Berkeley to Law School Students: Please be your own janitors. Thanks.
A Berkeley Law student has sent along an administrative e-mail that will confirm any preconceptions you have about the dirty hippies there. Boalt Hall Berkeley Law Professor Bob Berring sent an e-mail out to students Monday asking them not to indulge in “feeding frenzies” in study areas and to clean up their own crazy food messes, due to “the limited number of overworked custodians at the law school.”
Berring says Berkeley can’t “hire extra teams of custodians” right now to tend to the dirty Berkies’ common areas.
On today’s Morning Docket, we mentioned that Dean David Van Zandt at Northwestern Law is reminding deferred 3Ls that they do not need to make monthly payments on their loans until they start working, leading a commenter to say:
Unless this financial mess eases, next to fall are the law schools. Deferring loan payments means the schools (especially the weaker ones) will start operating in the red. Just like the big law firms have discovered, operating in the red gets old fast—and eventually leads to dissolution. Fewer law schools is not a bad thing, and in fact may be unavoidable.
That seems a bit too gloomy and doomy to us. But apparently, Berkeley is keeping its budget lean by recruiting its students to do janitorial duty. Here’s an excerpt from the Berring e-mail sent out to all students, with the subject line “Food, Vermin and You. A Serious Plea for Help:”
The Student Center was built and furnished to a high standard in the hope that it would be enjoyed by you and future generations of folks like you. We are off to a bumpy start. Currently it appears that there are major feeding frenzies in a space that was designed primarily to be office and study space. Folks have been leaving seriously gross food messes on the tables in the lounge and conference rooms, on kitchen counters and in the sink.. If you leave out open food containers, rodents and roaches, who are even luckier than the ones in library, inevitably show up. Someone has to clean this mess up… This is not a complex message: clean up after yourselves.
Berkeley isn’t the first law school with a “seriously gross” problem. Remember the “Cravath” bed bugs at Columbia? But based on what we’ve seen previously at UCLA, maybe rodents are the more appropriate California problem?
See the full e-mail, with detailed cleaning instructions, after the jump.The pop culture references sprinkled throughout (i.e., study rooms as dirty as “Seth Rogen’s apartment”) lead us to believe Berring’s more hip than hippie.
E-MAIL FROM LAW PROFESSOR BOB BERRING TO BERKELEY LAW STUDENTS
From: Bob Berring
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 3:00 PM
To: Students - All
Subject: Food, Vermin and You. A Serious Plea for Help.
This is one of those e-mails that no one wants to write, but, as the Walrus said, the time has come. The nature of common space and the limited number of overworked custodians here at the law school demand it. Everyone has to start cleaning up after themselves. People are
leaving messes that are severely irritating other humans who must use the same space and that are causing joy in the vermin community.
First, the Law Library. The bottom line is this: you can eat in the Main Reading Room, but you cannot eat in the North Addition. At all. No food, not even a package of crunchy m&ms or carrot sticks. You can bring in drinks in a secure container, but no paper cups, cans, open cups,
etc. In the fall the library folks gave out spill-proof cups for just this purpose. If you have lost your cup, stop by the reference desk for another, while supply lasts of course. Mice and roaches are appearing in the North Addition. They are lured by folks who are leaving behind sticky residues on desktops, spilling foamy lattes on the carpet and generally strewing crumbs in all directions. No one wants to be the food police, but no one wants to share the space with
roaches. Help us out here.
Second, the Student Center: The Student Center was built and furnished to a high standard in the hope that it would be enjoyed by you and future generations of folks like you. We are off to a bumpy start. Currently it appears that there are major feeding frenzies in a space that was designed primarily to be office and study space. Folks have been leaving seriously gross food messes on the tables in the lounge and conference rooms, on kitchen counters and in the sink.. If you leave out open food containers, rodents and roaches, who are even luckier than the ones in library, inevitably show up. Someone has to clean this mess up. Just leaving it puts an unfair burden on our overworked custodial staff. It also hacks off other students who follow you into the space and do not wish to be trying to work in a space that approximates Seth Rogen’s apartment. It just is not fair.
