Monthly Archives: August 2005

Independent Writing Opportunity

Posted on August 22, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

[Readers, forgive me, but this item is primarily directed at UM law students, although of course I welcome comments from all and sundry.]

Students sometimes ask me whether I would supervise them for an independent writing project. If it’s something I know about, I’m willing. And, in the rare case it’s something no one the faculty knows about or the more common case where people who know about it are already maxed out, I’m probably willing. You see, students don’t often want me as their supervisor: I’m pretty demanding. I see our goal as to write something publishable, not just another term paper.

If you are interested in writing a paper please turn in a two page memo (on paper or in the body — not an attachment — of an email) on your proposed paper topic, listing the issues you intend to address and (perhaps) your first guess as to what you will say about them. I need this memo no later than the end of the second week of classes. Based on this memo I will either approve the topic or propose modifications. We will meet from time to time, on a schedule we’ll set up and you are also welcome to contact me at any time with questions. I will expect you to turn in a rough draft at a date to be agreed (some time around midterm), and I will return the rough draft with comments as soon as I can, on a first-come, first-served basis. You will not be graded on your rough draft — the comments are entirely for your benefit with no strings attached. The final draft is due the last day of classes unless we agree otherwise. In addition to giving me a hard copy of your paper, please turn in a floppy disk containing the full project to my secretary, Rosalia Lliraldi, who sits near room 382 in the library.

In picking a topic — by far the hardest part of the project — I advise you to consult Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review (2d ed.) [on reserve in the library] for a wealth of useful tips on picking a topic and writing the paper. I’ve also got a few idiosyncratic writing tips that I hold very dear.

Posted in U.Miami | Comments Off on Independent Writing Opportunity

President Shalala Podcasts

Posted on August 22, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

How many university presidents podcast? Well, ours does: President Shalala’s Top-Ten List for New Students.

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The Year Begins

Posted on August 22, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

One of the things about academic life is that it moves to its own rhythm. New Years day is an artifact of the common calendar and has fairly little meaning to me; (and Rosh ha Shona we barely notice). What’s more, as transatlantic flights tend to be cheaper on Dec. 31, we have slept through the stroke of midnight, jet lagged, for almost every one of the past ten years. I can’t remember the last time I went to a New Year’s Party, nor can I imagine how I’d get a sitter even if I were not jet lagged.

No, the real start of the year in this household is around now, when the kids go back to school, and when we have our first classes of the academic year.

My first Administrative Law class is 8am today (Monday). Last week I posted my assignments for both my classes. But if the past is a guide, fewer than half the students will admit having seen them. (Perhaps they’re afraid of being called on.)

Meanwhile, I get to enjoy the first fruits of one of the assignments I always use to start the semester. For my Internet Law class, I have asked every student to send me a paragraph about themselves with contact information plus whatever they’d like me to know about them, and paragraphs have started dribbling in. (In Administrative Law, we’ll do that in class some time around the end of the add-drop period as Administrative Law seems more subject to turnover.) Our students have interesting–and in some cases, rather harrowing–lives.

I have always had great trouble learning names by heart (any proper names, including case names), but I find it easy to remember facts; having facts about people helps me overcome my name-learning handicap, although not enough. But I’d ask for the paragraph even if I were good at names. Other than seminars, even my smaller classes tend to be around 30 people, and this year it looks as if they’ll be more in the 40-60 range. At that size, it’s difficult to get to know many students as people. In addition to being intrinsically interesting, the paragraphs give me a big jump start.

Posted in Law School | 1 Comment

Mighty Mashup

Posted on August 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

A while back, probably in the DangerMouse era, about half of everyone who is anyone in the techno corner of the blog world got very excited about mashups. Former DJ that I am (a fact that inevitably shocks my students, proving that they clearly have a very partial image of their professor), I went and started downloading mashups.

But they just didn’t do that much for me. Maybe I’m too much the purist or something.

But here’s a marvelous mashup that I think really works, producing a new whole that equals the sum of the very classy parts: No One Takes Your Freedom. Wish I knew who it was by. It’s by DJ Earworm. Is there more where that came from? And, yes, there’s more where that came from!

Posted in Kultcha | 1 Comment

‘Clark is like JFK, Edwards is like FDR’

Posted on August 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Over at The Blogging of the President, Stirling Newberry explains, better than I could, why Wesley Clark and John Edwards seem far and away the most attractive candidates for the 2008 presidential election. Have a look at Clark is like JFK, Edwards is like FDR.

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His Lips Are Moving

Posted on August 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Bark Bark Woof Woof catches Rush Limbaugh sliming Cindy Sheehan on Monday, and denying he said it on Wednesday.

I would imagine that the vast majority of the people who listen to Limbaugh’s stuff are never exposed to any of the evidence of the litany of lies and fabrications (cf. Media Matters). To my mind, the ability of cable TV stations to sustain a hermetic envelope of alternate reality is the fourth leg of the big box structural impediments to restoring our democracy.

(The others are gerrymandering, campaign finance, and the manipulation of the mechanics of voting [voting on Tuesday, complex registration/ballot access rules/butterfly ballots, insecure voting machines].)

Posted in The Media | 3 Comments