Social Justice building celebrates grand opening with ribbon cutting
Governors State's first new building since 2014
Despite oppressive heat, a crowd of nearly 100 Governors State University (GovState) staff, faculty, alumni, and community members including elected officials, recently gathered outside the newly completed Social Justice Initiative (SJI) to celebrate its grand opening.
“We are not just opening the doors to a building. We are opening the doors to opportunity, to equality, to justice for all,” said GovState President Cheryl Green. “This building represents the culmination of years of hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment to our core values as an institution of higher learning.”
The 2600 square foot building is the first to be built on GovState’s campus since the Prairie Place dorms opened in 2014 to accommodate the University's first Freshmen. Yet it’s been a vision of Dr. Green’s since she began her presidency at GovState.
“In 2020 during my inaugural presidential address, I shared a bold vision for our University. A vision that placed social justice at the heart of our mission,” said Dr. Green. “Today we see that vision realized in brick and mortar, in classrooms and corridors, in meeting spaces and in legal clinics.”
The SJI serves as a resource to offer support to those in the community who need it most, one of its cornerstones being the legal clinic that empowers individuals to navigate the legal system with confidence.
Since the legal clinic’s opening in June 2023, the clinic has addressed over 570 matters, the challenges that come with understanding legal rights in housing, education and the criminal justice system.
Isaiah McDaniel has been working with the Legal Clinics since it opened. Two months ago, his criminal record was expunged, culminating an 11-year battle to clear his name.
Following the ceremony, McDaniel said he was grateful and advised others to seek GovState's Self-Help Legal Clinic.
“Governors State is a good place. I think people should give it a try if they're trying to do things to get their life together and need help, they should come here,” McDaniel said.
“This is the work,” said Dr. Phyllis West, Director of the SJI, acknowledging the results of the clinic's volunteer attorneys and social workers. She thanked Dr. Green for making it possible through her guidance in bringing the clinics and SJI building to life.
“She (Dr. Green) has given us a social justice opportunity and a home to do this great work, to become scholar activists,” said Dr. West.
Federal Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman was among the VIPs to attend the ceremony, despite a hectic schedule.
"A building for social justice – that touches my heart, that's basically unheard of. The fact that you all made that such a priority is something that I really had to make my way here for. A dedication to a building, toward a major, toward a program in social justice is really what we need now.”
Helping individuals re-enter society following incarceration should be a priority, she said.
“ We don't want to keep people in such a state that they cannot pull themselves up. We get everybody we can to help us to try to put our arms around this population and help these people to be in a better place to come back and join society. To me that's what this is all about. We help others, that is our charge.”
Dr. Green said the building underscores the importance of more than social justice.
“This building stands as a testament to our collective belief that education can and must be a force for positive change in our society,” she said.
For more information on the Self-Help Legal Clinic, click here.