这个故事最初出现在 Res国际公共部门会计标准局, 威尼斯人娱乐城法学院校友杂志 要了解更多信息， 阅读全文 or visit the 法学院网站.
当COVID-19大流行显然将成为一项长期挑战时，法学院面临着自己的挑战：如何在全球大流行期间继续履行支持学生和社区的使命。
这一回应的一个关键部分是2020年秋季设立的杜鲁门研究员项目。 这项新举措起到了两个关键作用：
- 为最近毕业的法律专业学生提供就业机会，其中一些人因疫情而难以找到工作
- 支持社区成员的法律需求，特别是那些因COVID-19大流行而引起或恶化的社区成员
The program — named after President Harry S. Truman, who attended the Kansas City 法学院 from 1923 to 1925 — was launched with a $25,000 grant from the Kansas City Regional COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund. This initial grant enabled a cohort of four fellows to be placed in the 法学院’s Entrepreneurial Legal Services Clinic, Tax Clinic, Self-Help Legal Clinic and Digital Initiatives team.
该小组共同协助小企业主申请紧急联邦资金，帮助社区成员处理与流行病有关的税务问题，并与堪萨斯州合作开发了一个在线系统，使家庭暴力受害者在法院关闭期间获得限制令。 联合劝募会提供的额外支持建立了租户代表倡议，使另外四名研究员能够在大流行期间专门负责让客户留在家中。
Jeffrey Thomas — associate dean for strategic initiatives and graduate programs, Daniel L. Brenner faculty scholar and a professor of law — helped set up the Truman Fellows program. 他说，这项工作在今天尤其重要，因为许多流行病救援工作都有法律因素。 A great example, he says, is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s temporary halt on evictions instituted in September 2020. 为了得到保护，租客需要填写一份表格并将其交给房东，房东可以在法庭上对此提出异议。 此时，承租人需要一位律师。 That’s where the Truman Fellows can step in.
“There’s this solution out there — the moratorium on evictions — but the solution requires some legal knowledge and assistance, and we can play a role that way,” he says.
大卫·怀特（David White）是Foland， Wickens, Roper, Hofer and Crawford， P.C的客座教授和法律顾问，负责监督“租户代表倡议”。 他说，最初的驱逐项目最终发展成为更广泛的项目。
“Because of the pandemic, the folks that are in these service industry jobs aren’t able to go to work, and so as a result they don’t have income,” he says. “For some of them it has been a tipping point for them both emotionally and mentally — if your housing is unstable, it throws everything off.”
助理临床教授布莱恩·拉里奥斯（Brian Larios）也协助房客代表，他说，他能够与研究员一起产生特别深远的影响。
“So many of the clients we represent are at the doorstep of desperation. They have nowhere else to turn,” he says. “To literally see their tears of joy as they realize the assistance that we will be able to provide is incredibly rewarding.”
与联合劝募基金会合作，法学院已经能够在2021年初为另一批研究员提供资金，这些研究员将继续专注于驱逐工作。 托马斯说，只要疾控中心停止暂时停止驱逐，这一点就会变得越来越重要。
Larios says the work of the Truman Fellows — who so far have assisted more than 218 people with their eviction cases — is directly in line with the Law School’s mission.