Here is No Why

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At Least There Were Eggrolls

April 27, 2007 9:37 AM

lthough I would never contend that the administration at the University of Wisconsin Law School is excellent, good, or even competent, I have generally refrained from ranting against their often ridiculous actions. However, since the death of Legal Badger, I kind of feel like someone's gotta fill the void, even if it's just for a second or two.

I have a negotiations class that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays between 3:30 and 5 in one of the big lecture halls on the fifth floor. Last Tuesday, we had to have class in one of the rooms on the second floor and, should our professor have had the audacity to have our class go for the full hour and a half, we would have had to move from that room to another in the middle of class because another class has the room starting at around 4:30. We had to engage in these musical rooms shenannigans because Erlanger's TnE class was evicted from it's usual room--2260--and moved to our normally scheduled room on the fifth floor.

Now, sometimes, a room becomes unusable. Sometimes, an entire class (aren't there something like 100 people in that TnE class?) must be asked to meet in a different room. There are any number of reasons why an administration might disrupt the students' lives in such a fashion. Perhaps something's fucked up with the wiring so that the lights don't work. Or the pipes broke, flooding the room with shit water. Maybe some space commandos from the future have decided that 2260 is their base camp. Any of these reasons would more than justify kicking a class out of its assigned room.

But I assure you that there were no space commandos from the future at the law school on Tuesday. No. Rather, Erlanger's TnE class got booted from its room so that the administration could host some sort of Hmong cultural nonsense. The whole thing involved something about art, dancing, and lectures or something. And there was food in the atrium. I took some of the food in the atrium, and then various people kept attempting to guilt me into going and watching some dancing thing. It was lame.

Although I don't have any confirmation on this, I can only assume that the whole event stemmed as a result of the Kaplan incident of a few month ago. The school, of course, can do whatever it wants with its facilities. But, putting aside the fact that it chose to indulge one particular cultural group's need for recognition, the administration showed a complete lack of respect for Mr. Erlanger, my professor, and all of the students involved. A Hmong cultural event is fine, but it's unacceptable for the administration to displace an actual class in order to hold the Hmong cultural event. Let's not forget--this is the UW Law School, not the UW Place Where Everyone Can Come Together and Hold Hands and Sing Songs and Feel Great About Everything.

The fact that the administration took this course of action suggests not only that they have no back bone, but that they value pretty much everything above actually teaching the law. This is a sad day, and I hope that the administration pulls its head out of its ass soon.

3 Comments

Vice said:

Hmmm...oddly enough, I must have missed that T&E class, because I don't remember anything about that.

April 27, 2007 1:05 PM

Dangerous Mind said:

Yeah, there are about 100 people in our T&E class. Anyone who showed up after 3:29 ended up with a seat on the floor for the next two hours. (That was also the class that resulted in me getting shocked by a faulty outlet.)

What I don't get is why this event couldn't have been pushed back until 6:00. (Not that I understand why we needed to have this event at all, other than to pay lip service to the people who we're trying to keep from suing the school.)

I don't think any self-respecting law school would completely disregard the space needs of it's classes for some bullshit community event. I'd be willing to bet that even Marquette doesn't pull shit like this.

April 27, 2007 1:43 PM

tc said:

had no idea that 2 classes were inconvenienced over this. ridiculous, when it could have started later. also, the only way the 120-person t & e class fits on the 5th floor is to count on about 1/4th of the class not showing up that day, since there are only 90 seats in the room. not that sitting thru 2 hours of hour, crammed in like sardines with every seat and floor spot taken, with the room hot and stinking to the high heavens, is any way to learn. actually reminded me of WLR elections. where is the focus of this law school? clearly not on academics.

April 27, 2007 6:32 PM