The problem of evictions in Pima County is so pronounced that a new civic-minded law course at the University of Arizona will focus on finding ways to prevent them, in a collaboration with Brigham Young University law students in Utah.
Attorney Stacy Butler developed the Innovation for Justice program at the UA’s James E. Rogers College of Law, including the course of the same name that will focus on evictions this fall. The interdisciplinary course will have 12 students from law, public administration, sociology, public policy and other disciplines, all tackling an issue that contributes to homelessness and poverty in Tucson. Six BYU students will collaborate using video conferencing and tools like Google Drive and Slack, and the two teams will either develop one joint project, or two separate projects specific to their respective location.
“We feel like it’s a pretty new idea,” Butler said. “I’m not aware of other classes that have taken this approach of getting students in two different jurisdictions to work on the same issue.”
