My contribution to the Fall Whine Fest which is so very prevalent in Blogland:

at my law school, we have an electronic, internet based community bulletin board. the year that i was a 1L was the thing's first year. i know that the upper level students along with about 80% of the faculty and staff HATED the thing, but I also knew that since we were in on the ground floor, we'd get quickly used to it, and it would phase in very nicely. apparently, the old system involved hundreds of e-mails per day, as well as paper notices put up on physical (as in, on the wall) bulletin boards.

most professors use this bulletin board to, in the appropriate place, post their syllabi at the start of the year. They use it to announce class cancellations, and they use it to share any other important info.

some professors seem to have not caught on, and so THEY have a back-up bulletin board where they can post assignments, as well as place hard cover syllabi for students.

still some OTHER professors post things outside their secretary's office.

My professor for Comparative Law is also a first year professor, and has posted the info for her first year course on the electronic board, on the central bulletin board AND outside her office.

Comparative Law was NOWHERE. Absolutely NOWHERE. I took this to mean that we had no assignment ... as did others. I was checking the board diligently, including at 4 p.m. today, which is pretty damned late for a 10:15 a.m. class tomorrow.

A friend and I had run into each other in front of the secretary's office making one last check. We were saying "woo hoo! no Comparative Law reading!" Then we turned on our heels, and found, on an oddly placed table in front of the professor's office .... a syllabus.

The syllabus not only included an assignment for tomorrow a.m., but two out of three of the items are not in the ($143) book ... they are in a packet of "supplemental materials."

Our school uses one copy center in particular. I was there this morning, at 10 a.m. I was there last Thursday. During neither visit did I see (and I did look) an entry for Comparative Law on the available copy packet list.

So at 4:35 p.m., as I had my rain gear on, my bag packed, and one foot out the law school door ... I find out that I have to go to pick up yet another packet of materials (and probably pay another $50)?

I decided that NO, I do not need to do that. I think this is ridiculous. This professor has been given THREE OPTIONS that students are aware of. This professor chose to use NONE of those, but rather to squirrel the syllabus away in secret. I somehow think that if I did go to the copy center, the packet would NOT be ready. Which is part of why I was unwilling to go. I would have been so angry if I went down there (it's only 3 blocks away, but i had my bike raingear ON!!! I was ready to GO HOME!!!) and found that it didn't exist. It didn't even say on the syllabus that it WAS there. It just listed Excerpts. (I should really go check both TWEN and Blackboard after I post this, to be sure that they're not there).

So this is my start of the quarter complaint.

Otherwise, Day 1 went well.

We read three cases for Tax, but since he decided to give a remedial lecture on "legislative history" for about 20 minutes, we only got to one, and have nothing new assigned for Thursday.

My Professional Responsibility Professor has written a book. It has to do with reviving "spirituality" in the law. He does not advocate a specific religion, but yet looks to the removal of "spirituality" from the law as the reason why lawyers are unhappy alcoholics. Being an ex-christian with bitterness and issues, I'm very curious as to how he will reconcile the several EVILS that came with the "spirit in the law" with the idea that its removal was a bad thing. (Hello, witch trials? laws against interracial marriage? the general criminalization of a range of behavior according to religious texts?)

I will need to take the MPRE on November 4, along with probably everyone who is taking Prof. Resp. with me - so we have a lot of make up classes scheduled on my Fridays "off" to get us on track to take the test. This is really okay with me, since 1) one of them is NOT scheduled for our weekend in Disney; and 2) it is early enough that if the mood struck, I could go and get the girls right after school, allowing them to skip after-school care.

Tomorrow is Day One of Comparative Law (which I will not have read for) and Professional Responsibility (which I *have* read for, since the assignments were posted in two out of three of the above-listed NORMAL spots!!)

posted by Zuska @ 8:24 PM

1 Comments:

At Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:54:00 AM, Butterflyfish said…

"My contribution to the Fall Whine Fest which is so very prevalent in Blogland."

Bwahahahahaha. Well put Zuska!