Harvard Law School Student Government

HLS Food Society: Call for Members
There’s a new group attempting to get started on campus called the Society for Food, Health and Sustainability (“The Food Society”). The Food Society would be a non-partisan, student-run organization that creates legal, intellectual and practical opportunities for HLS students to engage in food issues.

Some of the current ideas for activities include:

* Bringing speakers to campus to discuss food policy and its effect on public health, the environment, national security and development;
* Organizing trips to local farms and food production facilities;
* Working with non-profit and governmental agencies on food related legal issues;
* Holding a yearly conference on food policy;
* Creating an HLS CSA allowing members to buy local food at affordable prices; and
* Working with the Environmental Law Society on initiatives related to food and the environment, including an HLS food garden.

In order to gain approval as a new organization, groups need to provide the Dean of Students Office with evidence of intended involvement. If you would be interested in participating in this organization next year, please fill out the following survey:

If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out online:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFFjNi1vR0xHUHZqTUZCVU96UzFiQlE6MA

If you have questions or feedback, please include them in your survey or e-mail hls.foodsociety@gmail.com.

Thank you!

The HLS annual Red Cross Blood Drive is currently getting underway in Ropes Gray (running from 10:00am – 3:00pm today). Though the drive is technically sponsored by the HLS Republicans, it is obviously a very non-political and campus-wide event. Come donate blood and save a life!

Too cold to schlep to CVS? With help from HLS Reproductive Justice, Student Government and DOS have worked together and now one of the vending machines in the tunnel from Langdell to Griswold will have a row devoted to the new Crimson Apothecary. Available items include items like painkillers, bandages, and contraceptives. Stop by and check it out!

-Marissa

This Tuesday, October 20th, from 5-9PM, the Harvard Graduate Council is hosting the second annual Leadership Summit. Detailed information about the event and the registration form is available at: http://www.harvardleaderssummit.com/

The mission of the Leadership Summit is to bring together graduate student leaders from across the University to foster collaboration among groups that share common interests, to forge meaningful relationships between groups and
their leaders, and to strengthen the graduate and professional student community at Harvard.

A quick look at our recent accomplishments:

• Student Government Pub Nights: very popular weekly happy hours for students, with free beer and wine (starting this year on Thursday, Oct. 1!)
• Faculty-Student Lunch Program: every year, we arrange for students to have free lunches with distinguished HLS professors.
• Organize and distribute Unofficial Course Evaluations each semester.
• Solicited, collected, and presented student feedback regarding the grade change to Dean Kagan.
• Solicited, collected, and presented student feedback regarding the switch to the Early Interview Program to Office of Career Services.
• Formed and headed a student committee to meet with President Faust on the new dean search.
• Changed news@law in order to allow students to plan their weeks more conveniently.
• Convinced administration to buy toasters for the 2008-2009 free Monday morning bagel breakfasts.
• Obtained Splenda, strawberry cream cheese, and Heinz ketchup in the Hark.
• Worked with Restaurant Associates to respond to vegetarian students’ needs, including increased quantity of vegetarian sushi and better vegetarian labeling.
• Increased quantity of sweat towels at the Hemenway gym.
• Successfully advocated to see the Hark re-open from 2:30-5:00 to serve students’ needs in 2009.
• Distributed bags filled with candy and faculty advice to the 1Ls when they received their grades.
• Created a database of 3Ls willing to give 2Ls advice on applying to law firms.
• Dodgeball tournament (co-sponsored with HL Central and the intramural sports).
• Approved of many new students groups in 2008-2009.

What can you do with just one day?

Vaccinate 560 people against deadly epidemic diseases

Make a difference in the life of a homeless American

Work to conserve natural and historic landscapes for future generations

These are only some of the ways you can make a difference with just One Day’s Work.

One Day’s Work is a Harvard Law School student organization whose aim is to promote a culture of giving by increasing charitable contributions among young professionals. This summer, we are asking you and law students across the country to join an exciting and important charitable community by committing to contribute the equivalent of one day’s summer salary to a charitable cause of your choice. Whether you are working at a firm, at a public interest organization, or for the government, please consider joining the team because every little bit makes a difference and demonstrates your commitment to giving. ODW’s aim to is to make giving second nature, and to that end we have tried to simplify by the process by highlighting a few well-respected and innovative charitable organizations on our website.

Please note that while we have selected a diverse group of established charities with no political affiliation and who efficiently use their donations, these are only suggestions and we encourage you to make a contribution to any charitable organization that is important to you.

Visit www.onedayswork.org to read ! more about our organization, pledge your donations or download a flyer to spread the word.

Charitable giving is perhaps more important this summer than it was when ODW was founded in 2007. A recent Giving USA Foundation report found that charitable giving declined nearly 6% from 2007 to 2008. While charitable organizations are experiencing declining giving rates and endowment returns, many also face the increasing demands for services that come with climbing rates of joblessness and homelessness.

We are in a unique position to make a difference now and to make a commitment to continue giving back to our communities into the future. We hope you will join us in making One Day’s Work a success.

