Bar Exams, Email Scandals, Law School Deans, Law Schools

Stanford Dean Should Count To 10 Before Sending More Emails

A nasty war of words erupts over whether students can use the gym over the summer. In academia, fights are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.

By  
on

STANFORD LAW SCHOOL — EMAIL EXCHANGES OVER GYM/POOL ACCESS

Email from Dean Glaze

So, I saw the petition when I opened my email this morning and I’ve got to say that I was rather surprised and disheartened by it. Let me tell you why.

First, it is not really petition.

· Whom are you petitioning?

There is no addressee to this petition. Knowing the right person to ask is essential to an effective petition.

· The petition doesn’t make a request.

Sponsored

It indicates that you don’t want to pay $5 but it doesn’t even ask for free access.

· It doesn’t make any arguments for why you should be treated differently from the thousands of other people who will graduate from Stanford next week.

Second, it alienates your allies.

· One of the signatories/initiators of the petition asked me on Monday about whether the class should draft a petition and I told her no. Yet, here is a “petition.”

· I told that person that several of us at the Law School (me, Chidel, Chuck Spielman, Frank Brucato) had been working on the gym/pool access issue for several months and that I had personally made all the arguments about needing to stay for a licensing exam, getting housing so why not gym access, etc. to the university decision-maker but had been rebuffed.

Sponsored

· I told the signatory/initiator that the Law School was working on a plan to subsidize access for you as graduating students here studying for the bar exam (whether you live on campus or not).

· I asked the signatory/initiator to give me until the end of this week to pull the plan together and let you all know. Yet, the very next day, there was this “petition.”

Third, I personally find this very disheartening.

· I expected more critical analysis from you. I would expect imminent law school graduates to ask for the facts or to point out the deficiencies of the petition but only one comment shows any attempt at a productive solution. Thinking like a lawyer needs to be done outside the classroom too.

· I and many other staff here have worked hard over the last three years to help make your law school experience the best that it can be and to find solutions to problems or when crises arise; yet, the initiator and all of you who signed on completely ignore that. Do you really think that we stop caring as soon as you walk across the stage with your diploma? Do you think we stopped caring already?

We are working on a subsidy to reduce the cost of gym/pool access substantially and we will be able to roll that information out by the end of this week, maybe sooner. Please don’t harbor any illusion that this so-called petition helped that happen. It did not.

Finally, I would like to thank the one member of the class of 2014 who asked me about this issue and took me at my word that we were doing something. I was pleased to see that his name was not on the petition.

Cathy

Email from law student #1 (one of the petition organizers/signatories)

Dear Cathy,

This is a very, very aggressive email.

The issue of gym access aside, I’m surprised and disheartened by your willingness to publicly attack students, your inability to take a deep breath before sending emails publicly attacking students, and your general lack of professionalism when dealing with students via email this year. It’s frankly unbelievable that an Associate Dean at Stanford Law School wrote this email and continues to choose to engage with students in this utterly unprofessional manner.

I’m sorry that this “petition” lacks the requisite trappings of legitimacy. Our request is simple: gym access for the class of 2014 through July 31. There are several rationales expressed in the Google Doc; please forgive our lack of coherence (we’re in the midst of studying for finals, graduating, and preparing for the bar exam).

This simple request and our gratitude to SLS staff are not mutually exclusive–heck, last time I checked, frustration and gratitude weren’t even mutually exclusive. But hey, it’s awfully easy to knock down straw men.

Take care,

[LAW STUDENT #1]

Email from law student #2

Hey guys,

This thread probably needs another email as much as I need another layer of eyeliner, but I think that this is a worthy thread to be a part of.

I would like to start off by saying that my peers are correct in saying both that a petition does not undo gratitude and that the petition helps to identify, at least in part, some of the students who are actually interested in using the gym. I am definitely a huge gym fan! My 1L year the gym helped me lose 50 pounds, since then has helped me keep it off, and has helped me gain more confidence. This confidence has helped me do well in school, be more involved, and has contributed to the feeling that being here has been transformative for me. I know that the gym has been a coping mechanism and a great outlet for other students too throughout our intense law school experience. To many of us, the gym will be a great compliment to and break from studying for the Bar.

I am sorry that the “petition” is not highly formal and sufficiently sterile to be taken seriously. Our dysfunctional petition is merely a reflection of who we are: we are a small (but feisty), fun group of students, with characters (not dry law students), and lots of personality. I am always shocked that the school really drives home to admits how informal and fun this place is, but is upset when we try to show any informality or fun once the admits leave. If anything, our attitude on this petition shows how silly we think this new restriction of services is.

I am saddened to see that time and time again when students attempt to get together and fight for practical (and often basic) demands, the school is offended at our attempts to organize. Regardless of what the school is working on, we should always feel free and shameless in looking to each other for support. This is what the school just spent 3 years telling me. Nonetheless, the school does not appreciate our efforts to stand up for ourselves. Each of us pay a hefty bill every year to be here and if we want to make demands, look for the proof of where our money is going, or take a more vigilant role in helping to direct where these funds should be invested, we have a right to do so, no questions asked.

Until now, we have been patient and highly passive in the dynamics with our administration. We are corralled from building to building when repeated construction projects are undertaken, we move our bikes when and to where we are told, and we refrain from activities and engage in activities when told. To quote one message on our petition, “THIS IS STRESSING ME OUT MAN FIRST THEY MAKE ME MOVE MY BIKE AND NOW THE GYM’S LOCKED, AND PRETTY SOON THEY’RE GOING TO ROPE OFF THE STAIRCASE WITH CRIME SCENE TAPE AGAIN.” Let’s not forget how fun the many months of that crime scene tape and construction noise at the library has been. A lot of our passive demeanor stems from our continued beating down when we try to rise up.

