We’re making Elements even more mystifying

22 July 2009 • Ricardo J. Bascuas • 8 Comments » • Tags: None

Our guide in Greece is deeply into Star Trek. I’m pretty sure she speaks fluent Klingon. She was able to reassure the kids that I’m right when I say Deep Space Nine drew parallels with the German occupation of France. We crossed over from Italy a couple of days ago. They told us it was a ferry. And maybe it is. But it’s also a freighter. We had to share it with two semis packed with cattle and with a band of pushy gypsies among other cargo and itinerants. I’ve never before had to board any transportation through a cargo bay behind a throng of teenage backpackers. Not even when I was a teenage backpacker. But that’s exactly what happened:

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Things are better now. Today was party-boat day. The kids are heavily into the class, and a bunch of them were so engrossed by Justice Jackson’s recap on Nuremberg that they couldn’t help but do a little tan-and-read. And why not? I plan to grade their exams on a boat so they may as well prepare the same way.

Back on the homefront, it seems as though my prediction was on the mark and that the incoming class is still really, really large. In what is perhaps an effort to winnow it down a bit, the Powers That Be a few days ago sent the Incomings an email describing the varying approaches to Elements that different sections will face and inviting expressions of preference. Money quote:

There are, you can see, quite a few differences to consider: a substantial paper or a final examination, individual projects or common materials, single focus or changing topics, in-class development or supervised but largely independent work, etc. … This will strike some of you as a choice too complicated to work through easily.

Indeed. This may well be more effective than the $5,000 scholarship.

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8 Comments on “We’re making Elements even more mystifying”

  1. 1 Anonymous said at 4:51 pm on July 22nd, 2009:

    I know how you feel about grading exams in general, but how do you not get sick grading exams on a BOAT?

  2. 2 Anonymous said at 3:36 pm on July 23rd, 2009:

    Studing Elements on a boat would certainly get me sick.

  3. 3 Katie said at 5:44 pm on July 23rd, 2009:

    You know full well that you were never a teenage backpacker.

  4. 4 Anonymous said at 10:52 pm on July 23rd, 2009:

    It’s amazing that the administration in an attempt to scramble and save whatever face they had in the first place will first bribe and then use fear tactics to deter students due to their mistake. Way to go UM … way to increase our ranks. Way to even strive to give us a competitive legal education. It’s great to be a Miami Hurricane. The incoming dean has her hands full, she has inherited quite a mess and quite a number of kiddies running a muck.

  5. 5 Anonymous said at 8:05 pm on July 25th, 2009:

    No kidding! Erevything looks better if seen from a boat!

  6. 6 Anonymous said at 1:40 pm on July 26th, 2009:

    I agree with 4. This place is an absolute disaster. No one has been in charge for at least 3 years. Why don’t they just get rid of Elements? Isn’t it a strong enough hint that no other law school in the country has a class like that?

    Get rid of elements, make contracts and torts a full year, and have LRW taught by actual faculty.

  7. 7 Heidi Kitrosser said at 9:46 am on July 27th, 2009:

    Hey Rick, Katie’s right (at comment #3)! If I remember correctly, didn’t your one attempt to be a back-packer (with your brother, correct?) end abruptly and in mayhem??

  8. 8 Anonymous said at 4:22 pm on July 27th, 2009:

    For the record, I am not #6, who advocates for elimination of Elements.

    Perhaps DFW should be required reading, too.