"Come on, Man. This Affects All of us"

A commentator in the thread below asks for a discussion on the nominations for the faculty graduation speaker. The nominees are:

1. b*rring
2. m*rphy
3. m*rray
4. s*lansky
5. s*ift

They're all fantastic. They're all funny. And they're all worth hearing. Nominating speakers is tricky business, however. Success depends not only on whether students like the person or what they have to say, but also how well they will deliver that message. Case in point: last year's speaker.

I actually submitted a vote for John Yoo - think about it: he's funny, non-confrontatinal, and pretty much the star of Boalt's annual gradation ceremony anyway - but I see he didn't make the list. I won't say who on the list I did end up giving my vote to, but feel free to speculate to your heart's content in the comments.

Congratulations, Graduates! Now Get the Hell Out

This is an open thread about graduation, JY protests, still-unfulfilled writing requirements, barbri study, inchoate post-graduation plans, and other fun topics.

Special recognition goes out to graduands posting between 9 and 11 a.m. And don't worry--it'll be better than the absolutely crap gifts they plan on giving the winners of the "class gift mod participation" competition. (The same mugs we got during 1L year? Off-brand "Boalt Hall" mouse pads? They couldn't fine anything that wasn't so obviously left over from the office move?).

The Edley Over-Under

It's a new day in America.

In light of the inspirational and historic milestone of Obama's election, it's time for Democrats all over the country to ask: "What's in it for me?" Or perhaps more charitably: "How can I get involved?"

Which brings us to DE, who's been rushing to start construction before election day. DE is close to Obama and a member of the transition team. DE has assured faculty that he has no "Potomac Fever," and I almost believe him. But my guess is that he'd prefer a role with a little more authority and stability than he has here as Dean. Yes, I'm talking about Article III.

The next President will nominate many federal judges. I would guess that progressive appellate judges have been delaying retirement for a Democratic president. As a result, Obama will appoint several appellate court justices in 2009. Following recent precedent (i.e., Roberts and Alito), if a Supreme Court position opens up in 2010 onwards, it will probably be filled by one of those early nominees.

In other words: if Edley is a potential Supreme Court nominee, then he is likely to be nominated as an appellate judge soon. And a position on the 9th Circuit wouldn't require him to move to Washington or leave the Boalt community--his two justifications for NOT joining the Obama Administration.

So here it is: the Official Edley Over-Under. I predict that Edley will be appointed to the 9th Circuit (based in San Francisco) by mid-2010. What do you think?

(I wrote this post this morning , and I'll be damned if I'm going to be pre-empted by Patrick.)

Graduation, Act I

Borris asks in comments:

Any thoughts on this year's commencement speaker - The Honorable Mary M. Schroeder? Also, is the faculty speaker - Anne Joseph O'C*nnell - chosen by the 3L class as a whole or by the graduation committee?

Those questions are as good as any for the seeding of a graduation thread (though I have my fingers crossed for some kind of tell-all graduation exposé from the likes MRP and EW).

3:'s: Congrats. You are now among the most highly educated people on the planet. Scary, huh?

Good Riddance Berkeley

I'm sorry for the incoming students, but I'll be happy to leave this town. The people exhaust me, and they make me loathe to ever move back here. For example, the Chronicle reports this chilling (pun) story today. The Berkeley Iceland, closed because it is unsafe, was in the process of being sold so it could become a Headstart preschool. Against the owner and future owners' wishes, a group of Berkeley citizens convinced the City Council to make it a "historical landmark," preventing any part of the building from being torn down.

The owners proposed saving the facade, but converting the rest of the building to its new use. No dice. The City Council instead adopted the most stringent designation preventing any structural changes, mind you, to a building already deemed insafe.

Get ready for the kicker: "A building's interior and use cannot be considered in landmark proceedings, so Iceland advocates focused on the structure's architectural flourishes and history." But the facade wasn't enough. And why not? "It was built in 1940 to fill a great need in the community for recreation and entertainment, and we believe that need still exists," said Elizabeth Grassetti, who co-filed Iceland's landmark application.