This is not a complex message: clean up after yourselves. The custodial and facilities staff are not responsible for putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher, removing leftover food from the kitchen counters or the conference rooms or for clearing trash left on tables in the student lounge. Wash your own dishes. If you have food and drink at a journal or organizational event, have someone responsible for cleaning the place up.. Do not leave open containers of food on the kitchen counters or conference rooms to “share” with others—it never works out that way. Break down and flatten you cardboard boxes so custodial staff can collect them (we do not have pizza box-sized recycling bins). The law school provides liquid cleanser and dish washer detergent in the kitchen, as well as general cleaning supplies including paper towels and sponges for you to use. There is a dishwasher (drawer-style) available. The two refrigerators in the shared kitchen are being cleaned out weekly. There is even a vacuum cleaner in the copy room should you be so inclined.
As a natural born spiller of beverages and dropper of food, I understand the root of this problem. But until we can hire extra teams of custodians, or journals can employ their own cleaning staff, everyone has to pitch in. See, I told you that this wan an e-mail that no one wants to write.
Bob Berring
Earlier:Bedbugs in the Ivory Tower? Critters Come to Columbia
Top Tier Law Schools Have Problems Too
(83) 
Comments
FIRST!!!
Come on, Kash -- he's just reminding students to clean up after themselves. No one is being put on late-night mop duty. It's called personal responsibility.
Say what? Who the fuck gets loans from their school? I'm pretty sure Columbia Law School has already spent my tuition money, which they received from Citibank.
Law schools (particularly the lower ranked ones) will not start operating in the red until pre-law college students learn to read between the lines of that colorful pamphlet these law schools send.
Were you promised they would keep Boalt Hall clean?
Oh, So this must be where contract attorneys come from...
I was really thinking of hiring a cleaning lady to come in once per week and give my future home a real thorough scrubbing. I mean I am not lazy, but with the crazy hours I would have been working to ensure partner track status...
If I happened to be working from home on a day she came to clean, I would have nonchalantly chatted her up about favorite restaurants in the city. For Christmas, I would have given her an unexpectedly large gift certificate to said restaurant. She probably would have really appreciated it.
--Still Renting for (at least) One More Year.
Wow. WAYYYY overblown here...
I go through the student center every day. The "serious mess" is a stack of 10 mostly-empty pizza boxes that were left over from the day prior. Never any worse than that - and rarely does that even occur.
The janitor staff goes through every night. The only point of the email was that we should just pick up after our own mess and do our part not to create big ones.
How is this news?
6 - Your delusions amuse me and my 3500 sq. ft. wife.
- In a lexis in Texis
So I take it it's a slow news day...
8 - at least my weekend getaway options aren't South Padre Island or Juarez.
San Fran associate, headed to Yosemite with petite Asian wife and Prius.
So I take it it's a slow news day...
sensationalist?
My mom also made me be my own janitor.
ATL - U of Mich main cafeteria closed early today, why aren't you reporting about the forced food preparation or impending starvation this will undoubtedly lead to?
WTF is this? I don't understand the relevant connection between the email and the Northwestern story at all. This story is a one non-newsworthy email plus a random sensationalist back link to a previous barely-newsworthy story.
NEWSFAIL
10 - just because you paid the masseuse extra for a weekend doesn't make her your wife even if the happy endings are guaranteed.
Also, don't brag about owning a Prius bro, that's like bragging you got Herp.
-- Manager of SF 'Petite Asian' Massage Parlor
you know, NYC makes me pick up my dog's poop if fido decides to poop in the park. the NERVE!
ATL did cover the lunch theft epidemic at Michigan:
http://abovethelaw.com/2008/09/wolverine_thieves.php
16 = hillarious haah
16 = currently doing donuts in Hummer at the Walmart parking lot in Texarkana.
Just for the record, Bob Berring rules. He is way more hip than hippie.
-Boalt Troll
......so what?
10 - Texas will be its own country soon. Who will be laughing then?
Berring is AWESOME!! He gave a commencement speech that was brilliant in every sense of the word - moving and hlarious at the same time. The man is genius.
20 - hes getting a donut hummer?
See also The Big Rakowski, at 21:26 (2005) (Berring plays the mysterious stranger in Boalt "Big Lebowsi" spoof), available at http:// video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-157245491922889852
you whiny bitches. HANG A SHINGLE or SHUT THE F UP.
How do y ou people think the Skaddens, Brown Raysmans or Kramer Levins of the world got started??? THEY HUNG A SHINGLE.
27 - You silly troll. They also were legally gifted. Hang a shingle...jesus H someone should hang a shingle on your mouth.
