Return to Boalt With Your Hard Hat Handy
To returning 2Ls and 3Ls:
I hope this note finds you well. I suspect you are as excited about the fast-approaching start of the fall semester as I am.
This place has seemed rather deserted without you, but it has not been dull or quiet. The construction folks have been working feverishly since the day after graduation to renovate and upgrade classrooms. Despite our best efforts at planning, however, some delays occurred. The contractors had to devise ingenious ways to weave conduit throughout our aging building, and we also lost time during a strike on campus, when the building workers who were members of unions decided not to cross picket lines. As a result, the start of the semester will be a bit more challenging than I might have hoped. Four of our classrooms will not be finished on August 18, so some of your classes may be held in temporary locations for a week or two. Using every nook and cranny inside of Boalt Hall we were able to keep all classes within the law school building. By August 25 two of the four classrooms should be ready to use, and the other two will be available on Tuesday, September 2.
The old locker room is being transformed into a new classroom/video conferencing center and we’ll only be able to replace about half of the lockers in the new student center area in the transformed west basement. Over the years we have noticed that 2Ls and 3Ls make far less use of their lockers than 1Ls, so we’ll be offering lockers to 1Ls first. We’ll then work with BHSA on a plan to distribute lockers to 2Ls and 3Ls. In the meantime (since lockers won’t be installed until the second week of September) we’ll be operating a secure book checking area inside the law library’s Copy Center.
We’ll have to try your patience for the first two weeks of the semester, but the new and renovated spaces are going to be terrific, so I think it will be worth the wait. I will keep you posted, but if you’d like to see some construction photos visit the building website (also still under construction).
Be well, and enjoy the remaining weeks of summer.
[DE]
Anyway, this is an open thread for discussion of building renovation, lockers, nooks, crannys, and whatnot.
Labels: DE
posted by Patrick Bageant at 11:01 AM
26 Comments:
Why don't we all just pick a friend and share lockers? It'll be like junior high.
Is he right about 2Ls and 3Ls making less use of their lockers? I seem to recall using mine all 3 years.
The lack of lockers is ridiculous. Every other grad student on campus has a place to store their crap so they don't have to cart it back and forth each day. Considering that we pay more than any other grad students on campus except for Haas, can't we get a place to put our stuff? I'm not asking for an office; I'd be happy with two cubic feet of space.
The book check at the library is not going to cut it for several reasons. First, that copy room was hella small last I checked (like maybe 1/10th the size of the locker room) and the cage in the back was even smaller. Second, most of our books look quite similar (mine is the one with the red cover) and it will be really slow to sort out which book belongs to who. Third, our lockers were used to store more than books - stacks of papers for the article we're working on, lunch brought from home, and even the occasional laptop. Will we really be able to store all that stuff in the copy room?
Couldn't we at least get some kinda rent-a-locker system like they have at bus terminals? That way the students who want to use the lockers can pay for it (even though they shouldn't have to).
I know I sound like a whiny nerd right now, but I think my concerns are legit. I've never heard of another law school that doesn't have lockers for the students who want them.
I especially like the fifth sentence.
Does anyone know if the locker thing is permanent, or just temporary?
I heard from a BHSA rep that they will not purchase enough lockers for every student. When the lockers do show up, they are going to distribute the available lockers in accordance with some admin-BHSA joint plan. As far as the details of the plan go, I heard that there is talk of charging the 2Ls and 3Ls that want to use a locker in order to decrease demand.
I wouldn't be surprised if the locker thing was permanent, but at the same time, maybe it'll work out anyway?
DE said that they'll come up with a plan to get 2Ls and 3Ls a locker if they needed. I didn't use mine hardly at all last year (as a 1L), and I seem to recall the overwhelming majority of students in the locker room being 1Ls at any given point, so maybe the 2Ls and 3Ls really don't use their lockers as much?
[rant]
On an aside, I don't know what it is about Boalt and Boalties in general, but what is the deal with everyone getting pissed at any little change associated with Boalt? Tuition increases are one thing, but any time someone suggests altering the way things are done in this school, people moan about how it didn't use to be that way/the old way was better/it's going against tradition! I wish my life was so cozy that the most pressing issue on my plate was that notion that I *might* not get a locker.
[/rant]
Wow, a market for lockers. I would have never thought it. Go Edley.
While it's inconvenient not to have lockers, students are a crafty lot. Most folks have a journal or student org office where they can safely stow stuff. Not true of 1Ls.
Final thought: be glad it ain't the federal government doing the work.
I agree that the book check system is not viable, and given the pace of past boalt construction projects there won't be a real locker room until January, maybe.
