Academic

Crossing over into the world of the grouchy

Posted on June 10, 2009
So, I've been reading my student evaluations (for a related post, see here), and one disturbing theme I've noticed is the desire of some students in my upper-level classes to have me "go over" the readings. Not "work more problems"...

Citation Counts - A View From Across the Atlantic

Posted on June 08, 2009
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol At an all expenses paid conference two weeks ago in Santorini, Greece (isn't the life of an academic grand?) I chatted a bit with UK academic friends regarding the strengths and weaknesses of assessing both...

Are traditional state research universities the next Titanic?

Posted on June 08, 2009
Now that the last Titanic survivor has passed away (see here), we're linked to Titanic's history only by comparison to other monumental and cumulative miscalculations. I've started to wonder whether traditional state research universities fall into the Titanic-sized blunder category...

Professor Sotomayor

Posted on June 08, 2009
Among the many interesting documents that are now up on the Senate Judiciary Committee's website are syllabi for the appellate advocacy classes that Sonia Sotomayor co-taught at NYU (with Adjunct Professor John Siffert) and at Columbia (with at various times...

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Visitor List for 2009-2010

Posted on June 08, 2009
It's that time of year to put together a list of visitors for next year. To prevent any confusion, there will be two lists: 1. Visiting Assistant Professors (VAPS) 2. Lateral Visitors, both junior and senior. Please email your tips...

An Antebellum Painting of A Vermont Marble Quarry?!

Posted on June 08, 2009
Why, why didn't I know about John Hope's 1851 painting, "A Marble Quarry," which is in the Boston MFA's collection? This would have been a great image to use in Property and Progress--what a great scene of an industry in...

Student evaluations I love

Posted on June 08, 2009
Up until now, my favorite evaluations have included "Drinks too much Diet Coke" (not true any more) and (from an 11-year-old sitting with her mom in my class, when asked how I compared to other professors) "I don't know; I'm...

Word of the day: Ultracrepidarianism

Posted on June 06, 2009
From Wikipedia, with happy disregard for the authenticity of it's sources. Ultracrepidarianism is the habit of giving opinions and advice on matters outside of one's knowledge. The term ultracrepidarian was first publicly recorded in 1819 by the essayist William Hazlitt...

Spelling Bee Champ

Posted on June 06, 2009
Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kan is this year's National Spelling Bee champion, spelling "laodicean" as her final word. The look on the father's face in the background as she gets to the "-ean" part is delightful.

Helping The Innocent And Mentally Ill Plead Guilty

Posted on June 05, 2009
When I teach the insanity defense in Criminal Law, I often talk about the strategic component of the defense. Before any (good) attorney raises this claim, she has to consider whether an insanity finding will actually be better or worse...

Governor Schwarzenegger Seeks To Defund Hastings Law

Posted on June 05, 2009
According to the Daily Californian: In attempt to offset the state's $24 billion deficit, the governor proposed last week to eliminate all state funding for the UC Hastings College of Law, an action that could jeopardize the trust that established...

Now that your gallbladder is removed, I'd like to discuss my Grade...

Posted on June 05, 2009
From today's Chronicle of Higher Education: Actual message from a chair of a department somewhere, to faculty members, names redacted: Fellow aging economists, In case you did not know, on Friday Professor X had his gallbladder removed. Students were immediately...

Political VIP Admits: Law School Admissions Veritae

Posted on June 04, 2009
Last weekend's Chicago Tribune has an interesting story about how Illinois politicians pressure the University of Illinois - including the U of I School of Law - to admit comparatively less qualified applicants. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the...

Real Faculty Lounge News: Laura Appleman Is A Mom!

Posted on June 04, 2009
We're thrilled to send congratulations and good karma to our co-blogger Laura Appleman and her law prof husband, David Friedman, who are now the happy (and soon to be perpetually tired) parents of a new son: Graham Allen Friedman. The...

Four Dean Finalists At Harvard Law School?

Posted on June 04, 2009
When it comes to law school dean searches, you usually find two types: those that publicize their finalists and those that provide no information. At Harvard Law School, there is no official shortlist. There are, however, some industrious reporters at...