Uh, who sent this dumb tip in? I'm a Boaltie and this isn't worth reading on ATL.
Do what Uncle Zeb says, or else.
He is one of the best law librarian around.
I have no shame. I was laid off and deferred my student loans through my law school and the federal student loans. Uncle Sam can get his damn money when he fixes the damn economy so I can get a damn job.
www.laidoffdiary.wordpress.com
I usually abhor all the peanut gallery commenters criticizing the posts here, but, geez, what kind of self-privileged snot chafes at being told to act like an adult and simply clean up after him/herself?
Ridiculous.
I really doubt it was a handful of pizza boxes if there are references to vermin. Seeing vermin in the library would send me over the edge. Gross. Seriously, only the NYU and Columbia kids should have to see vermin on a regular basis, and even they are crazy for making that choice.
Your mom doesn't work at Berkeley; clean up after yourselves, you piglets!
QUESTION: Did the mouse used by the Boalt Law Icon on the front give permission to use his likeness?
- 1L UPenn
Really? This is what ATL has come to? I knew it had been on the downhill slide for a while, but creating a post for a law school email telling students to clean up after themselves?
I thought this was a blog for lawyers. A law school story every now and then is fine, since obviously law students will one day soon be lawyers, but I feel you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this post.
I think Boalt's alternative on the job training for a career in custodial engineering is a fantastic idea for law students.
Here is why young lawyers and law students of today are not too bright. In 2005 you were a senior in college trying to look for a career that required the least amount of brain power and paid well. You decided on law school. You decided to incur over $100K to pursue a foolish dream. However, you overlooked the following hard cold facts: in 2005 minimum wage had been frozen for 9 years. In that same nine year span, prices of real estate nearly tripled on average and in some areas quadrupled. Did you really think that people were going to be able to afford these homes contributing more of their income as a percentage toward housing costs. Consider that in 1965, the cost of housing was 15% of one's income. In 2003, that number increased to 55% on average for homeowners. Even a blind man could see trouble was on the horizon, especially since stocks and bonds were heavily bundled with securitized toxic mortgages. These law students of today tout how smart they are yet made the fatal mistake of overlooking simple facts and recklessly gambled on a career in law while overleveraging themselves. It is no wonder why peer firms have decried the low quality of lawyers being produced over the past decade. I will not hire you at $160K year to be a useless drone with a worthless degree. Nevertheless, I would consider hiring you to clean the trash at our offices for $25K a year. You gambled, you lost.
PE is an example that money doesn't buy class. Can't wait for you to get hit by a bus - full of janitors. dhole
Bob is awesome. He is one of the most beloved faculty members at Boalt, perhaps even all of Berkeley. His undergraduate classes are always full. He made my experience at Boalt a great one.
Partner Emeritus has got to be the most annoying avatar on ATL, and that includes Nervous T-10 1L.
Tired of overpaying for Westlaw? Try Virtual Loop for all your research needs. virtualloop.net
These are the secrets of Minnesota that you must know:
First, the school is horribly filthy all the time. The tables and chairs are covered with food and vomit and filth. The janitors never clean anything and the students are constantly eating and throwing food wrappers all over the ground and tables. The students are even encouraged to eat in the library, which causes nearly all of the library tables to be covered with filth and dried chili. The students are very slobby and messy. The janitors are fucking lazy, which doesn't help. They sit around talking all night and never clean anything.
The bathrooms at Minnesota are also great. People are constantly pissing all over the floor and walls and taking massive shits and not flushing. One of the toilets constantly overflows and spews shit all over the ground up to 8 feet away from the toilet.
Minnesota is also great at fucking over the students. The laptop policy is the least of the worries. Minnesota also fucks you over with miscellaneous fees amounting to thousands of dollars. The sticker price of attendance is 25K or somewhere in that area. Once you factor in the fees you're paying 30K or slightly more. One example is the "Transportation Fee," which makes no fucking sense because I get to school in my car everyday and leave in my car. As of now UMN has not "transported" me anywhere.
In addition, the people in the state of Minnesota are some of the most insipid, stupid cretins you will ever encounter. They honestly think Minnesota is the only state in the Union. They are blinded to anything that exists outside of MN and are extremely close-minded. The "Minnesota Nice" thing is a bunch of shit. If you're from out of town, they don't care about you at all. If you're from a prestigious school out-of-town, they will either have never heard of it or will hate you for it. God luck working anywhere except the 5 decent firms in Minneapolis- everything else is a disgrace and will be populated by provincial Minnesota idiots who don't even know that Washington, D.C. and New York are different cities. These people are just horrible.
