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University of Michigan Law School University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository Res Gestae Law School History and Publications 1982 Vol. 30, No. 21, April 7, 1982 University of Michigan Law School Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.law.umich.edu/res_gestae Part of the Legal Education Commons Recommended Citation University of Michigan Law School, "Vol. 30, No. 21, April 7, 1982" (1982). Res Gestae. Paper 442. http://repository.law.umich.edu/res_gestae/442 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School History and Publications at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Res Gestae by an authorized administrator of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Barristers: Do they do anything by Peter Jackson of high-quality chemicals. Considering the plight of students at They receive no funding from the more than drink? an all-male Jaw school in the winter of school and have operated without for- . , . 1904, drinking clubs made a lot of sense. mal recognition since 1938 when a Soc1ety dress up otherwiSe bormg law recent survey of several secret clubs The Barrister's Society was fQunded Reading Room initiation ceremony~ school yearbooks of the past. brought an egalitarian outcry from the in that year and despite Prohibition and out of hand. That incident also resul a THE BA RRIS!E R~ ?ave persevered student newspaper, the Harvard Law frequent run-ins with the ad­ in a one-year suspension of t /!Jt.cau~e o~ the1r ab1hty to adapt to Record. According to Professor Joe ministration, they are still drinking. Barristers from the law school. chaOO il)~tmes and trends. They a ban- Vining, a member of the secret " Pow The Barristers publish the Row The Society outlasted several Iate.n _ d?"'41J' ~~trageous string ties and Wow" club as a Harvard student, some Review, a satire magazine, and sponsor organizations formed with saffiVJR p10~ w flt(J(Jv~~ them thro~gh the of the g~oups are more than a century the annual Crease Ball. Beyond that, general purpose. Picture "Jar iflt1es. Their~l mbers now ~nclude old and others began as case clubs in a they are dedicated to a solitary goal, but now defunct outfits e over .il>.ywnen. e drug menu 1s more time when students formed their own the regular ingestion of large amounts "Toastmasters" a nd the ui ty )}1!versP.<'But two things haven't writing and advocacy classes. JCCha ed : they party regularly and At Michigan, the "Ki ng's Bench" is yo ·nvited. apparently the only club in addition to Obese Chance sixties, one response to the Barristers. It consists of about ten this exc · ity was the formation of members who meet in the Lawyer's alternatives~ike the "Equity Society." Club on Thursday nights to drink bran­ This group's history is as foggy as the dy and smoke cigars. Meetings begin Barristers,' but evidently the member­ with a group effort to recreate the mood ship refused to be identified or to be of the nineteenth century and end with a photographed from the front. Professor toast to the status quo. Ted St. Antoine, a 1954 Barrister, OTHERWISE, the Barristers are the claims the society offered only a group only purely social club at the school. moon for one yearbook portrait. The Student response to their presence is late sixties and " the continuing merger outwardly neutral. In fact, many of law and equity in the American cour­ students appreciate their displays of ts" apparently brought their downfall. irreverence, which include kazoo The response to exclusive law school parades through the libraries. social clubs bas been somewhat dif­ Those who would like to belong and t stat ferent in the eighties. At Harvard, a - See BARRISTERS, page two Vol. 30, No. 21 The University of Michigan Law School April?, 1981 Senate Irked by Late First-year Changes by Joe llardig The fact that the students were never A dismayed LSSS voted unanimously notified of the unexpected change in to authorize first year representative next year's schedules incensed the Steve Cassin to investigate the facts LSSS and caused representative Julie which led law school administrators to Hurwitz to remark, "This is typical for unilaterally alter the first year the faculty to exclude students from curriculum. decisions that have a substantial im­ The Curriculum Committee pact on them." Proposal, drafted by Professor Ed The LSSS voted to investigate the One or the last available pictures of the " Equity Society." Society member Cooper and subsequently approved by a scheduling change decision, then to are shown drinking at past law students• favorite watering hole. Fraser's faculty majority, added Constitutional draft a letter of dissatisfaction. Pub. Law as a first year course while simultaneously requiring one other fir­ st year course to be taught in small