So, the community group feels an ice rink is still necessary, even though the owners appear more than ready to exit the business for more profitable ventures. But recall, the landmark designation law doesn't allow the inside use of a building to be considered. So the application filer essentially concedes that the "architectural" virtues of the building are a sham.

But wait, for there's more. The article ends: "Save Berkeley Iceland was one of five bidders for the property after it closed in March. Rickles said the group's bid was the lowest. Because the building has been landmarked in its entirety, the current sale could crumble and the building's value will significantly fall." Thanks to a sham landmark designation, the only bidder left will be... Save Berkeley Iceland. Why pay what the market demands when you can abuse city government?

I wish this had been an isolated incident over the three years I've lived here, but it's not. Ask yourself what happened to CLIF Bar and where the Trader Joe's on University Ave. is. I didn't come to Berkeley an acolyte of limited government, but I leave a convert (for many reasons), but in part by seeing the rampant abuse of power and disrespect for individuals propogated by the city government here.

--

More on Save Berkeley Iceland.

--

You may also remember Berkeley Iceland from this case. The Chronicle article on the settlement is here, and a longer article is here. The value of the settlement to me looks a lot less than the cost of ltiigation, but then it may also have been that the plaintiffs were happy to trade damages for injunctive relief and donations to their lawyers (an aspect of the settlement curiously not noted in the NCLR press release but in the Chronicle article. [UPDATE: This is not true. A "donation" is mentioned in the press release. My lazy reading missed it.]). I remember when the case happened, and it still looks funny to me.

Anyway, between the civil rights litigation and the historic landmark designation, I wouldn't fault the Zamboni family for wanting to get out of Berkeley either.

Graduation '07

Last year I wrote about the 2006 graduation, so I figured I’d recap the 2007 graduation too, for anyone who wasn’t there. This year’s was way better than last year’s—not as hot, not as long, and with good speeches. It’s possible I just think it was better, because this year I was the one wearing a cap & gown. But I talked to several of last year’s graduates who were also there this year, and they all agreed this year was a lot better. So congrats to the Class of 2007. Here’s how it went:

--It started an hour earlier, so it was a bit cooler and the sun wasn’t quite so direct until the end of the ceremony. Much nicer.

--LLM Speaker (Seagull Song): Her speech was light, pretty funny, and, most importantly, relatively short. She actually had quite a few funny jokes, and never took herself too seriously.

--Class Prez: El Presidente gave a nice, personal speech. He told some personal stories about classmates and had some nice words about the entire class. And, he got a huge ovation, which was nice after all the pointless controversy about the speaker, etc.

--Faculty Speaker, Prof. Bundy: About a thousand times better than last year. I was disappointed he didn’t sing, but it was still a nice speech. I wouldn’t have minded something a bit quirkier from him, but it was still Bundyesque and he kept it relatively short.

--Keynote Speaker, Bryan Stevenson: Well, maybe he's not quite Danny Glover, but after all the controversy on this here blog, Prof. Stevenson ended up giving a great speech and got an extended standing ovation. Can’t say I was real surprised that he turned out to be so good. The guy’s a dynamic speaker who does fascinating work, and his stories about his grandma and Rosa Parks et al. were particularly entertaining. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even have most of it written down—he was just talking, saying whatever he felt, and it came off great. I thought he did a good job of being political without being overly preachy.

One quibble: during his introduction Dean Edley made some overtly political comments. Personally, I agreed with the substance of those comments, but I still felt like it wasn’t Dean Edley’s place, at a graduation, to be making those comments. It was clear that Prof. Stevenson would be making a politically-oriented speech, so there wasn’t really any reason for Dean Edley to make comments that potentially could have alienated many students. I know many of my classmates will disagree on that point, but it’s just something I was thinking.

Awards, Advanced Degrees: This was totally different from last year. As for awards, instead of calling them up one-by-one, each was just asked to stand at their seat while a description of their accomplishments was read. I don’t think it would have been terrible for them to walk up on stage while the descriptions were being read, so that they could get one round of applause together on stage, after all the awards have been announced. All 4 were very deserving, by the way.

