HLS Student Government

Tired of studying for finals? Go on a date - or twelve. Here’s a report from HGC rep Nilab Rahyar ‘10:

Single? Want the chance to meet other single Harvard graduate students?
Try Speed Dating!

When: Thursday, May 7th
Appetizers and sign-in begins at 6:30pm–Please arrive on time. We need
everyone there for dates to begin.

Where: Vinalia Restaurant Lounge and Wine Bar
101 Arch Street
Boston, MA 02110
(Near Park St. and Downtown Crossing Stations)
www.vinaliaboston.com

Cost: $10 (via pay pal)

Registration Details: Due to the popularity of these events, and to make the
registration process more fair, everyone who registers for opposite sex speed
dating will be placed in a lottery for a spot at the event. We will notify you
if you have been randomly selected by email on Monday, May 4th. If you
are not selected you will be refunded your registration fee. We hope that this
change ensures that even if you’re not at your computer the moment registration
opens, you still have an equal chance of going to the event!

Dating: Round robin style, 2.5 minute dates. We have space for opposite and
same-sex speed daters.

Sign up online at: http://harvardspeeddating.com/ Registration ***opens*** on
Friday, May 1. Enjoy!

For questions about speed dating contact:harvardspeedating@yahoo.com

Brought to you by the Harvard Graduate Council

Cheers,
Ashley

This post is to serve as a reminder that President Faust is still looking for student input regarding the search for the new HLS Dean.  She has received some email input, and met with a group of students to hear their input, but she would still like to hear from you.

You can email your feedback directly to her at  hlsdeansearch at harvard.edu or if some reason you want your feedback to be anonymous, you can email it to us at  studentgov at law.harvard.edu and we will forward it on anonymously.

Brian

And speaking of budget cuts… John Palfrey and the library administration are looking at making some possible adjustments to the library hours next year.  Adjusting library hours would save money both in staffing costs and utilities’ costs.  Throughout the process, members of the library administration have sought feedback from students about the potential cuts, and we are posting now to get more feedback for them regarding your thoughts or concerns about the potential cuts.

The adjustments that are being considered are:

• Rolling the closing time back from 2am to midnight
• Pushing up the opening time from 7am to 9am
• Canceling the extended summer hours during the Bar exam study period.  If this is done, however, the school would likely open another quiet, air conditioned study area in this period, e.g. a classroom or two.

Note, at this time, they do not appear to be considering adjusting the 24 hour access during the finals reading period.

What are your thoughts about these adjustments, alternative adjustments that could be made, or any other concerns you can think of?

Brian

One of the largest issues we hear from students on is the temperature in classrooms.  Generally speaking, students feel it is too cold in many of the classrooms and that it got worse this semester.

We talked with facilities to get a little more info about this problem.  The main issue is, not surprisingly, it is very difficult to keep these rooms at a consistent temperature throughout the room and at all times.  With the large open spaces of many of the rooms, and the hundreds of people filing in and out of the rooms for different periods of time, it can be difficult to maintain a consistent temperature.

That’s all fine, but why - you ask - did it seem worse this semester?  Well, in part, you were right.  It was colder in the rooms.  In an effort to be more eco-friendly (and, yes, probably to save a bit of money), facilities lowered the set temperature of the rooms.  I’m not sure what the original set point of the rooms was, but I know the new one was around 71 this semester.  Not a very cold temperature, but given the inherent fluctuations in temperature in these rooms, it left less room for error, and thus students more often felt cold.

Also, upon occassion, when you felt cold air blowing on you in the middle of the winter, that wasn’t the a/c coming on.  That was the climate control system sensing that the room was warming up too much and pumping in outside (cool) air to cool the room off.

It is true, of course, that occasionally room sensors malfunction and it legitimately is colder or hotter than facilities intends it to be in a room.  If you feel there is something substantially wrong with the temperature in your classroom, you can always email facmgmt@law.harvard.edu with the exact time and location within the room that you experience what you perceived to be an excessively cold/hot temperature.  They will promptly send someone out to measure the temperature in that location of the room to ensure the climate control system is working properly.

So, bottom line… the school was not purposely trying to freeze us out.  They were just trying to be a bit more eco-friendly.  Hopefully that is an idea that we can all get behind.