sec­ tions of about twenty students. Ad­ Seminar Selections Stay Sparse ministrators voted to take two years to by Jere Eisenberg dividual faculty members rather than fered. "We have to consider that there implement the changes because ad­ Despite student grumbling over the with the committee itself. are limits on both faculty interest and ditional professors would have to be paucity of new seminars in next year's " If (students) want a new seminar faculty numbers," Cooper added, ex­ hired to accommodate the small sec­ curriculum, the faculty bas no im­ they should find a faculty member plaining that the current policy insures tions. mediate plans to upgrade the selection who's interested in teaching it," Cooper that in almost every case, when a The recently released course next year. said. "The curriculum committee is not seminar is offered, the professor worksheet schedules reveal, however, Associate Dean Edward Cooper, who going to sit around designing them and teaching it will have a keen interest in the addition of four credits of Con­ heads the Curriculum Committee then telling a professor to teach the subject matter. stitutional Law to the winter term and which reviews applications for new something." While the Curriculum Committee is the reduction of Civil Procedure from seminars, noted that "The Committee Cooper added that student complain­ responsible for approving any new five to four credit hours. Thus the class has not seen an application for a new of­ ts over the seminar offerings are heard seminars that are proposed by faculty, of 1985 faces an increased workload fering all year." Cooper explained that almost every year, but noted that the the actual scheduling of all classes is without the benefit of a corresponding the initial impetus behind developing existing faculty is necessarily limited done by Deans Sandalow and Eklund. smaiJ section course. new ideas for seminars rests with in- as to how many seminars· can be of- ee SEMINARS. page two To the Editor: students are far from ambivalent. The Black Law Students Alliance (B.L.S.A.) must Second, the article glibly mentions that a BLSA Letter Rips express its displeasure with the March 17, Res minority student has not served on the Michigan Gestae article, " Review Nixes Affirmative Action." Law Review in 17 years, but fails to mention that The article was unobjective, inaccurate, and during this time a minority student declined an in­ R.G. on Coverage generally patronizing. ln addition, some of the in­ vitation to serve on the Review. The Res Ge tae was dividuals quoted have asserted that their statemen­ aware of this fact and chose to omit the information. ts were taken out of context and were not fuJly The article lends credence to the misguided notion of Action Plans reflective of their discussions with the reporter. that the presence or absence of Jaw review status First, the article states, "minority reaction to the measures intellectual capacity and professional idea of an affirmative action plan on the Michigan potential. Law Review seems ambivalent at best." The author Thejollowinx letter came to the R.G.jrom the Black law Third, the characterization of Amalya Kearse and admittedly based this conclusion on a sample of 3 of Harry Edwards as having " lefl a legacy that has Students Alltam·e m rl'5ponse to the R.G. 's earlier article the 95 Michigan minority law students. To draw a gone unmatched by any minority in the 17 years regarding the obwmce of an affirmative action plan on the blanket conclusion from such a small sample bor­ Michigan Low Ri!VII!W. since," is condescending and belittling The legacy ders on irresponsible journalism. Had the author which Amalya Kearse and Harry Edwards are a taken the time to poll a representative sample, he part of began in 1870 when the first black person would have discovered the feelings of B.L.S.A. ee BLSA, page two Res Gestae- April7, 1982- page 2 The Barristers Can They Claim Any Redeeming ''Social'' Value? from page one Jimmy Gooding, Lord High Chan- goo d t1me,' b u t cert am · Barns · t er ac- can't may feel slighted, but none of the cellor of the Barristers, cannot under- tivities leave the Society open to students we spoke to mentioned this stand how anyone would be offended. criticism characteristic of closed and specifically. Several did note that they "There is nothing secret about us, ex- exclusive organizations. feel bad " vibrations" when the cept for the initials at the bottom of our By satirizing Iranians in the 1981 Barristers are mentioned. Few studen­ bulletins." (The initials B.O.L.H.C.- initiation ceremony and gays in the 1981 ts claim to be offended or disturbed by stand for "By Order of the Lord High Raw Review, the Society went beyond the the idea of a club like the Barristers Chancellor").

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