In October 2015, students of Ned Cabot, an Associate Professor who helped to found Trinity’s Public Policy & Law program, were surprised to learn that he was retiring, effective immediately. Many were anticipating enrollment in Cabot’s PBPL 202: Law, Argument, and Public Policy, one of the major’s foundational courses, or his senior seminar in the Spring semester.
Students thought about how best to show their appreciation for Cabot’s sixteen years of dedicated and inspiring teaching, including Public Policy & Law major and former PBPL 202 teaching assistant Christina Claxton ’16. “Professor Cabot had a profound impact on my education and experience at Trinity,” she said. When I learned of his retirement, I knew I just had to do something to show him my gratitude and to help others express theirs, too.”
With similar feelings about the program’s impactful founding professors and a desire to further help students in the major, graduating Public Policy & Law seniors created the Adrienne Fulco and Edward Cabot Public Policy & Law Fund in 2013. Once it reaches $50,000, it will become an endowed fund and used to support the Public Policy & Law department and its students through senior thesis research grants, guest and alumni lectures, and other resources to supplement the academic portion of the major.
For Claxton and five other seniors from the class of 2016; Ethan Cantor, Claire Hogan, Antonia Lluberes, Julia Mardeusz, and Isabel Monteleone, growing the fund in honor of Professor Cabot’s retirement seemed like a fitting tribute. With the help of Amy Brough, Director of Institutional Support, they launched their first appeal to faculty, staff, alumni, and current students in April with a deadline of May 12, the date of the Public Policy & Law major’s senior dinner, bringing the senior class and Public Policy faculty, including Professor Cabot, together. Unsure of the reaction they would get and how much money they would be able to raise in little over a month, Antonia Lluberes ’16 said that “…we thought that $2,000 would be a tangible goal to set in the time frame we had. We knew that people were always getting asked to give money to things and that current students didn’t have tons of extra money around to donate.”
Ultimately, the six seniors helped raise over $7,000 for the Fund in his honor from 97 individual donors, most of whom are young alumni and current Trinity students. Towards the end of the senior dinner, the seniors in charge of the campaign surprised Professor Cabot by presenting him with a large check and list of all of the donors from the fundraising campaign. The seniors also enacted an oral argument, a fixture of PBPL 202, for a fake case: Public Policy & Law Class of 2016 v. Professor Cabot, in which it was “found” that Professor Cabot has a constitutional right to retire.
Regarding the reception of the campaign among the Trinity community, Ethan Cantor ’16 said that “we got very positive responses from many of the alumni, current students, and faculty members who we contacted for the campaign. We received several emails recounting how influential Professor Cabot was to alumni’s academic and professional careers. It was a touching and heartening experience to see that so many other people feel the same way about Professor Cabot as we do.” Isabel Monteleone ’16 added: “people really admire Professor Cabot and it was great to see that across the broad spectrum of alumni we reached out to…I think it really speaks to Professor Cabot’s influence in the department, as well as how much Public Policy means to alumni.”
Looking towards the future, students who participated in the fundraising effort hope to see the Fund reach endowment status to begin benefiting students as soon as possible. Lluberes thinks that “with a major that is growing like Public Policy & Law is, to have an endowment fund to pay for guest lecturers and to subsidize unpaid internships and thesis research for students will be another asset of the program. The possibilities of what a fund like this could do for students and the program are endless, but I’m happy to know that we are one step closer to reaching that goal.”
Written by Julia Mardeusz ’16
Professor Cabot receiving the check for the recent fundraising campaign for the Fulco-Cabot Fund in honor of his retirement. From left to right: Edward Cabot, Antonia Lluberes ’16, Isabel Monteleone ’16, Claire Hogan ’16, Julia Mardeusz ’16, Christina Claxton ’16, Ethan Cantor ’16.
The entire Public Policy & Law Class of 2016 posing for a picture along with Professors Mark Silk, Adrienne Fulco, Edward Cabot, Abigail Fisher Williamson, and Rachel Moskowitz.
The six seniors in charge of the fundraising campaign performing Public Policy & Law Class of 2016 v. Professor Cabot
Professor Adrienne Fulco delivering some prepared remarks about Professor Cabot.
Professor Cabot speaking about his time at Trinity and delivering advice to the Class of 2016.