Harvard, Law Schools

Harvard Law Elects Guy Who Intends to Quit

Who won the election for Harvard Law's new Student Government President? Looks like the HLS community agreed with the ATL audience on this one....

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Yesterday, we told you about the racial tension gripping Harvard Law School as they prepared to elect a new student government president. And by “gripping,” I mean “annoying the hell out of the HLS students who are trying to study.”

Despite calls to postpone yesterday’s election, the balloting proceeded as planned. We also invited Above the Law readers to vote for the new Harvard Law student leader.

It seems like both communities are in agreement. Cloying d-bags who throw around allegations of racism and impropriety have no business securing open bar events for thirsty law students….

To recap: we asked you to choose between (1) “Self-Affinity,” an HLS student running on a platform that the current student government had adopted some racist and xenophobic policies; (2) “Joanne Galloway,” an HLS student who took the allegations so seriously and personally that she penned thousands of words in her own defense, demanded that student government minutes be released, and was an all around wet blanket; or (3) “The Joker,” an HLS 3L who just wanted to fix the loophole that allowed graduating 3Ls to run for student government, and then promised to resign.

There was never any doubt that The Joker was going to win the Above the Law poll. But the margin was ridiculous. The Joker won with 90% of the vote. If I proposed that all Above the Law readers get free tacos, the measure wouldn’t get 90% of the vote. At least 20% of our readers would be terrified of having a partner ask them where the taco came from.

The Joker also won the real election at Harvard Law. From the Harvard Law Record:

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“We are overjoyed by this victory for reason and common sense, and we thank our opponents for a very lively race,” [The Joker] said in an e-mail. “Now on to fix and resign!”

I wonder if the losers will learn anything from this public repudiation? Will Self-Affinity see that calling a person a racist is a more effective blog strategy than electoral strategy? Will Joanne Galloway learn that being defensive and self-indulgent makes you look really bad? Will either losing candidate see that taking yourself too seriously is a ruinous way to act when in the public eye?

A mentor once told me that holding a Harvard degree “doesn’t prove you are educated, it proves you are educable.” Let’s hope these guys learn from their mistakes.

[Joker] Wins Student Government President [Harvard Law Record]

Earlier: Allegations of Racism Fly As Harvard Law Braces for Today’s Student Government Elections

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