Diversity Month included a variety of lunch talks, as well as service projects over MLK weekend. Among the projects: BLSA helped SkyArt, an after-school arts program for kids on Chicago's South Side, promote its programs to parents, kids, and schools in the surrounding neighborhood.

Professor Saul Levmore stopped by the BLSA table at Coffee Mess.

Chief Judge Diane Wood of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals spoke on issues related to women's professional development and the difficulties they face.

Life Without Parole: Kids in the Criminal Justice System. Clinical Professors Herschella Conyers and Randolph Stone, directors of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic, discussed the unjust sentencing of African-American teenagers to life without parole and its detrimental effects on child development.

Students discussed microaggressions during a workshop led by Jeff Levy, a psychologist and CEO of Live-Oak Inc. and adjunct professor at the School of Social Services Administration. He walked the audience through different types of microaggressions and explained how to identify and address them in our daily lives.

Lecturer Adam Mortara and Nina Perales, Vice President of Litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, discussed Latino Voting Rights and Redistricting.

Challenges to Racial and Ethnic LGBT Equality: Panelists discussed challenges facing ethnically and racially diverse LGBT groups and what Chicago groups are doing to address these important issues.

Unaccompanied Immigrant Children: Panelists discussed the major influx of unaccompanied immigrant children and touched on how students could help. They included information on how to be sensitive to cultural differences and their past experiences.

Professor Anup Malani discussed the disparities in access to health care among different racial communities and the role civil rights laws play in addressing the disparity.

In an honest discussion that highlighted the value of both compassionate and vigorous discourse, members of the Law School faculty advanced a national conversation that has been widely cast as a tussle between the right to free speech on university campuses and the need to bolster efforts toward diversity and inclusion—and they began by questioning whether those goals are really at odds.

When Punishment Leads to Exile: The Consequences of the U.S. Criminal Justice System on Non-Citizens: Claudia Valenzuela, Director of Detention Services at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), spoke about the intersection of the criminal justice and immigration systems.

Lunar New Year Coffee Mess with APALSA offered a chance to learn facts about Asian/Pacific American civic engagement, Chinese zodiac animals—and to get candy and fortune cookies.

In January, the Office of the Dean of Students sponsored more than two dozen events designed to promote discussions about diversity issues in the law, the workplace, and in society.

Diversity Month 2016 included service projects over MLK weekend, Diversity Month Coffee Messes, and talks including "Fleeing Iraq: A Transgender Refugee's Story," "A Discussion on Women's Professional Development with Chief Judge Diane Wood," "Voting Rights and Redistricting: A Latino Perspective," "The Intersection of Disability Law and Reproductive Rights," and many more.

Diversity programming will continue throughout the year.