We're having wee fires cropping up over graduation. I happen to know that another school in this city is having huge fires cropping up over their graduation, and our wee ones are really just silly-ness.

Sometimes, I wish I could skip the ceremony. I can't, though. My parents and my kids are coming. And my husband.

Now I want to go, because I feel like I had a (possible) impact I think I had on the ceremony. Nothing to do with the fires. I skirt around the fires.

We don't have class rank, so we don't have a valedictorian and a salutatorian. We also have two "rotations" - because when one half of the upper classes are on co-op, the other half is taking classes. So in order to determine who is the graduation speaker, each rotation has a little popularity contest. That is How It Is Done. The other rotation did it while I was on my co-op over winter, and they chose a friend of mine who was in my first year writing class (a 9 person class) and who I think highly of. It's fun that he is the speaker. I know him relatively well (as compared to many people on the other rotation, who I probably wouldn't be able to identify as members of the Class of '07 or '08, and would perhaps mistake them for undergrads coming to use the library). He has a clerkship next year, and he is then going to work at a top firm. He's going to be a good speaker -- I also think he's going to make me cry -- a friend doesn't think he'll do that kind of talk, but I think he will.

When our rotation had a call for nominations for speakers, I truly deliberated. I wanted a good counterbalance to Boy Speaker (I really shouldn't call him a Boy, he's over 30, he's been married for years, and he's not all that boyish, but anyone under the age of 60 gets called a "boy" by me. Unless they're a Girl). I wanted someone who was public interest oriented, especially considering that's what our school is most known for, and dammit, I wanted a vagina on that stage! We (like almost any other law school) are 60/40 in favor of the women - why have 2 boys speak? NO REASON. That's why.

So I nominated an awesome person who's been incredibly active in the public interest arena, and is very intelligent, and honestly, dresses like the quintessential hippy. I'm not sure a big firm would let her within 100 yards of their building. I hardly know her from Adam. But I see her working like a DOG for her causes, and I hear the thoughtful intelligence that spews from her mouth in class all the time. And I know that she has a vagina (perhaps I only assume, but the assumption is made upon a good amount of external indicators).

She won. WOO HOO! I like to think that I contributed this to my class. No one but me and 2 others know that I nominated her, and for all I know, 199 other people nominated her - but I don't care. In my mind, this is my doing.

It was a close race, too. We had one vote where a lot of people were nominated (maybe 9?) but 3 clear leaders stood out. I think she was within 1 vote of winning on the first go-round, perhaps 1 vote up, but I think not. Her biggest competition was another Boy (who really shouldn't be called a man), who I really like and have studied with and worked with, and I think he's a great person, and if the other Boy weren't already speaking, I'd likely vote for Boy #2. But he's also going to a big firm, and he also lacks a vagina. No balance. No diversity.

I was worried that our "public interest" school with 60% women and all its talk about diversity and equal opportunity and so on and so forth was going to vote for 2 white males taking the traditional road of law school to big firm life. Perhaps I'm not the only one capable of thinking about the big picture, and this is why my Nominee won. I think she won because she's cool.

Labels: law school

posted by Zuska @ 3:14 PM

1 Comments:

At Friday, April 20, 2007 7:38:00 PM, Anonymous said…

I think it's very awesome and generous of you to acknowledge someone like that, and want a public interest person even if you're doing something different. Does she know you nominated her?

Also now that this post tips me off to your school (I think) I am pleased :) there are co-opers at my clinic this semester and they RULE.