Brian

In response to your requests, here are some things we are working on, but haven’t yet been able to make happen.  Any input is welcome.

• Duplex printing.  In an effort to make HLS more eco-friendly, we have been pushing to get all printers to be set to default to duplex printing.  The complication, aside from just communicating what this would entail to all students, is that not all printers currently have duplex capabilities and upgrading the printers in this economy is likely to be difficult.
• Textbook requirements.  Right now there is no easy way to find out what books are required for your classes.  In most cases you have to physically go to the Coop to find out.  This should change.  The challenge is creating a technical system that can convey this info and/or getting faculty to consistently list this info in their course descriptions.
• Administrative Updates.  We’re looking for a better way to get Administrative Updates to students.  Right now, to read the administrative updates you have to either check myHLS or subscribe to the RSS feed.  Neither is very hard, but it would be great if it was even easier.  The challenge is figuring out how to get this info to students without overwhelming and watering down the usefulness of things like news @ law.

That’s it for now.  But we’ll keep working to find more to work on for you.

Brian

This may have been covered in one of the “Navigating Unfriendly Waters” events recently, and those of you with more info should chime in, but we wanted to tell you what we’ve heard.  The question about extending HLS health insurance for graduating students has come up lately because of the unusual number of students that are seeing their start dates at firms delayed.  Due to the delay, they are finding themselves facing a longer than normal period of time in which their HLS health insurance will be canceled and their employer’s health insurance will have yet to begun.  So, what have we heard and what can be done?

First off, this is not actually a new problem.  It has always been the case that graduating students may face a gap in coverage between HLS and their new employer.  What has changed is that Harvard insurance used to end on 8/31.  Recently, however, Harvard changed that date to 7/31.  This change was made because many schools’ insurance coverage for the new academic year starts in August, and therefore the school was paying for double coverage for thousands of students for some period of time in August.  Second, insurance options are controlled by University Health Services not HLS.  And while HLS can certainly advocate for their students, they do not make the ultimate decision about what the insurance policy for the University will be.

No doubt, some of you have heard about a health insurance extension program at Northwester Law and wonder why HLS doesn’t have such a program.  After some digging, it turns out that the Northwestern program that has been written about is actually a program that offers insurance options to Northwestern alumni through their alumni association.  It’s a great program, but it is not new and not necessarily unique to Northwestern.

So, what is HLS doing, what more can be done, and what can Student Government do?  Well, Harvard and HLS don’t currently have any sort of alumni insurance options.  That would be the most obvious solution, but University Health Services is not licensed to sell insurance to alumni at this time.  HLS administration has been discussing these concerns with the University for quite some time, but until now, it is not something that has really been on the students’ radar.  If Student Government can do anything to help, it would likely be to organize the student voice and seek some change in Harvard’s policy that would make some sort of insurance available to graduates, at least on a short term basis.  There is a lot more to be learned about these concerns, but it is something we will continue to be involved in over the summer, and plan to explore more fully next year.

In the meantime, you can check out what insurance options do exist for graduates at the following site: http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/stude…

And be sure to share your thoughts about how we can organize student opinion on this matter in the months to come.

Thanks,

Brian

When the exam schedule was posted for this semester it didn’t have the Exam4 exam mode info for each exam.  Of course, it makes it harder to study for the exam if you don’t know if you’ll be locked out of your harddrive when taking the exam.  Thanks to the few of you who pointed this out to us, and thanks to the Registrar’s office for their quick response in updating the exam schedule with this info.  Now, as professors turn in their exams to the Registrar, the requested exam mode will be posted on the exam schedule.  See here: http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/reg…

Brian

Just a brief word about the Ice Rink and similar perks that we enjoy here at HLS.  We’ve had a fair number of questions from students about what type of changes we can expect next year, given the state of the economy.  We’ve been talking extensively with various offices in the Administration about what to expect from next year and it is not all happy news.  Basically, across the entire University, offices and departments are being instructed to cut at least 10% from their next year’s budgets, and in some cases much more.  They are also being told to plan for even higher cuts in the year after.  In the end, when they are looking at perks vs. laying people off, nothing is off the table.

