Sue Ann has figured out why the computers at UM are still down:
At work all of the computers were down. Some thing about the servers and heat and power outages.
And the person responsible for getting things fixed?
Damian.
So, remind me, what’s today’s date? 06-06-06?
OK. Works for me if it means it will be fixed by midnight…
Super-librarian Sue Ann Campbell reports on a bit of library performance art:
The library where I work owns a book titled Order and Anarchy.
It is shelved on the 3rd floor on shelving right in front of the elevator.
Every day someone takes the book out of its assigned slot and gently lays it along side the books, lying it on its side.
Every day that I see it, I take the book and replace it in it’s proper slot.
Order and Anarchy. Seems about right.
[Update: I believe the book must be Anarchy & order : the interplay of politics and law in international relations, by James C. Hsiung, call no. JX1391 .H78 1997, if you should wish to take in the performance yourself. But I suppose it could be Ordering anarchy : international law in international society, by Rein Müllerson, KZ3405.M85 A36 2000. According to Baron, both are shelved on the third floor, and as of this writing both are on the shelf.]
In several ways, this may have been the best commencement since I got to UM.
First, Caroline looked suitably imposing carrying the Law School’s modernistic mace around the Convocation center. Our kids, who followed along on the web cast, said she looked like a ‘level 500 warrior princess wielding an Elven mythril heavy mace’ which sounds about right.
The law school has a tradition of asking a graduating student to sing the national anthem (in English, at least so far). This years’ performer could have been the best ever.
The same might be said about the commencement speech by Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, which you can find (regrettably in ALL CAPS) on her blog under the title, Commencing on the Right Foot. If it wasn’t the best in a decade or more, it was certainly up there.
But perhaps the best part was that I managed to distribute almost my entire supply of “Support the Students” buttons, which means that considerably more than half of the faculty attending wore them, a number well exceeding my expectations. It was nice to see the faculty (relatively) united. President Shalala did not seem that pleased, but she had the good sense not to say anything … although one faculty member told me that the President wouldn’t speak to her when she had one on.
As for the invocation? Well, it was less dull than usual…but it didn’t mention the union or the students.
It’s graduation day for the law school this afternoon, and [starting around 2pm US East Coast time] you can watch the law school commencement live webcast from the comfort of your own home.
Prof. Caroline Bradley will be the Grand Marshall (the person leading the procession) and holding the mace; as far as we know she’ll be the first woman in the history of the law school to serve in this role.
Both the rally and the graduation demonstrations have been canceled, at the request of students groups. However, some faculty may be wearing buttons protesting the university administration’s disciplinary actions against students for their actions in support of the unionization campaign. Picketline blog has run a series of excellent essays on this subject, and I particularly recommend the Letter from Professor Hugh Thomas to UM Faculty Concerning Disciplinary Action Against the Students and the Excerpt from a Letter from Professor Roger Kanet to President Shalala Concerning Disciplinary Action Against Students.
I heard a rumor that Pres. Shalala banned the invocations from the college graduation, for fear of what the person of the cloth might say in favor of students or workers; whatever the truth of that story, I’m certain that the law school will stick to its traditions and have some sort of clerical although not highly sectarian benediction. Perhaps there might be some fireworks? (Although, to be honest, if we stick to tradition 100%, we’ll have a pretty boring invocation).
Most of the attention belongs to our graduates, who having survived three years of pretty hard work now face a grueling ordeal known as bar preparation … followed by years of hard work as junior lawyers. If you can, though, spare a tiny thought for me towards the back row of the stage, sweltering in my regalia.
A fellow lawprof who watches more TV than I do writes,
since you enjoy following the exploits of your alums, I wanted to make sure that you knew that Ray Whitty, a ’00 Miami alum (currently an associate at Brinks Hofer), is (with his girlfriend, Yolanda) among the final four teams on The Amazing Race and finished first this past Wednesday.
I admit that this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said our students should “take charge of their own futures, think big, take risks, do unconventional things, and take large efforts to apply for many things and risk tons of rejection, to get what they want”… but maybe I just wasn’t thinking big enough.
One of the unexpected pleasures of teaching — unexpected only because I never thought about it before becoming a lawprof — is watching my students go on to have wonderful careers. In a school the size of ours I cannot of course get equally friendly with every student, but there are some one gets to know better than others. It could be because they talk in class, after class, or write a paper. And in particular there tends to be a special relationship with the law students whom I am fortunate enough to persuade to work for me as a research assistant.
So let me report, with great pleasure, that Adam T. Smith, U.Miami Law ’97 (!), and former research assistant, has just been promoted from Deputy General Counsel to General Counsel of Terremark , the people who own the NAP of the Americas. (And no, he wasn’t on ‘the’ law review, although he was on the staff of the Yearbook of International Law.)
Jotwell Blenderlaw