Approachable Professors
I am always amazed by just how approachable the faculty is here. We had office hours in college but I never used them and didn’t really see professors around any of the dining areas. At HLS I see my professors around all the time. They stop and ask how I am doing and how I like my classes. Many professors host weekly lunches for groups of their students to get together and chat with them. It’s always nice to get to know people better over free food. One of my professors even sponsored a trip to the movies to see Crank 2.
Last semester I went to see one of my professors during office hours to talk about a paper I was writing for his class. Before we even started to talk about the paper he asked me questions about myself. He seemed to really care about how I was doing and whether I liked my classes. After chatting for a while we started talking about the assignment. He was really nice about answering my questions and leading me toward the right sources for my topic. Once all of the academic stuff was out of the way, we kept talking about things like career goals and family. When professors at HLS remind students about office hours they always say that students can come to them with questions about anything even if it has nothing to do with the law. I never believed them when they said it and didn’t really think I should bother them to ask about non-academic topics. During this visit to office hours, I realized that they mean what they say. I got all sorts of great advice about balancing work and home life and starting a family as a young lawyer. I left with more than just insight on how to write one paper.
There are even opportunities to get to know professors that you have never had classes with. Last year our student government organized faculty lunches for students to meet in groups of five or six and have discussions with various professors. I signed up for a lunch based my interest in trusts and estates. I had never met the professor before but I thought there would be less pressure if I got to chat with him in a group setting. We went to a Chinese restaurant that I hadn’t been to before. He explained that it was a popular hangout for professors. He was right. We saw several professors while we were there. We talked about classes and the transition to HLS because all the students in the group were 1Ls. The professor talked to us about his experience as a clerk for Judge Posner in Chicago and how he came to be a professor. He even made himself available for questions or advice later on. I felt like he really wanted to be there and meet with us rather than just use it as a working lunch.
Just last week, I was sitting with several friends from my 1L section out on the Hark patio when we saw our civil procedure professor walking by. We greeted him and asked how he was doing and before I knew it, he was sitting down with us for lunch. I was apprehensive about it because I thought for sure we would start to talk about something related to the law and I would feel like I was in class because my other experiences with professors outside of class had only revolved around classes and HLS news. What happened was completely different. I don’t know exactly how it happened but we started to talk about television and celebrity gossip. It was actually my professor who brought up the Kardashian sisters. It was really nice to see my professor as a person outside of his professional capacity. While listening to him talk about reality television, I realized that not too long ago, he was a law student just like me.
- Elizabeth