Also, the administrators at UMN law train the kids to scavenge for food like wild animals. This may come from survival instincs to prevent starvation during the Minnesota winters (and summer, as it snowed last week). For example, food is present at nearly every function, from legal writing classes to any seminar. After the event is over, the left-over food is placed on a table in the central area, by the lockers, where the students hoard around it and fight over it. Some people in the school are notorious for going to events they have no interest in and eating up to 10 slices of pizza even though you're only supposed to take 1. I saw one student eat 4 subs at an event two weeks ago. The administration encourages this behavior by leaving food all over the school- during finals plates of Oreo cookies and Twinkies are left by the library- I am not making this up. All the girls are fat, no fucking surprise. One of the deans even had to lecture the 1l class, as some of them arrived uninvited to a private event and stole lunches that were ordered for other people.
HTH
I'm a Boalt student and I'm not sure what shocks me more: that someone forwarded you this trivial e-mail or that you actually chose to publish it. I seriously doubt any other law students have a burning desire to hear about Boalt's garbage. Ditto for attorneys. So, who exactly is the audience for this post?
Boalt sucks. It's the Minnesota of the west.
I'm amazed that an e-mail reminding students to not be fucking slobs and pick up after themselves = the downfall of law schools in the crappy economy.
Here's a newsflash: students that don't pick up after themselves are disgusting, and its sad that a law professor has to remind these over-entitled selfish babies to clean up their shit.
BOALTTT TO FREE PATCHOULI OIL WITH ADMISSION!
Wait a minute... Minnesota has a law school?
Wait a minute... Minnesota has a law school?
Boalt should hire some unemployed Hastings grads to clean up the mess.
Can't WAIT to start my summer associate job in 3 weeks. I heard my firm gives a nice goodey bag on Day 1, complete with a shiny new Blackberry. I hope its a BB Bold or BB Storm!!!!
49: The goodie bag will also contain ledger sheets so you can dilligently keep track of your time. There will be some pencils and pens with the firm's logo along with a coffee mug (w/ firm logo) that you will need to refill every half an hour after midnight if you plan to finish your assignements and get an offer at the end of the summer. The BB you will get is a refurbished model, and it will likely be a curve (sorry only partners get the bold or storm). Make sure you wipe it down with disinfectant as I have seen former employees blow vomit chunks on their phones during past firm functions. The economy is in the pits, do not expect any fun firm outings. Less than half of summers will be offered a deferred job. Have fun this summer!
3 has the correct answer. Who the hell would think that schools would give loans?
I am just sitting on my bed in my living room and listening to Hank's new song: Red, White, and Pinkslip Blues.
--Still Renting for (at least) One More Year
49 - also there are kneepads and cab fare and directions for leaving the partners house after he bangs you.
49--there is an offer rescission in the goodie bag.
"Seriously gross messes, m'kay?"
This Berkeley chap sounds suspiciously familiar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5IswrbAiLU
good god, 49, why don't you just transfer if you hate it that badly?
The actual lawyers who read this blog don't want to read lame stories about law school. Can you please start another blog called "below the law" for those law school trolls?
I agree and do something about that unemployed NY lawyer broad in her skanky panties vomiting out her stream of consciousness on this site.
Echo 3
Can anybody explain to me how deferred loan payments push the law school into the red like this commenter that Kash thought deserved highlighting in her post? Even if they're a direct lender, they're not fronting any money. At best, the effect would be indirect: lenders would stop lending to law students and fewer law students will be able to afford school.
This strikes me as classic limosene liberal behavior -- I don't know if that phrase is only used in NY, but I'm sure the point is clear. I guess no one knows who the Berkeley slobs are. In theory it could be the 20 people from the Federalist Society, who the heck knows? But my representitve figure is someone who spent half of his last Con Law class whining about Korematsu v. US, and maybe threw in some hand wringing about the case where Texas tried to keep the illegal Mexican kids out of their public schools. One would think it wouldn't be too hard to have a decent level of respect and thoughtfulness for the Mexican cleaning staff.
Rupert Pupkin
Wow. I go to Berkeley Law, and this was not even a story anyone discussed at the law school. I can't even imagine how those conversations would go.
