Harvard Law School: An Ivory Recession
The Harvard Law Record reports that HLS will be cutting back on perks:
On September 4, an email by Dean of Students Ellen Cosgrove detailed the reduction in perks students would begin to notice at HLS, where, under the tenure of former Dean (and now Solicitor General) Elena Kagan ‘86, free food for events and even some classes had become common, free coffee abounded from morning until noon, and a logo-emblazoned skating rink animated Jarvis Field during the cold winter months.The lifestyle changes students face are not stark: the free coffee has not been completely cut, as was rumored, but will be served in fewer locations, and is expected to last only until 10:15. A survey later sent to the student body by Cosgrove asked whether students would share in cost-cutting efforts by providing their own mugs rather than relying on the paper cups the school now buys. Likewise, free food will be rarer at events, and the hours of the dining facilities at Harkness Commons will be reduced depending on demand.
Everybody needs to tighten their belts during the recession. And this new “only limited free coffee” policy should better prepare Harvard Law grads for the rough and tumble employment environment that they’ll face after graduation.
Conference cutbacks are on the way too.
Sponsorship for student events could also be reduced:
More problematic may be reductions in financial support for events and conferences, many of which were sponsored by now-struggling law firms. Cosgrove wrote that less support for events may ensure that the remainder are “robustly attended,” but several journals are now concerned about their ability to win competitive funding for traditional activities, such as their symposia. Also impacting intellectual life may be shortened library hours.
The financial problems at Harvard University as a whole has been well documented. Shouldn’t law students be willing to share the pain? They seemed to be at graduation.
Budget crunch details emerge [Harvard Law Record]
Law Schools Cutting Back in Down Economy [Legal Blog Watch]
Downturn Hits Harvard Law School, Forcing Coffee Cuts and Clinic Moves [ABA Journal]
Earlier: Sorry About Your Little Crimson Diploma, Bro’
Nationwide Layoff Watch: Harvard Law School (Or: Welcome to the End Times)
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HLS is going Firsty!!
firstay firstay
holla back - woot woootttt
Can we talk about a school I've heard of?
I suppose that I should know the answer to this, but is Harvard Law School accredited by the American Bar Association and a member in good standing of the Association of American Law Schools?
sixth!
Elie ate all the donuts!
sixth!
Less free coffee. How you like Obama now?
Mystal, is it true that your moobs are huge?
What a dump!
- Western New England School of Law secure
Oh Elie, nobody goes to Harvard to work after they graduate. Just look in the mirror.
Who cares. Why do firms even sponsor this crapt. Does any law student ever go, "oh, I'm gonna work at the firm that hosted that event at school last year"
talk about a waste of money. That and the whole OCI thing
"[S]ponsored by now struggling law firms"? Please. Most firms are still making money hand over fist, just not as much as they were used to. The degree to which they may be "struggling" is only in contrast to their ridiculous profits during the boom years. . .
That's a pretty dramatic use of a colon in the second paragraph. The rest of the memo tries to sound intelligent but is written really poorly. Reminds me of HLS students, more generally.
These kids can't buy coffee like every other law school student!
Latham NY laid off a bunch of HLS grads. One is now at Wachtell. Her work must've sucked!
We need to bomb Harvard back to the stoneage!
-DOJ Secure
Um ... did you mean "An Ivy Recession"?
What does this story have to do with elephant tusks?
19 - the ivory tower moron
What is the ivory tower moron?
20 -
19's post wasn't funny until you commented on it.
Thanks
Oh please. I think these schools forget that the students are the high paying consumers of education and should be the last ones to suffer any form of cutbacks. They are paying through the nose to attend school and, if it weren't for the sheeple supply and demand effect of law school, this would be no different than a company selling its product for more and offering less to its customers....because its the recession and all.
The responsible approach would be real cuts on overpaid, underutilized faculty and staff and the massive benefits they reap for their "research" and "scholarly" work.
Ivory Recession?!
Another racist attack, Elie? You were the one that checked the box to get the ride to HLS.
Denying an HLS student's insurance claim on the basis of a pre-existing condition: ivory rescission
I didn't know that Cosgrove had moved to HLS from UCh, I knew law schools raided each other for professors, but Deans of Students? come on. it's like an HR Job.
I can see making certain cuts, but not to library hours.
Harvard's endowment is only $26 billion now, down from $37 billion.
OH NOES! CUT THE FREE COFFEE!
This is like a firm firing half their first year class because partners are only making $1.5 million instead of $2 million.
My T14 raised tuition by like $5k this year. I feel like that should at least buy me regular library hours and free food during boring presentations. Pour some out for our homies at HLS.
5's schtick was today partially rescued from utter annoying banality by good timing.