Sincerely,

The One Day’s Work Team

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/alpha/index.html

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

– Marissa

Today Howell Jackson, prospective interim acting Dean, hosted a town hall meeting with HLS students. Because some students were unable to, we wanted to fill you in on some highlights:

• Faculty departures for DC: All courses this year were covered by HLS faculty or visitors. Next year’s curriculum will feature many great visiting professors (especially in environmental law), and there should be no significant effect from the faculty departures.
• Curriculum in general: Along with picking classes this Spring, students will be able to fill out a poll about which courses they’d like to see offered. Some of those courses might be added by next year, but some certainly will be added by the year after.
• OCI will be the week before school starts. Flyout week will be the week of September 14th. There may be events for 3Ls during that time, such as symposia on research opportunities or empirical methods classes. In addition, the school will celebrate Columbus Day, creating a small break later in the fall.
• Financial crisis: HLS’s three priorities are “building a terrific faculty, having terrific teaching, and honoring financial aid commitments.” There may be cuts in other “not central” areas (but not coffee). In addition, the NW Corner project will proceed as planned. Furthermore, Harvard University is working with JP Morgan to ensure that all international students have access to loans similar to those that were suspended because of the financial crisis.
• The search process for a permanent Dean, led by President Faust, has begun. She will likely reach out to students, staff, alumni, and even employers during the process.
• 2L Mixed Transcripts: 2Ls will graduate with Latin honors, based on an averaging of their A/B/C and HP/P/LP grades. The algorithm for that weighting is not public, however.
• Next year’s academic calendar has almost no time between Winter Term and Spring Term. On the other hand, synchronizing with the rest of the University allows for much better cross-registration opportunities. 
• The “Programs of Study” are in beta-test mode now. They will become more significant in the future.
• MyPlan will be fixed, but slowly.

David

We just wanted to make sure everyone saw this posting from the HLS Administrative Updates.  It is an endeavor the Student Government fully supports.

Brian

“If you’d like to do something about your overflowing Pound mailbox, place a sticker, available in the mailroom or from your GGL Rep, next to your name:

Mailboxes marked with GREEN dots receive no materials

Mailboxes marked with RED dots receive only materials from Harvard sources

Junk mail, the majority of if unopened, costs American taxpayers over three hundred million dollars a year in disposal fees, and also wastes time and resources to produce and process. Thanks for doing your part to reduce junk mail!

This initiative is brought to you by the HLS Graduate Green Living Program, a partnership between HLS and the Office for Sustainability. For more information please contact cara_ferrentino@harvard.edu, HLS Sustainability Coordinator. Thank you!”

The Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law (CSEL) is in the process of setting up a Journal on Sports and Entertainment Law at Harvard, and they are looking for help demonstrating the student support for the creation of this journal.  If you would like to support the creation of the journal, please sign this petition:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/jsel/petition.html

If you are interested in being involved with the journal, please email Ashwin Krishnan (amkrishnan@law.harvard.edu).

Brian

At our last meeting, the Student Government approved the creation of two new student groups.

The Health Issues Awareness Society:

The Health Issues Awareness Society aims to promote awareness and fundraising for various medical conditions and health related causes and to inspire students and alumni of Harvard Law to use their positions of influence to advance research, charity, and government action aimed at promoting these causes.
To this end, the Health Issues Awareness Society shall seek to sponsor events to raise funds and awareness for various medical conditions and health issues; inform members of outside opportunities and events promoting health related causes; sponsor events with health law scholars and practitioners for discussions of issues in the field; and to foster good relationships among interested students and faculty.

The Harvard Legal Theory Forum:

The Harvard Legal Theory Forum (“the Forum”) will promote the study of legal theory at Harvard Law School by holding regular meetings of reading groups to discuss texts on legal theory and hosting colloquia for students and/or professors to present works in progress on legal theory.

Your thoughts are always welcome,

Brian

A quick update on the ongoing Faculty Student Lunch Program.

First, emails are still going out letting students know which lunch they’ve been assigned to.  Second, many students did fill out their surveys “anonymously” and, thus, we were unable to match those requests with the student that submitted them.  If you haven’t heard from us by the end of this week you may want to email studentgov@law.harvard.edu to see if you filled out your poll anonymously.

Third, there are still several lunches with slots available.  If you are interested in attending any of the following lunches, please get in touch with us asap.

Professor Alford: 12/1
Professor Forbath: lunch on Nov.18
Professor Barkow:  Nov. 21, 12:15
Professor Issacharoff: Nov 11 at 5 pm.
Professor Leff: Nov. 19 at noon.
Professor Michelman: Nov. 11 at 1 pm.
Professor Kaufman: Nov. 20 at noon.

Finally, a special thanks goes out to 1L Representatives Jennifer Dein, Marissa Ronk, and Tamara Wyche for their hard work in planning and coordinating these lunches.

Brian

At our last Student Government meeting we approved the creation of a new student group:  The Southern Law Society.

The goals of this group are: “1) to foster community among all HLS students interested in Southern cuisine, history, art, music, culture and lifestyle and 2) to promote the South as a practice destination for HLS graduates. To these ends, the Southern Law Society will sponsor periodic social events with Southern themes; educate students on professional and volunteer legal opportunities in the South; and publicly celebrate the diversity and contributions of Southern culture. A common thread connecting the activities of the Southern Law Society is a commitment to “bringing Southern hospitality to HLS.”

I’m sure you’ll here more from them in the future.

Brian