As for the advanced degrees, this was WAY better. Last year, they called up each person individually, read a description, etc. This year Dean Edley gave a general description of the type of work they did, and they all got hooded together. In total, the awards/advanced degrees part of the ceremony took 5-10 minutes, instead of 30-40. Huge improvement.

Awarding of Degrees: Maybe it was just where I was sitting, but the crowd seemed far more attentive this year (last year everyone was milling about and talking to each other). This was probably thanks in part to Prof. Stevenson, who helped to maintain everyone’s attention, as well as the shortened time for awarding advanced degrees. And the monotony of calling out names was broken up by the best moment of graduation: a marriage proposal! It was a pretty cool moment and got huge cheers from everyone in the audience.

Dean Edley’s speech: Just when you think you’re done…Dean Edley has something to say. His speech was better this year, because it was a somewhat more subtle plea for money. He also got genuinely choked up a couple of times when talking about how we were the first class to come in with him (I actually thought he was about to announce he was leaving the school for a minute there). But, I still don’t like the timing on this. Everyone thinks we’re done after we hand out the degrees! Put Dean Edley’s speech earlier in the program, perhaps between Bundy and Stevenson.

The reception: the brownies were excellent! So were the strawberries. One suggestion though: practically everyone from the graduation walks down one side of Gayley, and then tries to go down the same set of stairs into the courtyard, and there is a huge traffic jam. Put up a few signs showing alternate routes into Boalt.

BBQ lunch at my house: Excellent.

Saturday night: I know a few parties were happening, and thanks to those who organized them, but it would be nice to have a quasi-official graduation party that attracts as much of the class as possible. Hopefully next year BHSA or whoever else can pull something quasi-official together.

So that’s it for this year. It was a great experience, and I was glad to see the school make small tweaks to the ceremony that I think really helped improve it. Congrats 2007!

Graduation Tips

Smile in pictures. (Hat tip: the lovely Sharon Kim, not to be confused with LA anchorwoman Sharon Tay)

It's a Pat (on the back)

For the past year, I've been thinking about what to say as a graduation post. Do I talk about the great people I've met? The great classes? Bitch about Boalt to the death? (See, DS's post below) Maybe an ode to the Bay Area?

The truth is, I can't possibly capture all of my experiences in words. I started this blog for that purpose, and nearly three years later it's barely captured 1% of the things I hope to remember. I'm proud of all the 3Ls. All the awkward getting to know each other conversations seem like yesterday. Tomorrow we'll just become another part of this institution's tradition of grinding out lawyers. The process won't stop with us. So in that vein, congratulations to the 2Ls and 1Ls also. Do well on your jobs, and look for Boalties in your future interviews. And if any of you want to contribute to N&B when we're gone, let me know.

Congratulations to the 3Ls and a special thank you to H.P. See you all tomorrow.

Future Interest

So a certain someone e-mailed me the idea behind this post. It's pretty simple. What are the 3Ls going to do? Think of it as a high school yearbook or something. Below you can see the format. And as a warning to anyone who is here because of a google search, the views and expressions of this blog are not those of the commenters in this thread.

Armen Adzhemyan
Bar/Bri - Berk
Bar Trip -- Italy, Germany, Spain
Work: GD&C (LA, practice area n/a, 9/4 start)
Fav Simpsons Episode: Bart vs. Australia

Wear Sunscreen--Or, bitch about the sunscreen provided by your school because it is only SPF 15

The previous thread, on the graduation speaker, is probably the most vitriolic thread I have seen on N&B. As several commenters have pointed out, the speaker is set, and so there is little point in arguing about the merits of the speaker at this juncture. (For what it’s worth, I see no reason to expect anything other than a great speech, though I will form my final opinion AFTER I hear him speak. I'm sure he'll be great, but even if he sucks, it’s just not going to ruin my graduation day, you know?) Hopefully the previous thread gave everyone some catharsis, and now we can get back to being one big, happy family.

So let’s make some lemonade out of that thread’s lemons. Amidst all the sniping there were actually several good ideas for improving the process of selecting a graduation speaker. The following are my suggestions for improving this process, but please add on your thoughts in the comments. Also, I was not on the Graduation Committee, so if I mention anything that either was already tried or is absolutely impossible, please say so.