"Dude, did you see that e-mail from Berring telling us to clean up?"
"Yeah."
"Oh...OK...me too. Well, see you around."
This was really "news" in New York? What a dumb post. If you want ATL to fade away into irrelevance, keep it up. If you want ATL to remain important, stick to letting us know if our firms still exist and our offers still stand. The occasional article about SullCrom D-bag associates and SullCrom partners being escorted from the building is acceptable. Most of us go to firms that won't make us hate our lives.
- Berkeley Law 2L
I don't want ATL to remain important. I want the 2L Class -- and that means you, Stevie -- to clean up after themselves. Starting there. You see it. There's a breadcrum on your shirt ... on the sleeve ... I don't know, it's like cornbread or something, you're the one who just (tried to) eat it. Don't just knock it to the floor! You're just part of the problem! Think about the Mexicans, okay? Korematsu.
Rupert Pupkin
I don't want ATL to remain important. I want the 2L Class -- and that means you, Stevie -- to clean up after themselves. Starting there. You see it. There's a breadcrum on your shirt ... on the sleeve ... I don't know, it's like cornbread or something, you're the one who just (tried to) eat it. Don't just knock it to the floor! You're just part of the problem! Think about the Mexicans, okay? Korematsu.
Rupert Pupkin
Row House
Part 2
On his first morning at Smith & Smith, Sam sat in the pale-wood appointed conference room with butterflies in his stomach, smelling the strong scent of coffee and paper in the air, and trying to look nonchalant in the beautiful black conference chair he was occupying. A gaggle of new associates were gathered, waiting for that perky HR woman to arrive and officially signal their status as associates of the Firm. “Off to the races” thought Sam, as he gauged his competition. That guy who drank too much at the summer–ending soiree (and puked into the potted plant in front of the managing partner’s wife) had apparently flunked out in 3L interviews and was back, wearing a conservative suit and old man’s tie. The cute brunette from NYU was the only eye candy in the room, and she had studiously calculated her skirt length so as to negate any notion that she was Ally McBeal reincarnate. The Asian guy from Yale was lining up his blue pens in a perfect row…”Good morning all!” Perky HR woman announced as she strode into the conference room. “Off to the races…” thought Sam.
Somewhere along the line between the perfect college, the perfect law school, and the summer program, during which he developed a taste for scotch neat and porterhouses, Sam’s enthusiasm for low-paying idealism waned, if it ever held any true sway with him. Massive student loans had to be repayed and a job with the Firm certainly did not lack for prestige. In fact, as Perky HR woman bubbled on about benefits and such, Sam looked through the massive conference windows at the city beneath and felt that he had arrived at where he belonged.
"Hello, you have reached Adam Lee at Smith & Smith, I am unable to answer your call right now, but please leave me message and...crud...Hello you have reached Adam Lee at the firm of Smith & Smith, I am not at my desk right now, but if you will please leave me a message I will respond...shoot...Hi, you have reached Adam Lee at Smith & Smith, I am unable to answer your call at the moment, but please leave a detailed message and I will get back to you."
"Do you think I should say 'I will get back to you as soon as I am able'? Or does that sound too eager?"
After the morning info session, Sam learned that he had drawn the Asian guy from Yale -- Adam Lee -- as his first office mate. After some brief confusion over who had the front seat and who had the back seat in the narrow office, Adam had arranged all the stationary on his desk at perfect right angles and settled into recording his voice mail greetings.
"Um...sounds good." Sam was hoping the non-sequitur would deter Adam from yet another round of recording.
"Great, great, I can move onto the internal ones now." Adam held the orange voice mail cheat sheet up to his face and started pressing buttons on the phone. Sam had the back seat and was straining to concentrate on the HR forms in front of him and avoid the craziness swirling in the front seat. "Hi, this is Adam Lee, please leave me a message and I'll get back to ya!...Hi, this is Adam, leave me a message and I'll call you back!...Hi, this.."
"Hey." At that moment, someone tall and old(er) appeared in the door of Sam's office and looked right at him. "Michael Thomas," the old(er) man said of himself assuredly, "wanna come by my office?" He walked way before Sam answered and, in any event, it was clearly not a request.
Were Partner Emeritus someone with whom an otherwise normal associate actually had to work, rather than weak flame, odds are that they would tolerate his condescension so long as they received a paycheck in exchange for the large portion of their life that they were giving up to earn him and his firm far more than they paid the associate in salary.
