Inspired by the comments to our previous post about the class of 2011, we are staring a new thread for people to offer constructive advice to the class of 2011.
Thanks in advance for posting!
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 9:33 PM Links to this post
Hello 1L's!
This is what we have heard about you (from your admission stats):
Total Students: 135 ish
Average Age: 28
% Students of Color: 40% ( !!!)
Number of LGBT: 11
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 9:08 AM Links to this post
Prof. Bratspies to Speak at Arctic Sovereignty Conference
Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles plans on Oct. 3 to host one of the first law school conferences in the country focused on Arctic sovereignty.
Issues will focus on territorial and security claims and how Arctic sovereignty relates to the international environmental law and indigenous and human rights.
Read more
New J. Journal features Professor Robson's "any reason"
With an already record-setting, yet still surging, U.S. prison and jail population of 2.3 million (the largest in the world), the considerations of the criminal justice system proves to be fertile ground for sharp analysis and lively prose in the inaugural edition of a literary journal from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, J Journal: New Writings on Justice (John Jay College, $10). By inviting the creative writing skills of educators, law enforcement professionals and the incarcerated, "J Journal" is a stimulating – and sometimes disturbing – collection of poems, essays and short stories on the nature of crime and justice in America.
Read more
4000 Law Profs Move Convention Next Door from Hyatt to Marriot
SAN DIEGO, CA -- Please read the story below that broke yesterday in the National Law Journal re: the decision reached by the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) to move their January 2009 convention away from Doug Manchester's Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel to its major competitor, right next door, the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina. This was due to Doug Manchester's contribution of $125,000 to the campaign to take away marriage equality in California for same-sex couples.
Read more
CUNY facing big budget cuts from State
ALBANY - Even as they congratulated themselves on cutting $427 million from this year's budget, Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders acknowledged yesterday that more reductions would be needed if state revenue continues to dive because of the recession.
"I'm not going to minimize the gravity of this budget crisis," Paterson said. "It is continuing ... if we do see [revenue] going south, we will be right back here."
As Paterson briefed reporters in the Capitol's ornate Red Room, state senators were giving final passage to an unprecedented deficit-reduction package negotiated in a two-day special session that was called by him.
Never before in modern state history have lawmakers cut an adopted budget without also raising taxes, and doing it weeks before facing re-election.
Campaign to Stop Killer Coke's Director Ray Rogers banks on finance to defeat big business (mentions Coke being kicked out of CUNY Law)
Ray Rogers never liked bullies.
He realized this while in fourth grade in Beverly, Mass., after he got punched out by a bigger, stronger, older kid.
"He knocked the daylights out of me," Rogers said. "I was terrified of him for three years."
Rogers spent those three years building what would become one of his life's addictions - lifting weights. Eventually, he made the bully back down - and stopped him from beating up other kids.
He's 64 years old now, but in some ways, Rogers is still that kid - he still works out, and has the trim waist and muscular arms you get from running and lifting weights several times a week. He doesn't smoke or drink, and he watches his sugar intake.
Rogers also still takes on big opponents - only now he's on the side of workers, and corporations are feeling his fist in their financial guts.
The tactics for protest Rogers created more than two decades ago have revolutionized labor actions worldwide.
Read more
Thanks concerned about cuny!
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 7:29 PM Links to this post
TAP is on the chopping block again. Yesterday Governor Paterson proposed just shy of a $30 million cut to the state Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).
If passed by the Legislature during a special "economic" session on August 19 – NEXT TUESDAY – the cuts would take effect immediately and affect thousands of New York 's college students.
Our legislators are facing very difficult budget decisions; please let them know that cutting funding to TAP is not in New York ’s best interest. Cutting TAP is not a formula for jump-starting New York ’s economic engine, but rather a recipe for encouraging the cycle of poverty that has entwined our state for far too long.
We have only one week until August 19 and the clock is ticking! The time to act is now!
Please email your state legislator to express support for TAP and tell them cutting TAP is unacceptable!
Please forward this message to your staff and students and do whatever else you can to reach them so that we can express our support for TAP!
Click the following address to send an email your legislators: http://ga1.org/campaign/tapthefuture2008
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 11:07 AM Links to this post
As some of our commentators on our earlier post noted, many are relieved that Dean Burton will no longer be teaching. However, many of the concerns that students raised about Dean Burton's teaching are applicable to her new role as Dean. Embedded after the jump are copies of the complaints submitted to Dean Anderson & Co. about Dean Burton's difficulty with communicating with students, inconsistency and lack of professionalism.