1) Timing: The 2008 Graduation Committee should form before the end of this school year. A preliminary list of speakers should be drawn up now. The Committee should also speak with the outgoing Committee, to get an idea of who 2007 spoke with, and who might have been interested. Send an email to the entire 2008 class this semester, asking for suggestions or potential connections. As soon as school resumes in the Fall, send an email asking again for any connections or suggestions. Make your first round of invites no later than Sept. 15^th (if not significantly earlier).

2) Faculty Input: It sounds like the faculty was of little help on this. First, get at least two established faculty members on the Committee. Second, have connected faculty members send out letters/make phone calls in September (or earlier). Faculty members like DE, Big Willie Style, and Prof. Choper are incredibly well-connected—they alone ought to be able to bring someone great in!

3) Money: Boalt does not provide an honorarium and can only offer coach airfare and crappy hotel accommodations. How can we make the experience better for the speaker? The honorarium policy likely won’t change, and first/business airfare is upwards of $1500 from New York or Washington, so unfortunately they likely do not provide our answer.

I think we can improve the experience, though, by having the speaker stay at the Claremont, and by providing a very nice complimentary dinner, or even a massage. The Claremont costs about $150 more than the Hotel Durant per night, and a good dinner will easily run over $100 for two people (we’ll let him/her bring a friend). Spa treatment is similarly expensive. Where will this money come from?

Armen points out that the Graduation Committee simply didn’t have the funds for these types of improvements. I think with a little bit of creativity, however, the Committee can raise additional funds. Other departments at Boalt do have the cash. What if BCLT agreed to have an event without lunch, with the lunch money instead going toward graduation? Could BCLT (or another well-funded organization) be convinced to make a donation? Or, why not form a student group dedicated to Boalt’s graduation that is eligible for GA funding? An eligible group can quite easily get several hundred dollars. And what about firm sponsors? Surely none of us would mind a firm’s name on the back of the program, if it helped to secure a graduation speaker. Heck, what about a 3L bake sale? Works for a lot of the student groups on campus.

Okay, I don’t know which of those ideas are feasible, but the point is that the money is out there, if we’re willing to find ways to get it.

4) Politics: Apparently the Committee’s first task each year is to eliminate just about any speaker who might be interesting, because the Left won’t cross picket lines and the Right won’t be warmly received by Boalt students. This is bullshit. Maybe it makes sense to stay away from politicians seeking office, but there are plenty of government officials, lawyers, etc. who are not overtly political. And I simply disagree that anyone on the Right is disqualified—I think Boalties are smarter than that, see, e.g., the warm reception Bob Barr received when he spoke here recently—or that the Union will always protest anyone on the Left (as pointed out by commenters in the previous thread). Also, judges are inherently non-political (usually), and are of course interesting to law students. And, don’t be afraid to think outside the box a bit—speakers who are culturally and/or socially relevant are just as interesting as those who are legally relevant.

5) Students: Involve students by sending quarterly updates, and reminding them that suggestions/connections are welcome. If nothing else, this will allow the Committee to manage expectations, and should limit complaining once the speaker is set.

6) Award: Give an award. Just make one up. Call it the Earl Warren Award for Excellence, or the Dean Prosser Award for Distinction, or the 1st Annual Montgomery Burns Award For Outstanding Achievement In The Field Of Excellence. Give him/her a snazzy-looking plaque. We may not have an honorarium, or hand out degrees, but at least we can make the speaker feel special.

Well that’s all I got for now. Feel free to add on to the list, or tell me why my list is stupid. Do with it what you will, 2008.

Of Our Elaborate Plans, the End

Consider this the token graduation post. But this is not what you'd expect. This is a praise of all those involved. Just from the occasional comments that have been popping up, I know that there will be plenty of 3Ls who are unhappy about it all. For example, in response to this post last year by Max Power, graduation is now an hour earlier to avoid the heat. Naturally, I already know people don't want to wake up early.

In a similary vein, those who are complaining about El Presidente clearly have no idea how hard he's been working on this. Not only is it rude to a fellow classmate, it's just outright DBaggery to bitch and moan without offering a helping hand. Somewhere JFK is rolling over in his grave.