Fun while grading....

Posted on June 04, 2009
As I wind up my grading (ETA of grades, next week), I've started keeping a list of my favorite lines from exams. Two so far from my bankruptcy exams: one student noted that "Ch 7 & 13 function relatively the...

Greene on State v. Mann, Ruffin, and Methods of Legal HIstory

Posted on June 04, 2009
Over at the legal history blog Sally Greene--whom I frequently describe as our nation's most thoughtful politician--has a series of posts on Thomas Ruffin's 1830 opinion in State v. Mann. The posts explore the new evidence about the characters involved...

Separated at Birth - Law Prof Edition

Posted on June 03, 2009
Posted by D. Daniel Sokol Over at the Antitrust and Competition Policy Blog, I have a list of people and pictures who seem to have been separated at birth.

Ernest May, 1928-2009

Posted on June 03, 2009
A couple of weeks ago we had the sad news that David Herbert Donald has passed away. Now comes the news that long-time Harvard history professor Ernest May passed away on Monday, of complications following surgery. The Harvard Crimson's obituary...

Matthiessen LGBT Chair at Harvard

Posted on June 03, 2009
We've been talking a lot about Harvard of late--particularly the belt-tightening in light of the recession. So it's a real pleasure to talk about an expansion there: a new chair in "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies." This morning's New....

Some advice for the new folks entering law school teaching

Posted on June 03, 2009
My buddy Tim Zinnecker has suggested that I start off my guest blogging with some advice for folks new to legal academia. (Thanks, Tim!) So here are some ideas, and I hope that lots of you will pitch in with...

When Should A Law School Accept Applicants With Criminal Records?

Posted on June 03, 2009
Members of law school admissions committees face lots of challenges each year. Can they hit LSAT and GPA targets? What kind of yield can they expect? How can they best allocate discounts? But one of the trickiest questions can be:...

Domain Names in Politics

Posted on June 02, 2009
Yesterday, the National Arbitration Forum handed down a decision in a domain name dispute involving three domain names corresponding with former President Bill Clinton's name - williamclinton.com, williamjclinton.com, and presidentbillclinton.com. The UDRP arbitrator held that although President Clinton does have...

And They Said the Bush Adminstration was Incompetent

Posted on June 02, 2009
According to the New York Times, the federal government has mistakenly released a highly confidential report that provides details of the nation's nuclear facilities and programs. Read it here.

US Airways Baggage Fee Soars 33%. Think Of All The Money You'll Save!

Posted on June 02, 2009
Today, over at usairways.com, I learned that now I could save money on checked baggaged fees by paying online. Checked bag fee change - lower fee online, the website announces in its News column. But when I clicked through, I...

Welcome Guest Blogger Nancy Rapoport

Posted on June 02, 2009
We're very pleased to welcome Nancy Rapoport as a guest here at the Lounge. Nancy is the Gordon Silver Professor of Law at UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. She previously served as the dean at the University of...

Jeffrey Rosen (GW): The Case Against Sotomayor--the Responses

Posted on June 01, 2009
I have been asked to repost Prof. Rosen's article on Sotomayor, along with some responses. Excerpts from Rosen's Article in the New Republic: The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind...

Can Courts Save our Schools? New Jersey Supreme Court Alters Financing Scheme.

Posted on June 01, 2009
Last week the New Jersey Supreme Court functionally ended almost 40 years of litigation concerning the funding of urban education in New Jersey. According to The New York Times: The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a new school...

Justice Goldthwaite and Anne Wilson Goldthwaite

Posted on June 01, 2009
One of my areas of interest is multi-generational studies of families. Francis Daniel Pastorius to Jaco Pastorius, for instance; Theodore Sedgwick to Kyra Sedgwick for another (and Catharine Sedgwick, too). And, of course, I'm most interested in the intersection of...

Sotomayor And White Collar Crime

Posted on June 01, 2009
Ellen Podgor's take on Sonia Sotomayor as it relates to white collar crime is here.

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