Category Archives: U.Miami

Jason Wolf asks whether the fourth floor of the UM law library is haunted:

i think the fourth floor of the library is haunted. my proof is that i hear eerie music at strange times (like when no one else is up there except me) and it seems to be coming from the walls or the air. i’m not the only one who hears it, either. at first i thought it was someone’s computer, but it’s not.

Bricks on the Brain is dubious, but asks why the law library is so utilitarian, lacking the “hardwood floors or lush carpets, hardwood shelves, brass door handles, ornate light fixtures, portraits of prominent alumni, etc..” that he thinks raise the tone and are conducive to long hours of studying.

These are both good questions.

The law library looks Spartan because it was built with a firm eye on the bottom line. Doing it plush would have cost three or more times as much. That money would have had to come from somewhere. It couldn't come from the endowment, because there just isn't that much endowment. It couldn't come from tuition, because that's already too high. It couldn't come from crowding in more students, because we want smaller classes not larger ones. And it didn't come from donations, because no one gave us the many extra millions that would have been needed. So to “Bricks” I say — you're right, that would have been nice. If you strike it big in your law career, we'll still be here.

On the haunting question, I'd be perfectly prepared to believe that Soia Mentschikoff stalks the halls, especially the fourth floor which is where her most stalwart fans have their offices. But I can't figure out why she'd play music. Dropping something on you to get your attention might be more her style. Could it be the UM marching band rehearsing outside? Also, keep in mind that sound travels well through the floors. When the faculty member with an office under mine plays his CDs lound, I hear them.

Welcome to Bricks on the Brain, a new blog by a UM law student. S/he doesn't provide any biographical information, but I'm guessing that s/he is not a first year student, and has

• Keen powers of observation. (“Without a doubt the majority of UM Law professors are left-leaning. But usually politics are kept out of the classrooms, and policy issues within the law receive balanced coverage. … Students at UM are very respectful of each other's political and religious views. With one exception, I have never seen any flyers I felt were objectionable, inflammatory, or in bad taste. For political discussions on the Bricks, civility is the norm.”)

• A taste for interesting questions (“Do private outline banks violate the UM Law Honor Code?”)

• And last, but not least, a good grasp of the obvious (“Professor Froomkin['s] … blog focuses on politics. He clearly does not like president Bush.”)

One to watch.

Incidentally, on the question about outline banks, I'd be surprised, unless there is a rule against unintentionally passing on mistaken information….

Hispanic Business Magazine's annual ranking of the Top Ten Law Schools for Hispanics rates UM #2—again.

Continue reading →

Months and months after I gave up asking for it, it now appears that the Law School is going to give me, in addition to my MS-bound desktop, a Unix box inside our firewall to use as a 'sandbox' to test out various things I think we should be doing in the law school — blogging tools, collaborative drafting and the like. (This development is obviously unrelated to the impending arrival of an outside consultant who is going to evaluate the IT department's faculty and student support.)

So I get to pick a fourth-level name for it, to sit on top of law.miami.edu. The ordinary naming conventions for law school computers used to be fast cars (e.g. 'spitfire') without thought for any trademark issues, and then cities (e.g. 'Casablanca', 'Chicago') despite the possibilities for confusion with eponymous law schools. I never liked either of those conventions, and I'm told I don't have to adhere to them.

The ideal name might have at least several of the following not entirely consistent properties:

• Not too long (I type badly)
• Some connection to the law
• Not too serious, or maybe even funny
• Uses a naming convention that could be used for other machines if it catches on
• Not named after a living person

or, it might be so clever it doesn't have any of them.

My first thought was to pick a legal philosopher, like Fuller (but that's a bit serious). Or a legal concept, like “tort”, but that's potentially confusing since the machine won't be dedicated to that subject, and who'd want to get “bankruptcy” or “domesticviolence”?

Then, I was thinking I might call it “Soia” for Soia Mentschikoff, UM's late great Dean whose ghost is still invoked at faculty meetings, but I'd worry that some here might find that sacrilegious since I didn't know her. Then again, by all accounts Soia never worried about what anyone thought, and as a practicing Legal Realist never followed any rule she didn't like. Accounts differ as to whether she got building permits for the law buildings she built, and the extent to which she complied with them. It's generally agreed, though, that she never had a driver's license, although she drove a car.

My distinguished, articulate, and wry colleague Susan Haack, who holds a joint appointment in Philosophy and Law has been honored with inclusion in a book profiling One Hundred Philosophers : The Life and Work of the World's Greatest Thinkers.

Update: For those who do not follow the link, I should perhaps make clear that this does not appear to be a peer-reviewed production, but rather a well-illustrated list of the 100 greatest philosophers of all time — and not just Western ones. There's a page or so on each philosopher, nice graphics, and some potted outlines of major schools of philosophy. So according to Dr. Peter J., King, Ph.D. Susan is up there with Plato, Aristotle and K'ung-fu-tzu (Confucius). And Peter Singer.

Also, I've changed the link so that if you buy the book, a small commission goes to ICANNWatch.org.

I hope exposure of this practice causes its elimination.

I am happy to report that I queried a UM sports administrator if UM ever gave academic college credit for sports and received a pithy emailed reply: “No way, no how!”