Cutting to the chase:

Faculty Speaker: Stephen McG. Bundy
Graduation Speaker: Bryan Stevenson

Personal Thoughts: At least it's not Danny Glover. More seriously, Prof. Stevenson is a rockstar in the legal world and apparently he's a prolific speaker (a quick google search revealed quite a few speeches he's delivered). Not to take anything away from Prof. Stevenson, being at Boalt does not help us with the selection of a graduation speaker. First, you can cross off any Dem politician off the list. Just forget it. No one will cross a picket line. Second, if you think Boalties are pissed off about being up at 7:30 for graduation, imagine if they had to wake up at 7:30 for graduation to hear Arnie. Uh hum. So that rules out the other side of the aisle. As far as non-politicals go, well, we don't pay an honorarium and we don't offer an honorary degree. Good luck getting Bill Cosby to speak. Any guesses on how much SCOTUS justices make during the commencement cycle?

Also, this is (incredibly shockingly) the first time that Prof. Bundy has been selected as the faculty speaker. I can't wait for the 1940s Bogart reference. Lastly, thanks to all the people working behind the scenes. DO, HP, PP, JC, etc. SOME of us appreciate the hard work. I'm striking HP off the list b/c her e-mail beat this post by a few minutes in breaking the news. Damn you for scooping me HP.

Dust in the Wind

My condolences to anyone who was supposed to summer here. The firm will be ceasing the practice of law within the month, among other things.

My takeaway from this: watch those satellite offices. J & G Dallas did little to nothing wrong - but J & G Chicago destroyed the entire firm. Says J & G:

The firm’s tax shelter practice was spearheaded by tax practitioners in J&G’s Chicago office who are no longer with the firm. Those responsible for overseeing the Chicago tax practice placed unwarranted trust in the judgment and integrity of the attorneys principally responsible for that practice, and failed to exercise effective oversight and control over the firm’s tax shelter practice. . . . We deeply regret our involvement in this tax practice, and the serious harm it caused to the United States Treasury.

And with that mea culpa, a national law firm is no more.

Original Meaning

I'm going to regret writing this post, but I just can't stand it any longer. There's been a lot of hooplah about HLS's student government circulating a survey about naming their small sections instead of using numbers. See, e.g., here and here.

This sounded very familiar to me. Lo and behold, I had the idea some two and a half years ago.

In my e-mail the Yahoo Groups Listserv, I also remarked, "P.S. I hate this numerical bull shit. I want the mods to have names...like the Purple Monkey Dishwashers or Kwijibo (these are Simpsons references, so don't think I'm crazy...yet)."

Well one of the respondents remarked:

"Hopefully Mod 1 is doing a bit better in the numbers game now. Because that's all law school is: numbers. LSAT, which mod has the most replies, class rank, how many beers you can drink without appearing drunk, competition over starting salary, rank of law firm, how many hours you work, number of divorces, etc. Actually, it's all the bad parts of law school that are about numbers. Ok, now I support your idea of giving all of the modules real names. I'll try to think of one for what will soon be the mod formerly known as mod 1 and recommend it in class."

Man, I was one brilliant 1L.

Memo to Mr. Chavez

Congrats to all of the graduating 3Ls and also to all of their families! I hope everyone had a great graduation weekend.

In talking to many of the graduates and their families after the ceremony, a consensus definitely seemed to form: Holy Crap that was incredibly long, hot, and boring. The joke everyone was repeating was that it was a good thing Howard Dean didn’t show up, because it was long enough already.

None of this is meant as a shot against the student organizers—I know how hard they worked, under particularly difficult circumstances, and they did a great job. Mainly I just want to recap some of the funny stuff that happened and give Mr. Chavez, the new 3L rep, some suggestions for improving next year’s ceremony. If I miss anything notable, please mention it in the comments.

(Note: the following is not necessarily in order.)

--Why don’t Boalt students automatically get tix? There is plenty of room at the Greek (the benches up top were less than half full) and more students would make it livelier and more of a community event. There is no reason not to encourage more 1Ls and 2Ls to be there.

