Thursday, May 01, 2008
Fantasy Endowment...
The other day I happened across one of the many plaques in the law school honoring donors for endowing a person, place or thing. It's an important part of what keeps a school going these days, and I'm thankful for every single one of those people. Which led to a thought-- what if I had $2 million to give to the law school? What would I want to endow? That would be enough to fund a faculty chair, or perhaps build a little addition to the school, or begin a clinic.
If you were my advisors, what would you suggest?
Comments:
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I would give it to the BLE so they could hire enough people to have the bar results in less than a month, as opposed to two months.
Endow a public service fund so that grads who were drawn to public service but face huge loans can go out and do that sort of work without fear of financial ruin.
Or
Use it to fund a van down by the river where they could live.
Or
Use it to fund a van down by the river where they could live.
I would endow a world-class annual legal conference (to be held in Dallas or Hosuton or Austin) on whatever legal (not religious or law/religion crossover) subject you choose that would bring together the top practicioners and academics to (a) discuss something important to someone and (b) be a, as my kids say, "ginormous" public relations play for the law school, its students, and graduates.
If there is one thing that BL is missing, it's a clinic, though it would be tough to fit a clinic into the curriculum with PC.
I'm with iplawguy and speak from experience. Baylor prides itself on building litigators and the public sector is one of the best (and only remaining) places to get immediate, in-depth courtroom experience, but loan payments make it cost prohibitive. SOme kind of endowed tuition repayment fund would make spending 5 years or so in public service more attractive and benefit the state as well.
Perhaps, then, a giant pants sculpture that is full of money for people who are in public service. You would put your public service id card in the slot, unzip the fly, and take out a wad of cash.
If you're going with a Pants theme, maybe to make it more interesting, you could have law students try to put pants on the big bear sculpture out front of the law school.
If you fail, you have to live in the van down by the river.
If you fail, you have to live in the van down by the river.
IPLG--
I don't see why it would take $2 million to do THAT. It would just be the cost of the material and the van-- about $2,158.
I don't see why it would take $2 million to do THAT. It would just be the cost of the material and the van-- about $2,158.
While I support wholeheartedly Baylor's need for a criminal defense clinic akin to the one I participated in at UT, $2m is about $150,000 more than you'd need for that.
My vote goes for a Chair of Legal Philosophy. Although Baylor is very practicality-focused, it is possible to make legal philosophy non-abstract by focusing not so much on the theory of law or analytical jurisprudence, but by asking about how we ought to structure the law. Or, in keeping with Baylor's religious mission, I suppose we could create a Chair of Natural Law, but only if we create an equal and opposite Chair of Critical Theories of the Law. You know, for due process' sake.
My vote goes for a Chair of Legal Philosophy. Although Baylor is very practicality-focused, it is possible to make legal philosophy non-abstract by focusing not so much on the theory of law or analytical jurisprudence, but by asking about how we ought to structure the law. Or, in keeping with Baylor's religious mission, I suppose we could create a Chair of Natural Law, but only if we create an equal and opposite Chair of Critical Theories of the Law. You know, for due process' sake.
Mary Ann or Ginger? We could have an endowed chair to settle that little controversy once and for all.
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