Were he to fire this otherwise normal associate with that sort of attitude, however, his smug, 'I'm untouchable' smirk might just result in them smiling back at him, closing his office door, and snapping his shriveled pencil-neck with their bare hands while he squawked indignantly.
Perhaps no punishment would be a deterrent to disabusing someone like that of their notion that they're superior in every way; perhaps the look of shocked comprehension on his face just before his spinal cord tore in half would make it all worth it.
Unlikely? I suppose so. But hardly impossible. There are behavioral lines that are dangerous to cross, regardless of your legal entitlement to act as you wish with respect to your employees. And real people understand this, which is why Partner Emeritus is just weak flame.
also to many more!
Anime Shippuuden
65: you just made my day. Thank you.
--Annoyed by Partner Emeritus
Funny the students who are such pigs don't think this is a good story to publish. I wonder why?
So removed from the chores of everyday life they don't realize how or even why to clean.
Years ago the Sullivan and Cromwell dining room was closed for several days by the NY Health Department for roach droppings / rodent infestation. The news even made it into the little list in the Sunday times where you typically read about vermin ridden bodegas in the Bronx.
3/51 are correct. Don't know why people think deferred loan payments hurt schools. They've already been paid. The only thing that would cause these inferior law schools to go away are 1) tighter lending standards combined with 2) more generous loan discharge standards. As it is now, banks are guaranteed to get paid eventually because it's very difficult to get out from under a student loan. So they have no qualms loaning $200,000 for someone to attend Cooley.
The next time I see a pizza box anywhere in the building, I'm tipping ATL.
For the record, Berring is an exceptional teacher and a great guy.
--Boaltie
@60: I'm in NY, and we don't use the phrase "limosene liberal." In fact, no one uses that but you, you illiterate moron.
70 - sure, but at what point do these banks start realizing that lending 200k to a Cooley grad, no matter how hard to discharge, does not make sense?
Damn. I thought I saw my last roaches and rats when I left New York.
But, why all that verbosity from the dean instead of the simple message that is used in work places all over America: 'Your mama does not work here - clean up after yourself!" I don't understand. Perhaps because he has to justify his salary in these days when even Boalt graduates not at the top of the class are having some trouble landing the jobs they want...........
45: LOL.
Seriously, is anyone really surprised by this behavior? Their median LSAT is 167. I'm surprised they aren't shitting on the bathroom floor.
74: he's not allowed to say that, he would be sued for gender discrimination because 1. for assuming they have moms (they could have been adopted by a single sex couple) 2. for assuming moms cleaned up instead of being high powered executives where the dad is instead home cleaning.
such obtuse low level invidious prejudice on your part shows you would never make it in a politically correct enviroment that characterizes our current law schools, and as a result churn out highly qualified law students unlike the rambling claims of partner emeritus
At LATHAM, we not only have to clean our own bathrooms, we also get emails from partners when they are done taking a shit so we can quickly run up and wipe their asses. Whomever is first does not get laid off in the next around.
-I am safe biatches (i.e. I am quick to find a dirty ass)
Hurry up and clean or a bunch of Hastings or UCLA students will show up to eat the crumbs left behind. Hurry!!!
I never have a mess at my house, as my petite Asian husband cleans up after me.
75: Thankfully, Boalt uses other criterion in addition to the LSAT , in order to weed out douchebags like yourself.
So this article is about lazy/privileged/messy college students...
wow, Harvard gave this blogger a great feel for what constitutes news.. sloven college students..
you're all losers.
UCLA just announced a program to "help" graduating students by letting them eat the gross food messes left in the Boalt student center for a full year after graduation at full cafeteria prices.
I thought Bob Berring (better known as "the prof. who was sufficiently asexual to be named interim dean after the john dwyer fiasco") had stepped down as head of the library. Seems he's doing somebody else's job here...
Just to reduce the overreaction here, Boalt has always had a clean-up-after-yourself-in-the-library policy. So, I don't really see this email as anything remotely resembling a change in policy. But ATL is good at nothing if not making a mountain out of a flat strip of ground.
By the way, I don't know where the fiction of Boalt being a liberal student body came from. Okay, I know where it came from, but it's not true. I went to Penn undergrad then Boalt, and my Boalt class was at least as conservative as my Penn class.