Category Archives: U.Miami

I have an odd teaching etiquette question. But first, some background.

I am teaching Administrative Law at 8:00 am three days a week. It's the first time I've ever taught at 8:00 since I'm not naturally a morning kind of a guy. More nocturnal, if anything. I didn't even take 9am classes in college or law school if I could possibly avoid it. But in order to get the kids off to school we have to be up by 6:15 anyway, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

And it turns out I like it. The 50-person class is surprisingly lively at that hour, and the class doesn't break up my day as much.

But an early morning meeting time also seems to have created an increased potential for a new classroom situation that I am not entirely sure how to deal with. Yesterday, a student actually fell asleep in my class. In the front row.

Dull as I may be (and it would have to be me — Administrative Law is a delightful and interesting subject), I'm pretty sure that this has never happened before in 13 years of teaching. Never? Well, hardly ever—there was that one time when they had a big free beer bash in the quad just before my 6:30pm class, and one of the night students whose day job was construction had about four too many, and, well, never mind. (He was very apologetic the next day.)

So, what is the etiquette when a student just slides quietly into Nod? If he had been snoring, I'd have had to do something, but he was quite a tidy slumper, so this time I did nothing..

The whole incident reminds me, albeit somewhat uncomfortably, of a story that was popular when I was a law student at Yale. Myres McDougal, the great international lawyer, was emeritus by the time I got there, but his v e r y slow southern drawl was as distinctive as ever. The story was that when, as a young man, he had taught at Columbia, they had given him a lecture room with a ground floor and a balcony. Supposedly, one of the Columbia students fell asleep in the front row of the balcony. McDougal looked as his seating chart, called on the student next to the sleeper and asked him to please waken his colleague.

The student supposedly responded, “You put him to sleep, you wake him up.”

Well, should I?

By popular demand, the U.M. law library has put up a (too short) web page about Soia Mentschikoff. Soia was UM's Dean 1974-1982, and died in 1984. She's credited for having set the law school on its modern course as a serious academic institution.

I never met her, but her ghost still stalks the halls, at least metaphorically as our now-senior faculty were her young hires and mostly awed by her, and I've heard so many stories about her from the colleagues that I almost feel like I knew her.

Among my favorite stories are that, ur-legal realist that she was, Soia never bothered to get a drivers' license—although she drove like a maniac.

And then there's the one about filing a building plan that showed our courtyard as a parking lot, without which the city would not have allowed construction to begin on the law buildings. But the quad was then enclosed and nary a spot left for cars. When the building inspector from the city refused to give a certificate of occupancy, Soia supposedly told him that the mayor was cutting the ribbon next week at a ceremony, and did the inspector want to be responsible for calling it off? He caved. The same source swears that Soia then stiffed the contractor…

I am pleased to report that Stephen I. Vladeck will be joining our faculty next year. Steve has already made a name for himself, at a horribly young age, as a fierce advocate for the rights of those detained without trial. His scholarly writing promises a great academic future.

We interviewed several other impressive faculty candidates before the vacation, and have plans to interview a small number of candidates in the next few weeks. Given the quality of the field, I think it is highly likely that we'll make more offers. (Exactly when is harder to say.)

Note: As I am a member of our Appointments Committee this year, I wouldn't ordinarily post anything about our hiring until the appointments season was over, for fear that it might annoy the extraordinarily fine candidates we interviewed later than Mr. Vladeck and haven't yet gotten around to voting on. I'm posting this because I found the announcement on the law school's public web page, which suggests that it's not exactly a secret.

Don't panic, dear candidates, we interviewed him very early.

It is true that the UM Crocodile (ver. 2.0) is taking a vacation just at the same time as I am.

But that is the only similarity. Any rumors that we are the same person, or related in any other way, should be disregarded.

Seems like the capture of “Donna” (who turns out to have been a guy, hmm…) a few days ago isn't the end of UM's crocodile saga. Now there's a second croc in the lake at the center of campus: Crocodile hunt at lake proceeds. And, yes, rather than leave our top tourist attraction, those trappers are at it again:

Some students, passing by the scene, said they were sad to see yet another unofficial mascot on the lam from trappers. On Sunday, Hardwick bagged a nearly eight-foot male croc named “Donna” from the lake.

“I think they're probably safer here than they would be wherever they're taking them,” said Nadya Verier-Taylor, a freshman at the university.

“Nobody cared he was there until 15,000 news vans showed up. It isn't like anybody's dog's been eaten.”

Hardwick agreed UM really is a crocodile's paradise, with its calm, boat-free waters and ample food supply of Moscovy duck, turtles and fish but said relocating the scaly beast was in its own best interest.

“We wouldn't want him becoming someone's fraternity prank,” Hardwick said

Actually I think the croc may be smarter than me. UM is a great place to spend late December: warm, sunny, quiet (the students are mostly gone). Idillic, really.

But I'm leaving Saturday for Didsbury, which is at the south edge of Manchester in the UK. In December it's cold and wet and dark there. (AFAIK, no crocodiles, just family.)

We're having our annual taste of 'winter' — tempertures got down below 60 last night. This seems to bother natives, not least UM's crocodile, who surfaced for some sun … leading to his undoing: Elusive UM croc seeks sun, gets caught.

Amusingly, UM students had nicknamed the croc “Donna” — after Donna Shalala, presumably.

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