So, what does this mean for us?  Well, certainly we may have to give up some of the perks we’ve come to expect, and maybe even take for granted, here at HLS.  That being said, there are three important things to keep in mind.  First, the Adminstration seems committed to making the cuts in a manner that is least impactful to the students as possible.  Second, we in the Student Government are committed to helping bring as much transparency to the process as possible.  We want to find out as much as we can about how, what, and why the cuts that are being considered are being considered and share that information with you.  And third, we hope that we can act as a voice for the student body in any of the discussions that involve budget cuts.  It is our experience that the Administration genuinely wants to know what the student body’s preferences and concerns are when it comes to budget cuts, and we hope that you will share any of your thoughts and concerns with us so that we can be sure the Administration hears them.

As always, we hope you’ll share your thoughts.

Brian

In response to student feedback throughout the semester, we have been communicating with Restaurant Associates to get the following issues addressed.

• Soy milk out of stock at the free coffee stations.  We have heard that the soy milk at the free coffee stations was running out regularly.  Since our discussion, RA has made an effort to put out more soy milk at those stations.  Is it working?  Is it still running out?
• Sweetened soy milk.  Students have commented that the soy milk at the coffee stations is now sweetened and that they would prefer it to be unsweetened so that they can control the sweetness of their coffee.  RA is under the impression that it has always been sweetened soy milk at the coffee stations, but they are willing to use whichever the majority of students prefer, but only one type.  Which do you prefer?
• Splenda.  They were out for a while.  It was a distributor problem.  They shouldn’t be out anymore.  Are they?
• Protein Bars.  People have asked for a selection of protein bars like Balance Bars or Zone Bars to be carried at the Hark.  RA brought in a selection of protein bars for the Earth Day celebration last week, and has indicated that they would be willing to carry those that sold well during that period last week.  Have you seen any of these protein bars yet?
• Vegetarian Sushi.  We’ve received many requests for more vegetarian sushi - both more options and more quantity.  RA has adjusted the sushi order to add more avocado and cucumber rolls and increase the general amount of vegetarian sushi they order.  How’s the quantity of vegetarian sushi looking now?

As mentioned, we’ve inquired about all of the above issues in response to your feedback.  Let us know what you think or if you have other concerns.

Brian

The following is a letter recently sent out from Drew Faust about the improved policing efforts througout Harvard.

-Marissa

————–

UPDATE: Dodgeball was a huge success: lots of beer was drunk, balls were thrown, and beers were thrown…

Sixteen teams competed, and congrats to the winning team: “Wish this were softball.”

The HLS Student Government is pleased to announce the return of a great institution: DODGEBALL.

Friday, April 24, you will have license to drink (free) beer and then throw red balls off of your classmates.

Get your teams together. We have room for 16 teams made up of fifteen or more players. The tournament will be a one-afternoon event near the Hark. The opening round will start at about 3:30. The Championship Game should be finished by 7:30.

We understand that getting 15 people together may be difficult, so we will allow you to submit partial teams of either 5 or 10 players. These partial teams will be grouped together to form the proper number. Because of the time and space constraints, priority will be given to the full 15 player teams.

The sign ups will start Thursday, April 15 at noon, first come first serve. We will send another email that morning with these registration details, but have your teams ready!

Over the last 2 meetings, the Student Government has approved 5 great new student groups, listed below!

• The Law and International Development Society (LIDS)
• Harvard NAACP
• The Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences (SALMS)
• The Harvard Law Students for Urban Debate
• Harvard Caribbean Law Association

Other great student groups can be found at the following link: http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/orgs/…

We look forward to working with these groups next year and we hope you’ll support them in the fall!

- Marissa

UPDATE - I know many of you have expressed concern about this memo, about either what the curve looks like or what the results will be of explicitly releasing the information.  A few of you have also asked about what the Student Government can, should, or is going to to do about it.  I wanted to let you know that I am meeting with Dean Jackson this week to share this feedback with him, and to discuss potential ways to address or alleviate the concerns that have been expressed.