These small reductions of our services are arbitrary, low cost, and disturbing when imposed. It also leaves, as our petition notes, a “sour taste in [our] mouths” and could be a factor when we are thinking of giving back, if at all. I would hate for this to be the case just as much as I would hate not to have gym access this summer.

From a character with personality,

[LAW STUDENT #2]

Email from law student #3

Hi Cathy,

Thanks for your comments on the petition below. Perhaps you should run a skills course on grass-roots advocacy! (That’s not meant to be snarky–well, maybe a little–but it could be a good course.)

At the risk of losing attention by including more than one bullet point in an email, I would like to address some of your comments and, tangentially, defend the admittedly informal petition:

1. If you can identify the proper addressee of this or a similar petition, please let us know. It is agreed the addressee is not anyone at the law school.

2. It is not clear how an expression of interest in a policy change, signed by a large number of students, should be viewed as alienating an administration working in pursuit of the same policy change on behalf of students. You indicate that we have raised the same arguments as you would, suggesting you think those arguments are valid. I would hope that student support for this policy change will add weight to the administration’s efforts, rather than the opposite.

3. I am glad to hear the administration is working to address the gym access issue. I’m not sure why you felt it had to be a secret for a week.

4. It is very sad to be greeted with such a defensive response. This was not a personal attack, and it was completely unconnected to any other efforts the administration has or has not made to improve student life at the law school. There are plenty of issues that frustrate students, but I’ve never heard anyone blame you when the school is unable or unwilling to address them. Blame Munger? Yes. The “law school”? Yes. The University? Always. Cathy Glaze? Nope.

5. On a side note, I am completely fed up with paternalistic responses along the lines of “this would never be acceptable in X legal setting” or “if you were really a lawyer, you would have done Y.” Please everyone stop doing that. It’s an ad hominem attack masquerading as constructive advice. It’s also irrelevant as advice, because we are in fact in law school (for a few more days anyway), and it has always been unmistakably clear that the rules here are not the same as those in a law firm, or in a courtroom, or with a client. The fact that we’re following law school expectations, such as they are, does not mean we are incapable of adapting to other settings. More generally, god forbid we approach everything in our lives like lawyers! That’s why people hate lawyers.

All of that said, Cathy, I am very grateful for the many steps you and others have taken to make my Stanford experience pretty darn great. Gym (and pool!) access would be icing on the cake. I am freaking out about the bar exam, my loans, and my job prospects, and a little exercise would probably help prevent me from losing it altogether. I regret that the petition was so upsetting to you, but I don’t regret signing it.

[LAW STUDENT #3]

Earlier email from Dean Glaze about Honor Code issues

From: Catherine Glaze
Date: Fri, Mar 14, 2014
Subject: [law-2015] Congratulations to the 1L and his friends who are putting self-scheduled exams at risk of never happening again

So, exams began today, and several people who took an exam I can name but won’t, including a particularly voluble 1L without common sense, whom I can name but won’t, violated the Honor Code and otherwise acted in a completely unprofessional way that is unfair to their classmates and that could well put the continuation of self-scheduled exams at risk, not to mention subject them to a finding that they violated the Honor Code.

My sources tell me that several people who took this exam this morning decided to talk about the exam in the halls, in the courtyard, and at Russo, even going so far as to talk about questions to students in the class who had not taken the exam. While my sources tell me that they are sure these people didn’t know they were doing something wrong, I find it difficult to believe that anyone smart enough to be admitted to Stanford Law School could be that stupid. I’ve now had to bring the matter to the attention of Vice Dean Kelman and will be contemplating an Honor Code complaint as well.

So, this is the perfect opportunity to remind all of you that when you finish an exam, there are plenty of people who are wandering the halls who have not taken that exam. What does this mean for you? It means that you need to be careful because talking about exams where others can hear you during the exam period is a violation of the Honor Code. Even after the exam period, you should refrain from discussing the exam in a public place or with someone you are not certain took the exam. We often have a student (or a few) who take exams late due to illness or family emergency.

It is also a good time to remind you that there are some members of the faculty who are already uneasy with the self-scheduled exam process. This is just the sort of breach of trust that might push us back to scheduled exams. So, if you want to keep the ability to schedule your exams for the time that works for you, not to mention avoid the consequences of being found responsible for an Honor Code violation, I urge you to keep your mouth shut at the law school or any other public place from the time you leave the exam room until the exam period is over. Also, just because you saw someone in the exam room with you, do not assume that person took the same exam you did. We often put two exams in the same room and that person could be in both classes and have taken the other exam. If you feel compelled to discuss an exam you just took, be sure to speak privately and to assure yourself that all parties to the conversation have taken the exam.

Don’t think that you’ll get away with talking in the halls, or the library, or the bathroom, or Russo because no one will tell me That is obviously not the case. In fact, Stanford’s Honor Code requires students to “do their share and take an active part in seeing to it that others as well as themselves uphold the spirit and letter of the Honor Code.” So, don’t put your classmates in the position of having to turn you in or risk violating the Honor Code themselves.

Finally, if you are wondering what the consequences of an Honor Code violation are, let me tell you. The standard sanction for a first time violation is one quarter suspension and 40 hours of community service. So, you won’t graduate on time and you’ll get the opportunity to explain to potential employers why. Plus, the violation will be reported to the bar examiners as part of your moral character application.

So, I urge you to act with integrity and keep quiet about exams (at least in public places). I also urge that those who are in the class and heard about the exam question before taking the exam let me know and consider not taking that exam on Monday. That will give us a chance to decide how to proceed to ensure that the exam is fair for those who took the exam today.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions,

Cathy

« Previous 1 2

Topics

, , , , , , , , , ,