HOW LITTLE WE CHANGE
Forget for a moment the Internet, Space Travel, DNA, and cloning and come with me in a
time machine. Let's travel back 3,000 years to ancient Egypt, to a society that didn't
even have the wheel, and meet a woman named Naunakht.
We know about Naunakht because the original of her papyrus last will and testament still
exists today. Naunakht's 3000-year-old will leaves land, a storeroom, and emmer wheat to
her chosen heirs. Like other Egyptian women, she controlled her own wealth. Displeased
with the way four of her eight children had treated her, she left those four nothing at
all. In her 78th year, she went to the village court to declare her will. She recited that
she had brought up eight children, and then wrote, "I have grown old and they do not
look after me in their turn. Whoever has aided me, to them I will give of my property; he
who has not aided me, I will not give of my property."
As I read those words from a 3,000-year-old document, I considered the many will contests
going on in our courts today and thought how little we have changed over the centuries.
Family violence also was a problem for Egyptian courts 3,000 years ago. Under Egyptian
law, if a man beat and injured his wife, she could have him brought before a local judge
where the husband could be punished by receiving 100 lashes and forfeiture of part of his
possessions. Will we never learn? It is disheartening to think that courts thousands of
years in the future still might be struggling with the problem of family violence.
Divorce and the problems of dividing family property existed then as now. In Naunakht's
time, in the event of divorce, which either spouse could request, the former wife kept
what was hers as well as one-third of the joint property.
We think of today's modern society, our family law system, and the state of women's rights
as so progressive and enlightened. But, we didn't even allow women to vote in America
until 1920. To contrast, by the time of Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., four women
already had served as the absolute ruler of Egypt as god-kings and a number of other women
had served as queens with their husbands as equal partners in power. Average women owned
and controlled their own property, wrote their own wills, and could bear witness and
testify in court. So much for 20th century progress!
Ancient Egypt might seem to be an odd topic for an article about today's courts and the
law. I think it is relevant because it shows in a dramatic way how very little people's
families and family troubles have changed over vast periods of time. For 30 centuries,
courts have been trying to solve the same heartbreaking problems.
If you'd like to read more about Naunakht, or read other ancient legal documents, I
recommend, "What Life Was Like - Egypt 3050 - 30 B.C." by the editors of
Time-Life Books, which was the source of most material for this article.
Our Law School Community
I have always been very proud of my West Virginia heritage and that my ancestors were among the earliest settlers of the South Branch Valley. I have always been proud to be a part of West Virginia University and our College of Law. Pride is a deep-seated emotion, something we feel but are not always able to explain. In earlier Dean's Columns I have written about how I enjoy the crisp, clean mornings of fall, the splendor of the hardwood forest in autumn, and how I look forward to the reawakening of our hills and valleys with the return of the Appalachian spring. I know that when I travel I miss the beauty of West Virginia's mountains and its valleys. I appreciate that I live in a state with so much natural beauty and four distinct seasons to enjoy. However, the events of this summer have reminded me that in spite of all of its natural beauty, it is the people who live and work in our state that make it so special and why I am so proud of my West Virginia heritage.
It has been a very difficult summer in our College of Law community. In May, Jackie Bennett, a mainstay of our administrative staff for over 30 years, underwent successful cancer surgery. The period of time that follows law school finals is one of the busiest times of the year in our registrar's office and since Jackie has handled those duties for "years," there was no one sufficiently cross-trained to pick up the duties of that office and complete all that was necessary to "close out" the academic semester and year. Associate Dean Joyce McConnell, with the help of Lori Mobley of our staff and with guidance from Jackie, took care of getting the grades in, recorded, reported, and distributed. With Jackie's help, Joyce and Lori have also been able to handle the incredible amount of "registrar" work that is necessary to get another academic year started.
At best, one could describe the administrative and support staff at the College of Law as very lean. As you may recall from an earlier column, we are scheduled for our sabbatical reaccreditation visit from the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools this fall. While we were involved in various aspects of planning for that visit during the last academic year, this summer was to be devoted to drafting the self-study and completing the very extensive report that must be submitted in advance of that visit. Associate Dean McConnell had planned to spend the month of June working on these reports and instead spent the month of June helping to take care of things in the registrar's office and some other urgent matters that needed to be dealt with. Again, others stepped forward to help. From the faculty, Professors Deb Cohen and Bob Lathrop provided timely and important assistance, and from the staff, Renee Sulipeck and Mary West assumed even more responsibilities than had been planned.
Then on July 24, Justice Cleckley experienced a drop in blood sugar which precipitated a severe medical problem. Frank is not only an irreplaceable member of the faculty and legal community in West Virginia, he is a very good and close friend of many of us. The seriousness of his illness was an unexpected shock. The response, once the news spread, was truly overwhelming. Calls of concerns and offers to help were received by many members of the law faculty and staff as well as the dean's office. Prayers were offered and cards, letters, and flowers filled Frank's room. While the overwhelming concern was for Frank's health and well being, again members of the law school community stepped forward to offer assistance as we had to figure out how to accommodate the fact that Frank would not be teaching during the fall semester.
Over the years, in our home communities, we have all witnessed how West Virginians have come to the aid of others in times of need and crisis. Over the years, I have seen countless examples within our law school community of one segment of the community coming to the aid of another.
While Jackie's and Frank's illnesses were by far the most significant, there were a number of other developments: a faculty secretary had surgery and was on medical leave for nearly two months, another secretary is a ten-month employee and, therefore not scheduled to work during June and July, another staff member was out for substantial periods of time to care for her mother who faced serious medical problems and was hospitalized for extended periods of time, one of the two law students we hired to work in the administrative offices was only able to work for two weeks due to a family situation, and other staff members had either medical problems or family situations which required their absence from the office for several days at a time. All of this was in addition to planned absences for vacation purposes. Furthermore, we had many building projects going on. The student lounge and faculty lounge were refurbished and new carpet was installed in two of the small classrooms and in some faculty offices. We also have a new human resource/financial system at the University, so closing the accounts for the fiscal year using a new system was a very arduous, time consuming task.
While help from Mountaineer Temps was able to pick up certain portions of the routine clerical work, the vast majority of responsibility for accomplishing the many tasks associated with closing out the academic and fiscal year and completing building projects in addition to the normal preparations for the entering class and returning students fell on Associate Dean Joyce McConnell; Assistant Dean Janet Armistead; Mary West, Business Office Manager; Renee Sulipeck, Administrative Assistant; Lori Mobley, Administrative Secretary; and Frankie Parsons, a summer law school assistant.
The concern for the health and welfare of those who are part of the law school community is most genuine and the offers of help sincere. The commitment of those faculty and staff who stepped forward to assist in the myriad tasks this summer helps to underscore our College of Law's sense of community. Just as it sometimes take a trip to someplace else to make us fully appreciate the beauty of our Mountain State, it sometimes takes a crisis to remind us how much we depend upon each other to reach our common goals or objectives. Therefore, while I will continue to look forward to the red bud and the dogwoods signaling the arrival of spring, the wild flowers that bloom in summer, the bright red leaves of the maple trees in the fall, and the first snowfall of the winter, it is the people of our Mountain State which remain a constant beauty.