Given these complaints (which seem to have been ignored by the administration), it is unsettling that Dean Burton was given so much power. After the jump, we have listed some of the responsibilities of the Dean of Students (which includes having the sole discretion in granting or denying makeup exams and being in charge of the support services).
On a side note, We feel that CUNY is responsible for the history of problems with Dean Burton. It is shameful that there is no structure in place to help professors become good, dynamic teachers. Word on the street is that Dean Burton is an amazing teacher in small groups and comes to the law school with a lot of valuable experience. CUNY needs to hold professors accountable for thier teaching and provide resources and time for professors to develope into good teachers (god knows the building is filled with professors who are amazing teachers and those who could become amazing teachers)
Complaints and excerpts from handbook to follow.
Roles and Responsibilities of the Dean of Students
"The Assistant Dean of Students supervises the Offices of Student
Affairs, Career Planning. and the Children’s Center."
"On a day-to-day basis, staff
members work with student organizations to facilitate
community-wide activities; counsel students with academic or
personal difficulties; assist students with housing needs; provide
assistance to individuals with disabilities; and administer
disciplinary procedures."
"In conjunction with the Office of
Admissions, the office coordinates recruitment efforts to attract
future students to the Law School. The staff also works closely
with the Offices of Alumni Affairs, Development and External
Affairs on matters regarding relations with graduates of the Law
School."
Examinations
"A student will only be excused from taking an examination at the
assigned date and time or from meeting a take-home examination
deadline upon approval from either the instructor of the course or
the Assistant Dean of Students. The Assistant Dean of Students
has the sole authority for reviewing all petitions for examinations
designated as a midterm or final for all courses."
"When a petition has been approved, it is the student’s
responsibility to contact the Office of the Assistant Dean of
Students to arrange for a makeup exam."
"Requests for rescheduling of examination times due to
conflicts must be made by filing a petition with the Assistant
Dean of Students at least one week before the examination."
"Any time you use a
computer you take some risk of an error occurring that cannot be
corrected regardless of the best efforts made. If the incomplete
exam cannot be retrieved within 24 hours, the Dean of Students,
in consultation with the instructor, will determine remedial
options, if any."
May 2007 Complaint letter (class of 2009) Read this document on Scribd: lfr letter
April 2008 Complaint letter (class of 2010) Read this document on Scribd: formal complaint Re Prof Burton
2008 Support letter (class of 2009) Read this document on Scribd: Burton2LSupportLetter
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 8:58 PM Links to this post
Cuts to CUNY: $50 million
Cuts to pork barrel projects: $50 million
(NY Times Article)
Mobilize for CUNY! (www.cunysocialforum.com)
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 9:14 AM Links to this post
Folks over at the CUNY Social Forum (www.cunysocialforum.com) are looking for groups from both the CUNY campuses and the surrounding community who share in a common vision of a more accessible, accountable, and democratic CUNY, as well as a more democratic, equitable, and better New York City.
The Second CUNY Social Forum will be at City College in Harlem on the weekend of October 17-19 2008. This gives us some time before the chaos of the semester to join or contribute to in some way.
According to the social forum website:
"The goal of the CUNY Social Forum is to rebuild the links between the CUNY student movement, CUNY’s colleges and the Black, Puerto Rican, and immigrant communities and the other communities of color and working class communities of New York City. For that reason we have chosen to hold the Second CUNY Social Forum at City College in Harlem during the academic year commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Black and Puerto Rican students’ strike at City College that won Open Admissions and the 20th anniversary of the 1989 CUNY Students’ strike that started at City College and which successfully defended the victories of the 1969 strike.
The CUNY movement has a powerful message of empowerment, struggle and liberation to bring to the global Social Forum movement. Holding a CUNY Social forum at City College in Harlem is a powerful and appropriate way to connect CUNY students and their communities to the international movement for civil society and to expand that movement into the ghettos, barrios and communities of immigrants and working people in New York City. "
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 9:51 PM Links to this post
CUNY Grad heads new Queens Family Justice Center
Alexandra Patino wants to make sure her clients feel safe and comfortable as soon as they walk through the door. One of her employees is trained to do just that. Safety and comfort are especially important to Patino's clientele, who, as victims of domestic violence, have already been through so much.