I'm all for the current construction projects on campus, but maybe renovating everything at once isn't the best idea? One would have to be delusional to think that any construction in a public university would be completed on schedule.
I was under the impression that 2L/3L students would have to pay a refundable deposit in order to secure a locker.
2:06, with all of the construction and rearranging most, if not all, journals and organizations have been moved into space outside of Boalt.
But for those of use who live a little farther away from campus, not having a locker is really inconvenient when you have a several hour gap between classes.
"I suspect you are as excited about the fast-approaching start of the fall semester as I am."
That's one of those statements that can be read in either direction, but no doubt he meant it in the positive way.
to be fair to DE, EVERY construction project is delayed.
Will there be mailboxes for every student? How will people distribute papers and wonderful flyers?
As a 3L I hardly used my locker. Although the locker situation might be a pain, I think most people will be happy overall with the new changes. It looked like they were doing a lot of good updating of the facilities during the summer. Even the courtyard outside of zeb is much nicer now with new greenery. The locker hassle is probably worth the new rooms you will be getting in return.
Toney said: I don't know what it is about Boalt and Boalties in general, but what is the deal with everyone getting pissed at any little change associated with Boalt?
Response: You make it sound like the entire student body whines whenever anything is changed, but that is just not true. Some boalties are upset by the locker thing, and some (arguably different) boalties are upset by some other changes that have occurred. It's not fair to attribute anonymous opinions posted here to the entire student body.
Additionally, what is wrong with getting a little pissed about change? We don't have much control about what happens to us after we sign up to attend. They can raise tuition, and we have to pay or drop out. They can take away our journal offices and lockers. Other than staging a sit-in in Simon, we are pretty much powerless to stop it. They can schedule way more construction than is possible to get done in one summer, so the school is inevitably in shambles when we get back. And we can only complain. Perhaps you don't mind getting shat upon in the name of the greater good, but I heartily support my fellow boalties who protest the administration's more burdensome changes (like removing the lockers). Without such vocal classmates, worse changes might happen on our watch at Boalt. Even if they ultimately make the school a better place, I don't want to suffer every transition.
Mike - I completely agree that whining helps get things accomplished, and am a firm believer that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. In fact, when a certain professor was being unnecessarily jerkish to certain late 1Ls last year, I supported those that wanted to speak out against it.
But I suppose I see this as a glass half-full sort of "greater good" situation. There is no guarantee that if you want a locker, you won't be able to get one. In fact, quite the opposite, I'd be willing to bet that most everyone that wants one (if not all) will have a place to stash stuff. So it isn't even guaranteed to be a problem.
But what we get in return is much better. It was pretty embarrassing walking around other law schools in comparison to Boalt before I started school. The classrooms, reading rooms, and student space in general was laughable compared to that at NYU, Michigan, Virginia. I would much rather deal with a little late construction and potentially having to plan out my book storing more carefully, and get an up-to-date academic setting shortly down the road in return.
My beef isn't with those that complain, but rather those that complain in the face of a MUCH greater good. Change for the better involves growing pains. Just look at how far Boalt (errr... Berkeley School of Law) has come in the last couple years.
It may be worth pointing out that Toney commutes farther than anyone else, and is therefore more in need of a locker than anyone else.
And he ain't complaining.
Toney - You're right about it being for the greater good. If it really is only a temporary inconvenience as you suspect (and I hope), then I'm whining about nothing big and sound like a jerk. But it's possible that there might be an extended delay or not enough lockers for everybody who wants one. I want the decision makers to know that there is at least one law student who finds such an outcome unacceptable.
I guess this is my point: complaining about the worst possible result of a change with uncertain effects is the only way I have to prevent such a result.
I hear you Mike. Try as I might, I can't think of a solution... I know DE said they found every cranny possible to house classes, but surely there's room for a few extra lockers somewhere right?
More importantly, can DE tell us why our Associate Dean, Howard Shelanski, has not yet emailed his antitrust class with answers to the exam or responded to any of his emails.
Re: 2Ls and 3Ls not needing lockers because they have journal offices to store their stuff in --
Don't forget that we don't really have in-building journal space anymore, either. Most journals have been temporarily relocated to the Hearst Annex, which is several blocks down Bancroft from Boalt.
I am confused by the question re antitrust - why would someone want the answers to the final exam? I have never heard of such a thing outside of 1st semester 1L professors giving back model answers so that students have a better idea of how to answer for future exams.
Isn't Sh*lansk* visiting somewhere this year? And shouldn't someone edit that post to remove his full name?
Some of us, 1:55 PM, are genuinely interested in the law and the subjects we study.
DB comment of the day.
Isn't Shelanski busy trying to secure his job at NYU?
Post a Comment
<< Home