--The pre-game show was a reggae band. When the faculty came into the theater in their robes, a recording of Pomp & Circumstance was played. But then when the students started piling in, the recording was switched off, and we were treated to the reggae band’s steel drum version of P&C. I’m not making this up.

--Then came the first mention that 97% of the class has contributed to the class campaign. This is the first of roughly 87 times that we will hear this statistic today. I kept waiting for someone from the 3% to leap on stage with a gun and dare someone to try and make him give $15.

--Dean Edley started off by announcing that Howard Dean wouldn’t be speaking, and that he would summarize what Dean likely would have said. Then Edley started hopping around the stage, yelling about financial aid, and public service, etc., and finishing up with a YEAAAHHHHH!! It was actually really funny and got a great reaction. He took the joke on about a minute longer than necessary—but still, a nice start. My friend and I put the over/under on "Awkward Edley Moments" (TM) during the ceremony at 6.

--The Boalt ensemble then sang a song. This was pretty enjoyable, especially because the two girls who sang solos (I don’t know their names) were really great. But why did they choose to sing “Seasons of Love” from Rent? It’s a pretty good song and all, but isn’t Rent about AIDS and death and poverty in 1980’s New York? Maybe next year we can do the score from Sophie's Choice.

--Prisca gave a great speech, probably the highlight of the ceremony. Then a second student (Prisca’s co-prez, I think) and an LLM student also gave speeches. In no way was it overkill to have 3 loooonnnngggg student speeches. Really, not in the least.

--Professor Heyman. Oy. Now, I’m sure Prof. Heyman is a great guy, a brilliant scholar, a Boalt institution. But as a graduation speaker, he left a little something to be desired. Namely, an end to his speech. The students that picked him apparently asked him to compare Boalt in 1959 (his first year) to today. Heyman took this literally and actually provided a list of Boalt’s characteristics circa 1959, right down to the number of students and admissions process. This was even less interesting than it sounds. He also made a couple of somewhat politically incorrect statements about women at Boalt. And this went on and on and on…. Whomever the speaker is next year—cough, Prof. Bundy, cough—should be asked to speak for 5 minutes at the absolute most, and to make it relevant to the graduating class.

--Next up came awards. This is a nice enough part of the ceremony but it took way too long. Each award was accompanied by a lengthy explanation of the award, a lengthy bio of the winner (the winner of the academic award looked downright embarrassed when Edley told the audience how many HH’s he had), and then a lengthy pause while that person walked up, took pictures, and then walked back to their seat. I think everyone would be just fine with an announcement of the award, one sentence about what they’re all about, and then the name of the winner (no biographies). And you can just have everyone up there at once. This would take several less minutes and would feel even shorter because of the rapid-fire succession of the names.

--Have you ever noticed how much hotter the sun feels when there is a long, awkward pause during the ceremony? I noticed. About 16 times.

--Then came the awarding of the degrees to PhD, JSD and other advanced degree students. Instead of just quickly reading off the names, each person was called up individually and Edley read a protracted summary of their work. Not only was this not interesting and irrelevant to 99.9% of the people there, but it took FOREVER. Again, call them all up at once and just read their names. If it is absolutely necessary the Dean can read the title of their thesis.

--I get a phone call on my cell from a graduating 3L. She is calling me, during her graduation, to tell me that, despite the flask of Wild Turkey, she has never been so hot and so bored in her life. Truly a special day in her life.

--Finally, we got to the awarding of degrees to the JD students. But by this point people were so hot and restless that no one paid much attention. As soon as the JD students began to line up, many people made a beeline for shade or just turned to their neighbor and started talking. I can hardly blame anyone—by this point everyone was hot, uncomfortable, and grumpy (including myself). Also, the microphone wasn’t turned up very loud, so you couldn’t even hear the names over the din of the crowd. I actually missed the names of about 80% of the people I was there to see. The audience was just kind of talking and walking around, so it all felt very informal by this point.

This is not to say that there weren’t some nice moments. Many people’s families waited anxiously for a name to be called and went totally crazy when they finally heard it. I’m a little bit jealous of people whose families are so enthusiastic—I have to imagine that next year my entire contingent (i.e. my parents) will clap politely when my name is called, so do me a favor and cheer when you hear the name Max Power!

