It can be a tall order at times, said Burke, who worked for 15 years as a commercial litigator before joining the State Department.

"There's an endemic culture here, a way of thinking that if you're in government, the government is designed to help you and your tribe," Burke said. "The notion that you're supposed to represent all the people? There's no history, there's no culture of that here."

But the Obama administration's counterinsurgency strategy places more emphasis on protecting the Afghan people—and more importantly, empowering Afghanistan's government to protect its own people—than it does on killing the enemy. So strengthening the bonds of trust between the people and the Afghan government has become more important than ever.

Burke helps facilitate that trust-building at the provincial level by working closely with the provincial governor. One step down the chain, he supervises State Department colleagues in District Stabilization Teams in 10 of the 12 districts that make up Helmand Province.

"I'm in touch on a daily basis with the guys living in the districts, working more directly with the people and with the district governors," Burke said.
Those contacts include American, British, and Danish diplomats, U.S. Marines, and troops from Britain and Denmark.

"It's starting to work. ...Since I've been here, I can see the people are more connected to thinking the government can be a solution—even though they don't have a history here of trusting the government," Burke said. "Establishing that connection between the people and the government is key, because that connection will lead the Afghan people to reject the Taliban insurgency rather than depending on foreign troops."

The challenges are unrelenting. Much of Helmand Province is unforgiving desert—the temperature one recent early May day in Lashkar Gah, west of Kandahar and about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, was 105 degrees. What little fertile ground is available—a narrow greenbelt on the banks of the Helmand River—helps the province grow poppies that produce half the world's heroin.

Furthermore, Burke added, the fates placed Afghanistan in the middle of one of the world's most fractious regions, with nearby neighbors like Russia, Pakistan, Iran, and India all jockeying for position.

"Everyone in the neighborhood is more powerful than Afghanistan, and everyone in the neighborhood is perceived to have interests here," Burke said. "It makes for a very complicated situation, trying to solve the very simple needs of the people."

"Many people in Helmand Province blame the Taliban insurgency on foreign interests meddling in Afghanistan," Burke said. "I have seen little evidence that the people of Helmand want the Taliban back. They weren't particularly popular. They overplayed their hand and were too harsh with the people, who don't identify with them. It's just that the government in Helmand before the Taliban was so bad, and the Taliban are effective in intimidating the local people and playing off their historical mistrust of the government."

Burke knows the work of counterinsurgency will go on after he decamps this summer for his next assignment, in Brussels, where he'll work at the U.S. Mission to the European Union as an economic officer. While Belgium stands to be considerably more temperate in both climate and politics than his current posting, he won't be able to forget Afghanistan, or the way he customarily kissed the photos of his wife and three small children before he strapped on his body armor and emerged into the desert heat of Lashkar Gah.

"This is not Philadelphia in 1776, not by a long shot," Burke said. "But we're trying to plant some seeds so the government can begin to represent all the people—to give the people an opportunity to have a government that isn't perfect, but is at least trying."

The choice of featured speaker, 1984 Michigan Law grad and U.S. Senator Rob Portman, was controversial among some students. Some, upset about the Ohio Republican's voting record on gay rights issues, wore rainbow-colored pins and tassels to the ceremony. Between 40 and 50 graduates and some members of the audience silently stood and left the auditorium while Portman was being introduced; they returned to their seats just as silently after Portman was finished speaking.

After the ceremony, Caminker said he was impressed by the decorum displayed by the demonstrators, as well as by the grace with which Portman acknowledged the students' dissatisfaction. The senator met before the ceremony with 11 student representatives and shared a productive discussion about the issues.

Inside the auditorium, the senator gave the new graduates several pieces of advice as the fresh JDs, LLMs, and SJDs prepared to take on their responsibilities as lawyers, whether in public service or private practice.

"The American legal system is one of the crown jewels," Portman said. "And we are the custodians of the rule of law."

Portman also reminded students that the bonds they form in law school are among the tightest they'll ever know; as evidence he said he was one of five law students who rented a house on Packard during law school, and that four out of the five were getting together for a reunion in Ann Arbor later that very day.

