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Nationwide Layoff Watch: Harvard Law School
(Or: Welcome to the End Times)

Thursday, May 7, 2009 4:18 PM - By Elie Mystal

Harvard Law School seal logo.jpgAt what point does a disaster movie become a horror movie? I keep waiting for Will Smith or Dennis Quaid to show up, do something cool, and save the economy. Instead, I’m starting to feel like the black guy that has no shot whatsoever of making it out of the mall.

Anyway, The Harvard Crimson reports:

Harvard Law School will lay off staff members in response to budgetary constraints imposed by University administrators, acting Dean Howell E. Jackson said Monday.

The likely layoffs come amidst continued estimates of a 30 percent decline in endowment value by year’s end and a corresponding reduction in the endowment payout—a major source of funding for the University’s different schools that accounts for 40 percent of the Law School’s annual revenue.

If law schools are the “cash cows” of the university system, then HLS is like a cow that squirts Johnny Walker Blue.

A recent University request for a 10 percent reduction in the Law School budget has made staff layoffs inevitable as the school works to maintain its commitments to financial aid and its educational priorities, Jackson said in an interview with The Crimson Monday.

“These are material changes that will affect our budgets in future years,” Jackson said. “We will need to reduce our staff levels in order to live within our new means.”

I’m not sure I’m prepared to live in a world where Harvard is anything less than an extravagant temple to education and impractical elitism.

After the jump, tipsters are apoplectic.

Some tipsters are annoyed about the lack of transparency surrounding HLS right now. Of course, neither HLS nor Harvard University thrives on “transparency.” But it certainly seems like, there was some questionable management of Harvard’s mega-endowment.

But the bigger question is whether these staff cuts will impact the law school’s student services. One tipster thinks that these cuts will hurt students:

There is no way these layoffs won’t affect the “educational mission” of HLS. The people who work at Harvard all contribute to the educational experience at the school. Furthermore, the school says it will cut 10% this year and 8-12% the next year - this would inevitably affect programming near and dear to students’ hearts, like clinical programs.

The Crimson reports that some cuts have already taken place:

But according to labor activist and first-year law student Marissa A. Vahlsing, the school has already initiated de facto staff cuts, asking subcontractors to cut their expenses, which has resulted in job losses and the summer closure of a cafe in the basement of Harkness Commons, the Law School student center.

Student labor activists present at a brief private meeting with Jackson last week said that the acting Dean was unaware of the impending cafe closure and criticized the lack of transparency in the decision making process regarding layoffs.

Noooooo. Not the Hark!!

Seriously though, announcing these cuts over the summer seems like a calculated move made to avoid significant student criticism.

It is somewhat nice to hear about law students getting angry on behalf of staffers that are about to lose their jobs.

Harvard Law School Faculty? It’s your turn.

Law School Will Cut Staff To Trim Budget [The Harvard Crimson]

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Posted in: Harvard Law School, Layoffs

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