Harvard Law School Student Government

As grades become (at least a little) less important, interaction with professors will become more important. Today in the HLS Record, I wrote about my belief that there are many opportunities to work with HLS professors (http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/storage/paper609/news/2008/11/06/Opinion/Letter.Opportunities.To.Work.With.Famous.Professors.Plentiful-3528545.shtml). The trick, in my view, is making sure to go to office hours to cultivate those opportunities. Do you agree? Or is there a problem on campus with the availability / accessibility of HLS professors?

Let us know what you think (studentgov@law.harvard.edu).

David

Dean Kagan emailed the student body today to announce the new grading policies: 1Ls will be on the HP/P/LP system, 2Ls and 3Ls will be on the A, B, C system this year, and then the entire school will be on the HP/P/LP system going forward. LLMs will be graded depending on the policy of the class which they are taking.

In her email, Dean Kagan specifically thanked the student government for all its input. Our input came from you — all the students, particularly 2Ls, who emailed us with your thoughts. We are glad we were able to convey your thoughts to Dean Kagan, and we look forward to continuing to speak for the student body in the future.

If you have any remaining questions or concerns, let us know.

David

. . . before taking your first set of HLS exams?

The student government is compiling a list for the 1Ls. Please email studentgov@law.harvard.edu or respond to this post with the things you wish you’d known before your first exam. You will have the gratitude of the entire 1L class.

David

The Class of 2011 just selected their 1L representatives. Here they are:

Section 1: Ilana Ettinger

Section 2: Pablo M. Viamonte Ros

 Section 3: Tamara Wyche 

Section 4: Ashwin Kaja, Will Scharf

Section 5: Akosua Goode, Marissa Ronk

Section 6: Shane Matthews

Section 7: Jennifer Dein, Hrishikesh Hari

The Student Government is sponsoring a welcome Happy Hour with the Dean of Students office tonight, Sunday, August 31, from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM in the Hark Pub.

Dear Class of 2011,

On behalf of the Student Government, I want to extend one of the many welcomes you will receive to Harvard Law School! I think you will find that the HLS depicted in Scott Turow’s 1L is ancient fiction at this point — the law school really is a great place to spend three years. And HLS Student Government helps make it better.

HLS’s Student Government has two goals: to improve student life and to facilitate communication between students and the faculty and administration. The best way to keep track of what the Student Government is up to is to talk to your representatives (more on that later) and monitor our blog, http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/studentgov/.

Why is the Student Government important to you? There are two reasons. First, the Student Government will have an impact on your experience at HLS. Second, you have the opportunity to have an impact on the Student Government as well. Let me talk a bit about each of those two reasons.  

The Student Government will have an impact on your experience at HLS. We run several popular programs, including a weekly happy hour on Thursday at the Hark Pub and Faculty-Student lunches, which give you a chance to sit down in a small group for a (free) lunch with HLS faculty members. In addition, the Student Government will also be your primary conduit to the faculty and administration. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about life at law school, we will help you get answers or changes. We work on issues large and small, from the scheduling of final exams (which we successfully lobbied to move last year) to a broken vending machine (which we’ve identified many times). We also appoint the student representatives to Faculty-Student committees such as the Ad Board, the library committee, and the IT committee.

You can also have an impact on Student Government by becoming a member yourself! Each 1L section will elect representatives to sit on the Student Government (the 2Ls and 3Ls have already elected their reps). Those representatives will work on Student Government projects, both the ones we run every year and new ones that get started as they are needed or wanted. Joining Student Government is a great way not only to help your fellow students but to become connected to the inner workings of the law school. I hope that you will all consider joining.

I look forward to meeting many of you over the coming year, and I hope you have a wonderful time at HLS.

Best wishes,

David Kessler

President