Patino, of Sunnyside, has been assigned the task of Executive Director for the new Queens Family Justice Center in Kew Gardens, which officially opened its doors on July 21st. She's already impressed with the center, which saw 106 visitors in its first week of operation, according to the city.
"It's been going really well," she said. "We've had clients walk in. We offer them a place that seems hospitable and try to make them as comfortable as possible."
Read the entire article here.
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 9:59 AM Links to this post
Ambivalent as many people may be about CUNY, I can say that it won't get any better with $60 million less in state funding. Here's the following from the Professional Staff Congress:
Dear Colleagues:
I am writing with an urgent request for you to call your New York State Assemblymember this morning. You can find out who your Assemblymember is by entering your zip code on the Assembly site; if more than one representative is listed for your zip code, call them all: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/.
The New York State Legislature has been called back for an emergency session starting Tuesday, August 19. Today—Thursday—is the critical day to influence the Democratic majority in the Assembly, as they are preparing their position on the two issues that affect us: whether to accept Governor Paterson’s proposed $60 million cut to CUNY, and whether to approve a right-wing proposal for “tax caps” that would be the death-knell of public education funding.
The message is: “Stay firm on support for public education. As a constituent, I am calling on you to oppose any further cuts to CUNY and to oppose the tax cap. The proposed cuts to CUNY are an outright attack on the thousands of people who rely on CUNY for a college education. The property tax cap is a gimmick that would not provide real relief on local taxes and would devastate public education.”
The Assembly Democrats may decide their position this afternoon; we have to let them hear from us this morning. (If you don’t get this message in time, it will still make a difference if you call before Tuesday.) Thank you.
In solidarity,
Barbara Bowen
President
Posted by Farah at 11:23 AM Links to this post
Check out this searchable database of names and salaries of more than 263,000 employees of New York's state government (including CUNY professors), as provided by the state comptroller's office for payroll periods ending May 8, 2008. (it also has databases on state contracts and other expenses)
As it is current through May, it cannot confirm or deny the earlier post about Professor Storrow
fyi: seethroughny.net is a project of The Empire Center for New York State Policy, a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a group whose goals for New York seem at odds with much of the work CUNY students do.
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 8:04 AM Links to this post
Hello Dear Readers,
We are in the process of updating the (ugly) design of the blog. Please bear with us during the transition.
Thanks,
Cuny Law Blog
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 3:02 PM Links to this post
CUNY LAW WEEK IN REVIEW: July 28 - August 3, 2008
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Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 9:39 AM Links to this post
Welcome to Word on the Street, our new feature that posts random tips and tidbits about the law school community.
Our first installment is about new professor Richard Storrow (law school bio here), who will be teaching Property and first year seminar.
Word on the street is that he is the highest paid professor in the law school and was hired outside of the union's pay range.
Word also has it that Dean Anderson also extended an offer to his partner, but he turned it down to work at Rutgers.
All this at the objection of faculty members.
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 12:07 PM Links to this post
From our friend Concerned About CUNY Law:
On Aug. 5th, the National Law Journal reported that Law professors are apparently threatening to boycott the upcoming January 2009 AALS convention in San Diego, California because the event is being held at a hotel whose owner is heavily financing California's initiative to outlaw same-sex marriage in that state. Since CUNY Law recently obtained AALS membership (See http://cunylaw.blogspot.com/search?q=aals+academic), will or have CUNY Law professors joined the proposed boycott? I hope some professors write in or comment on this topic and maybe provide more information including whether they intend to participate in the boycott or convention. The NLJ article excerpt is below.
Boycott threatened over meeting site of Association of American Law Schools
The National Law Journal. Leigh Jones / Associate editor. August 5, 2008
Organizations representing thousands of legal educators say they will boycott the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting in January if it is held at a San Diego hotel owned by a foe of same-sex marriage.
The four groups made up of law professors and legal writing professionals have sent letters to the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), calling for it to move the site chosen for the conference in January.
The groups object to holding the annual meeting at the San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt, a hotel whose owner, Douglas Manchester, has donated $125,000 to an initiative to outlaw same-sex marriage in California.
The groups say that to attend the five-day event hosted primarily at the Manchester Grand Hyatt would conflict with their policies of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation.
Read the entire article here
AALS Convention
Posted by CUNY Law Blog at 2:28 PM Links to this post
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