Harvard Law School Student Government

We’ve heard from many students about the significant issues being had by those who are having their harvard.edu emails forwarded to gmail.  It seems that there is an issue with gmail that is causing emails to be forwarded very sporadically.

IT is aware of the issue and working to resolve it, but given that the problem is exacerbated large numbers of email being forwarded from harvard.edu addresses to gmail addresses, they have not been to email students about the issue.

More info can be found on the IT blog here: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hlshelp/

To help out, spread the word as best you can without emailing people at their harvard.edu addresses.

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/student-services/commencement/health-coverage.html

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

Thanks,

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

He’s much to modest to admit it, but our very own Student Government President, David Kessler, was recently quoted in the New York Times in a feature written on Dean Kagan’s nomination to be Barack Obama’s Solicitor General.

You can find the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/us/07kagan.html

Congrats to him!

Brian

This seemed like a worthy cause so I thought I would post the info here for those of you that might want to volunteer to read to kids.

Brian

Volunteer to Read to Children in Spanish!

If you speak Spanish, like kids and enjoy volunteering, please join us! We are looking for Spanish-speaking volunteers for our reading program, Lectores y Amiguitos. Lectores y Amiguitos is a Spanish-language volunteer reading program run by Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Office of School Partnerships and Cambridge School Volunteers, Inc. We meet on Thursdays from 12:05-12:45 at the Amigos School, where volunteers read aloud and talk with second graders.

Volunteers are matched with 2nd graders and work one-on-one with them for the academic year. We follow Harvard University and Cambridge Public School holidays.  Volunteers read every Thursday for 35 minutes during lunchtime and we ask for a one year commitment (October until early May).

The Amigos School is a dual language immersion Cambridge Public School located right outside of Harvard Square.  To learn more about the Amigos School, please visit:
http://www.cpsd.us/AMI/

You can also visit our website at: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/schoolpartnerships/

We hope you will join us! Please feel free to call or email us anytime. Our telephone number is 617-496-4822 or you can send us an email to partners@gse.harvard.edu

The Harvard Graduate Council (http://www.hgc.harvard.edu/) is the student government for the entire university. It consists of four members from every graduate school.

Please welcome HLS’s four members for this year: John Fordyce ’11, Philip Foust ’10, Anne Levin ’10, and Nilab Rahyar ’10.

David

Hemenway removed the cardio equipment from the second squash court today, and I confirmed with the front desk that the second court should be set up for use as an actual squash court again later this week.  They said the rest of the existing squash policies (1 hour slots, 72 hour advance reservations) will remain in place.

Dean Cosgrove confirmed that they asked for the equipment to be removed so that the court could be returned to squash usage.  She said they will monitor the cardio equipment situation and depending on law student response, consider alternative options to increase law student usage in the future if necessary.  An official announcement from her office will be forthcoming.

Yay for the squash players!

Brian

Mark Weber, the Assistant Dean for Career Services, will be meeting with the Student Government in the near future.  These meetings are most productive for all involved when we have questions from you – the students.  So, if you are a 2L in the midst of OCI, a 3L fondly watching the 2Ls’ frantic activities, or a 1L being too busy to worry about anything else but vaguely curious what OCI is all about – drop us a line.  We’d love to hear feedback from you that we can share him.

Leave a comment here, email us at studentgov@law.harvard.edu, or talk with your Representative, but whatever you do, be sure to speak up.