Let me think. An endowment of billions of dollars, charging students 40 or 50 thousand a year, and they can't do paper cups.
Harvard = TTT
In other news, i hear YLS has budgeted for scantily-clad baristas in 2011. www.GoodSharks.com
My school (a top 5 school in Morningside Heights) has breached the 46k mark in tuition this year. This, plus ~15k in rent, 1.6k in mandatory insurance, 1.5k in books, 4k in food, 2k in entertainment/travel means that 1Ls are spending 70k per year for what has become a decidedly less- than-100% shot at a SA gig/market-paying job offer.
They BEST NOT cut the free pizza.
HLS still rules the world
- non-HLS student (seriously)
@5: Why wouldn't Harvard be accredited by the ABA and a member in good standing of the AALS? The only reasons I can think of would be (1) someone forgot to complete and send in paperwork, which is hard to imagine or (2) Harvard doesn't feel the need to be accredited by outside institutions because it's Harvard.
This is totally racist, but I read the announcement about cuts in the voice of an overprivileged white male
I would rather have my law school cut the free coffee, rather than lay off the entire career services office.
Unemployed Northeastern grad.
Obviously, the admission fee for the symposia should be raised to compensate for funding shortages.
38 wtf. Northeastern has never had free coffee.
How, how, how did HLS lose the douchiest law school competition?
-Non-Duke Grad.
cosgrove was at UofC when I was there back in the day of free lunches for boring speeches everyday. while not the most attractive, i always thought she would be a freak in the sack.
I can't believe ATL publishes a story about 1 law school cutting back on free coffee. WHO CARES, the rest of us pay for coffee. . . it's 1.50 a cup. Deal with it.
Now, if a school got rid of the free wine at those crappy social events, then you should complain.
43
$1.50 a cup? where do you live? north dakota? How about $2.06 for a tall this morning in seattle
That's nothing, I hear Suffolk Law is cutting out the free balloons and pony rides for its students. They'll never make it to class now.
With their endowment down to $25 billion & only $40K/year tuition per student, what choice do they have with the coffee?
45
Well played...Hilarious
44,
nyc. . . $1.50 for a large cup ($1.00 a small cup) )from the breakfast cart on the sidewalk outside my bldg. I don't require no fancy smancy crapt, just some fresh brewed maxwell house and whole milk.
44,
And this is fucking America, it's small, medium, and large. Places changing the size names like starbucks and try to be cool with names like "tall" piss me off. Cause you know what, a small is a small.
Fuck you pretentious coffee drinkers. Make a cup at home it costs about $0.40 if you have a travel mug.
These kids should shut the fuck up.
49: I've seen the size of the American "small," and it's the size of my head. So, although I get the point about the pomp of Starbucks, I think a new naming system is in order. Or maybe McDs just needs to switch to "fat," "morbidly obese," and "this is a f'n joke, right?"
--Not 44
50 - not when talking about coffee. A small is that little blue cup with the chinese on it in NY. It's a small.
49-
WIN.
Regards,
52
@45 -- beautiful.
A the parent of a student paying full freight and a law school alum, I think the School needes to seriously revisit any reduction in programs or student benefits. For the nominal amount to be saved, all the School will do is engender hard feelings and invite negative comments. This is the same stupidity practiced by law firms when trying to reduce overhead, they let go secretaries and staff in the effort to maintain their ppp. If the School thinks that this is the appropriate course , I already miss the former Dean.
54,
World's smallest violin is playing for the Harvard kids who don't get free coffee.
WAAAHHH, WAAAAAHH, WAAAAHHH!!
This is why HLS should have won the Douchiest Law School contest.
19, 20
The ivory tower? You mean that dorm building for undergrads at GW? Speaking of which, what school actually names a building the Ivory Tower? And the school's isn't even an ivy?!?!
I went to HLS. I don't know shit. But everyone assumes I am a legal genius. Hurray
57, I bet GW's dorm can't touch Boston University's new 25-story luxury high-rise dorm for undergrads, with floor-to-ceiling views of downtown Boston and the Charles River. Sculptures in the lobby, every room has a private bathroom, every suite has a built-in LCD; common areas have pool tables and crap, etc. Just what the solid B-minus high school students who go there need to further conflate the notion that they are the greatest thing ever. $1500/month to live in it. There is a priceless article in the Globe that quotes some dean saying "students want beauty, students deserve beauty," and a junior who says she deserves to live there b/c she got good grades as a sophmore communications major, and is paying for it by taking out more student loans. You can't make this shit up.
sh*t, when I went to DePaul (insert TTT here) they even had free coffee....
@15,
Generally, people who criticize the way people write usually can't criticize the way people think.
P.S. Please criticize the way I write.