were leading to the judicial bench. She worked with an agency that dealt with immigrants, in the Family Court Office of Legal Affairs, Victim Services, and at the Criminal Justice Agency. In 1992 she took a job with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office where she worked for 12 years handling cases of family abuse. “When I started there were very few laws that protected the victims of domestic violence. There were no systems in place. The attitude was ‘it’s a family thing.’” While at the DA’s Office she witnessed a dramatic change in the way domestic violence was handled. “Cases can now go forward without the cooperation of the victim and there are laws and programs in place for the victim, the family and the batterer.”

As a judge in Manhattan’s Criminal Court, Laporte hears cases that range from violations to felonies and still believes she is gaining experience. From a student taking classes, juggling numerous jobs, caring for her family, and struggling with the language, Evelyn Laporte’s career is testimony to her faith in education, “It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter where you come from, the sky’s the limit if you stick to education.”