It is worth noting, however, that whether it seems like it or not, it took the Administration years of debate, study, and discussion to make this grade change happen, and they are not likely to make vast changes to it without at least taking a few years to really assess its effect on the students.  Still, we will share this feedback, and what we can definitely hope for is to work with the Administration to either share some extra information or make some small changes that might help to address the concerns that have been expressed here and via your emails.

We’ll keep you updated.

Brian

—————–

Today (4/16), Dean Jackson released a preliminary memo on the HLS grading system and determination of latin honors. What do you think? Let us know!

David

As we move into another registration period, the Student Government has some good news.

As you may have noticed, the Unofficial Course Evals for Fall ‘08 are up and available.  They can be found here: https://www.law.harvard.edu/current/orgs…

You will notice that the formatting on these evals is quite a bit different.  The same information is still presented.  It may be just a little less . . . user friendly.  Please take a look at them and let us know what you think.  This format is much easier and quicker to produce, and if they are usable in this format it will enable us to get the evals to you in a much more timely manner.

A simple key to understanding the format follows.  The eval survey is reproduced below and the included COLUMN INFO refers to which column(s) in the eval you can find the answers.

As always, your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks very much,
Brian

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1)  Please select the course and professor you are reviewing from the drop-down list.

Select one: COLUMN A

2)  Workload (choose one)  COLUMN B

A.         Light
B.         Reasonable
C.         Heavy but manageable
D.         Extremely time consuming

3)  Difficulty of material (choose one)  COLUMN C

A.         Easy
B.         Average
C.         More challenging than average
D.         Very difficult

4)  Primary questioning style (choose one)  COLUMN D

A.         Panel
B.         Socratic, focusing on a few students per class
C.         Socratic, calling on many students per class
D.         Volunteers only
E.         Class discussion

5)  Characteristics of instructor (check all that apply)  COLUMNS F - Z

A.         Clear about content
B.         Unclear about content
C.         Clear about expectations
D.         Unclear about expectations
E.         Organized
F.         Disorganized
G.         Practical
H.         Theoretical
I.         Engaging
J.         Boring
K.         Regurgitates the reading
L.         Adds meaningfully to/builds usefully on the reading
M.         Does not use the reading
N.         Focuses on black letter law
O.         Focuses on theory, institutional design, politics, history, economics, etc.
P.         Focuses on his/her personal views
Q.         Is open to disagreement from students
R.         Is not open to disagreement from students
S.         Is knowledgeable about the material
T.         Does not seem to know the material
U.         Is easily sidetracked by student questions/comments

6)  Class time (check all that apply)  COLUMNS AB - AE

A.         Enhanced my understanding of the material
B.         Did not enhance my understanding of the material
C.         Lecture/discussion is difficult to follow if you have not done the reading
D.         Lecture/discussion is easy to follow independent of the reading

7)  Instructor availability (check all that apply)  COLUMNS AG - AK

A.         Available right before and/or after class
B.         Available during office hours
C.         Seems enthusiastic and/or proactive about interacting with students outside of class
D.         Seems reluctant and/or too busy to interact with students outside of class
E.         No basis for judgment

8)  Exam (choose one) COLUMN AL

A.         The exam primarily reflected the material covered in the reading
B.         The exam primarily reflected the material covered in class
C.         The exam equally reflected the reading and the class discussion
D.         The exam did not fairly reflect the material covered in the course
E.         I have not yet taken the exam
F.         No exam in this class

9)  All things considered, if you had it to do over again, would you take this class? (choose one) COLUMN AM

A.         Yes
B.         No

10)  Your year/program in school (choose one)  COLUMN AN

A.         1L
B.         2L
C.         3L
D.         LLM
E.         SJD

11)  How much did you learn from this class? COLUMN AO

A.         This course gave me mastery of the law on this subject (i.e., I could write a good brief on this area right now)
B.         This course added substantially to my understanding of the law on this subject
C.         This course added marginally to my understanding of the law on this subject
D.         This course added nothing to my understanding of the law on this subject

12)  Comments (e.g., classes you would recommend taking before this course, anything you wish you had known in advance, information on papers required for course, any other miscellaneous comments)  COLUMN AP

Tonight’s Hark Pub will be cosponosored by SALSA.  Be sure to come out for some great food and great drinks.