HLSers Protest: Our Law School Is Not A Joke
Oh you Harvard Law School kids! We poke some fun at the (rather silly) proposal to rename the HLS sections, which are currently identified by numbers. And then we get grief for it in the comments, including a claim that we "have very little understanding of irony or satire" (even though the survey didn't seem very satirical to us, aside from a single throwaway line about Hogwarts).*
Anyway, to satisfy any defensive HLSers, we'll now publish a tip we received that makes the Law School seem slightly less ridiculous:
[I]t's not the HLS administration's idea to do this; it is basically the idea of a single 1L. I was at the student government meeting in which this idea was first proposed, and it came from a 1L section representative. Because 1L participation is strongly encouraged, no one wanted to shoot him down (even though many people thought the idea was silly).Someone suggested sending out a poll to see if other students agreed, and if so, the student government would pass on the poll results to the administration. My hunch is that students will vote against it, and regardless the faculty/admin almost certainly would not support the idea. That's the back story.
What a relief! Our faith in Harvard Law School's wise (and super-hot) leader, Dean Elena Kagan, has been restored.
* That same comments thread also included an odd digression on whether there are too many undergraduates at the Hemenway gym. Funny -- when we were in law school, undergrads in the gym were viewed as a GOOD thing...
Earlier: Wherein Harvard Law School Hits Itself Over the Head With a Silly Stick
(11) Comments
I think that they took a 1L's proposal seriously enough to float a poll to the other students makes HLS look even more ridiculous.
Loyola is actually a great school. I like the professors, students and definitely the great city of LA.
If only we could get jobs . . .
This post doesn't help HLS. Because one person made a patently absurd suggestion, they circulated a poll, knowing full well that the contents would end up on this site and others? They should have informed the 1L that the idea was ridiculous and made her transfer.
I suspect you haven't spent much time around Harvard undergrads, David.
Lat was an undergrad at Harvard himself:
http://www.abovethelaw.com/2006/08/david_lat_biography_1.php
This may explain his generous use of the term "hottie."
Law school student government at its *almost* worst. Just because someone raised it doesn't make it a good idea.
(Btw, the worst is when any student government passes a "resolution" on issues of international/national importance; i.e., condemning the Iraq war, etc.))
i hope you are kidding when you say that Elena Kagan is "super-hot". clearly you have never met her, seen her, or encountered her acid personality.
I hate to break this to your tipster, David, but the idea of naming the HLS sections has been around since at least 2001 (though I don't know it's origin at that time). 2001 was the first year they went to 7 sections (up from 4), to make the groups smaller and more collegial.
The point of the names, as it was explained to me, was to foster a connection between students from one year to the next by having them share membership of the same "college" within the Law School. E.g., members of "Brennan College" would have a role in orientation, legal writing classes, TA-ing etc. with the new members joining in the 1L class.
It didn't sound like the worst idea in the world to me given the size of HLS (560 per JD class).
It's not the worst idea in the world, but it's pretty bad, considering that they can achieve a connection between sections without naming them (say, by assiging the roles you mention to 2Ls and 3Ls to the section that they were in as 1Ls) and the huge controversy that would be created in choosing the names, given academia's current climate.
David, I went to law school where you went to law school. I now teach at Harvard. Payne Whitney is much larger than H'way - fewer crowding problems. PW is essentially an undergrad gym where grad students and law students also work out. At Harvard, there *is* an undergrad gym. It travels under the lovely name of MAC. I dare say that if there were a separate gym close to YLS, the law students would regard it as their own and would not be so pleased at the presence of undergrads, just as Yale College students are not so welcome in the YLS dining hall.
"Funny -- when we were in law school, undergrads in the gym were viewed as a GOOD thing..."
Ha! Lat, you would sing a very different tune if you'd gone to U of C...