--Finally the last person’s name was called and everybody threw their hats up in the air! Everybody got up and began moving toward the exits, but was it really over? Nope! Dean Edley chose this time to make a plea for more money. This isn’t such a terrible thing to do during a graduation, but why do it after everyone thinks we’re already done? It was one of those uncomfortable moments where people pretend to listen, but really they are inching closer to the door so that they can get out of there that much quicker. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a thousand people move ever so slightly in one direction, oh so quietly, all at the same time. It was actually quite impressive.

So that’s graduation. All in all a good day, but one that should be better next year. My suggestions: less explanation, especially for the advanced degree students and the JD awards; student and faculty speakers (and there should be no more than 1 of each) should be allotted 5 minutes at the most; there should be no downtime whatsoever—this means all advanced degrees should be handed out in succession, as should all of the JD awards; do we really need to sing a song?

Most importantly, a couple of times during the awarding of degrees, please ask people to stay in their seats and be quiet—there is no reason the 250^th student shouldn’t get the same respect as the 1^st student. If the ceremony hasn’t already been dragging on, this will not be an onerous request.

Congrats again to the 3Ls, but hopefully we can make next year’s ceremony shorter and more enjoyable.

So we'll march day and night, by the big cooling tower, They have the plant, but we have the power.

Armen invited me to blog on Nuts & Boalts a while back, but I haven’t had much of anything to say until now. So here goes my first post, the Max Power way (which Simpsons fans know is just like the wrong way, but faster!)…

Due to union protests, Howard Dean will not be speaking at graduation this Saturday. There will also be picketers outside the graduation. If the scene at a graduation today is any indication of what it will be like on Saturday, expect your 85-year-old grandma who flew cross-country to see you graduate to have to walk through a line of picketers. It’s tough to say if it will actually affect the graduation ceremony (aside from not having a graduation speaker), but that is certainly a possibility.

Now, please don’t lecture me about the worthiness of the cause, or the necessity of picket lines. I agree with the union about UC workers’ pitifully low wages, and I realize that picketing is one of the few ways the Union is able to gain leverage against the Administration. The Union has claimed that the protest is about the school’s policies, and not meant to punish students, but it’s difficult to see how this does anything but punish students. Picketing graduation doesn’t increase pressure on the Chancellor or anyone else in the UC Administration. The only people this picket will affect are the students and their families. So many Boalt students have worked tirelessly during their time here to support the Union and other liberal causes. And this is how they are repaid? With a picket that will have no benefit to the Union but significant costs to the students?

The worst thing about this is that the Union is purposefully targeting the same students who have been some of their biggest supporters on the UC campus. The student committee that worked so hard to get Dean here in the first place tried to compromise with the Union, but they were unwilling to compromise, and it seems that they went out of their way to target the Boalt graduation.

The fact is, there are certain sacrifices that we all make to go to Boalt instead of a fancy-pants private school. Most of us do this willingly, in part because we value Boalt’s community and its focus on public service. But when we signed up, I don’t think that many of us thought graduation would be one of those sacrifices. It is a day of celebration and there is no reason to turn it into a political device.

There is little doubt that the Administration will ignore this protest. In all likelihood, it will be a net negative to the Union, because many sympathetic students, like myself, will begin to ask why the Union asks us to care for them so much when they care for us so little. So any statement the Union may think they’re making is likely to fall on deaf ears. To not have a graduation speaker is an embarrassment to Boalt. But for Local 3299 to pressure Howard Dean into stepping aside, and to be more concerned with making an inconsequential statement than allowing some of their most ardent supporters to enjoy a hard-earned day of celebration, is just plain embarrassing for the Union.

If you feel strongly about this either way, I suggest you call Local 3299 to express your feelings. 510-844-1160.

Weighing In

Boalt Hall 3L Class Presidential Candidates, I have one request. Make Stephen Bundy our graduation speaker. He's never done it before, and today's impromptu ballad on Erie convinced me. He's been a great teacher and entertaining colleague. And you know, you just know, that if he speaks at graduation, he'll play the guitar.

Post your thoughts on who you think the graduation speaker should be in the Comments...