The last speaker, Matthew Budow, was selected by his JD classmates. Budow advised an amused crowd about the importance of three things in life: being able to laugh at yourself (he suggested that the preceding three years of schooling presented each graduate ample opportunity to do that); being able to laugh at others or, as he put it, "mock the ridiculous"; and—most importantly—being able to laugh with others.

Not too surprisingly, he added that the last item was the defining characteristic of his Michigan Law experience.

A look at Senior Day in pictures is available in this slideshow.

A movement was born.

People from all over the world—including, last October, students from Michigan Law—posted more than 10,000 supportive videos to YouTube as part of the project. Images from the law students' video were selected to become part of the commercial created by Google and first aired during the May 3 episode of Glee.

Michigan Law students Daniella Schmidt, Kaitlin Jackson, Kylee Sunderlin, and Sarah Palmer all appear in Google's ad, which is available here. The full-length MLaw video was shot by David Gutt and edited by Michael Wagner. Adrian Ohmer, a first-year student, organized the project. But the ad isn't the only work being done by the It Gets Better Project. In March, the book It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living hit bookstores around the country. An It Gets Better website also is up and running. And more information and the full-length video shot by MLaw students is available on the Michigan Law Outlaws website.

"I was really stunned when, back in early November, I was sent a link to the finished video by a 1L who I might have guessed would have been busily angsting about outlines and case briefs," said Michigan Law's Assistant Dean for Admissions, Sarah Zearfoss. "The inspiration that led such a large group, from across every class year of the student body, to work together in order to quickly produce something so beautiful and powerful has, in turn, been inspiring to me. It gave me yet one more reason to think, 'I love our students.' "

The plan is designed to help ensure that Michigan Law graduates aren't deterred by student debt from using their top-tier legal educations to pursue their dreams.

"Our overall goal is to make it feasible for people to pursue the careers they want," said Prof. Jim Hines, who led the committee that designed the program. "Another goal, quite honestly, is to allay people's fears about debt. We want to provide a form of insurance, so they don't have to be as concerned as they might otherwise be."

Michigan's new program was specifically designed to enhance the federal loan program, known as the Income Based Repayment Plan. Under the Michigan program, income—not career type—is the key factor. Further, under the federal program, if the salary is low enough, the required payments don't cover the interest on the original loan—so the principal actually increases. Michigan's program is designed to avoid that problem by making the entire required payment if the graduate's salary is $50,000 or less—about what a GS-11 entry-level federal attorney might expect to earn. Furthermore, Michigan's program creates a reserve account for each graduate. The law school deposits money to cover unpaid interest accruing on the debt into these reserve accounts, and graduates who leave the LRAP program after two or more years can ask that the funds be applied toward the unpaid interest.

The program remains in effect as earnings increase. For graduates earning between $50,000 and $75,000, for example, the law school pays the entire interest payment and the graduate pays down the principal, if necessary. The law school continues to help those earning more than $75,000 as well. So Michigan's program means a graduate carrying, for example, $100,000 of federal debt and earning $65,000 would be responsible for an annual out-of-pocket payment of just $90. Michigan Law would pay the rest.

Alumni like Sarah DeYoung, a Wayne County assistant prosecutor who graduated in 2001, said the administrative team at Michigan Law is constantly seeking new ways to make sure their students have every advantage. The new loan repayment program should be no different, she said.

"Given what I know about Michigan and the way they work the system to everyone's benefit, I'm sure it's fabulous and will be great for students," DeYoung said of the new program. "They really want their students to have every opportunity, and to actually be able to seize those opportunities."

She added that the assistance she's received in paying off her educational loans means "I have had a job for the last 10 years that I have loved waking up and going to."

The improved plan is scheduled to roll out this fall. Graduates covered by the old plan will have the option to choose which plan they use.

Answers to frequently asked questions about Michigan Law's new income-based loan repayment assistance program are available. Or read an overview and PowerPoint presentation about the program.