Kagan Meets With Law Students

Incoming Harvard Law School (HLS) Dean Elena Kagan addressed campus life, the possibility of a future move to Allston and curricular reform yesterday in her first open meeting with students since her appointment.

Though the discussion was largely driven by questions from the roughly 50 students gathered in Austin Hall, Kagan’s responses highlighted some of her priorities for the coming year—including hiring more environmental and international law faculty and reevaluating the school’s curriculum.

Kagan told students that recruiting leading faculty to fill gaps in the curriculum would be a top item on her agenda.

The Law School’s international law program has languished since Anne-Marie Slaughter, one of its premier scholars, left to head Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Center for International Affairs last year, she said.

And environmental law has yet to attract a permanent faculty member.

But in addition to concerns about expanding the breadth of the faculty, students at the meeting questioned the efficacy of the traditional foundations of the HLS curriculum.

Several requirements, such as a mandatory supplemental writing course that forces students to take five classes in their first year, drew harsh criticism.

Kagan acknowledged that smaller law schools, like the University of Chicago where she once taught, had stronger writing programs.

Students also asked Kagan to explain the logic behind the “one-exam-grading system,” which dictates that grades for each class are usually based on a single exam at the end of the semester.

One student argued that classes with regular homework assignments and multiple tests give students better feedback.

Kagan noted that because of the structure of legal education, the Law School—unlike the College-—does not have “a middle strata” of graduate students to help with grading and instead must rely entirely on its professors.

“Since classes here are often as large as 140 students, it takes me 10 days to grade one set of exams, working 12 to 14 hours each day,” Kagan said. “So no professor in their right mind is going to willingly grade more than one set of exams.”

However, not everything at HLS is set in stone, she said.

“Like any institution, we have to periodically review our requirements, our electives. As I’ve told the faculty, we have to evaluate what we’re teaching and why we’re teaching it,” Kagan said.

But she stressed that any reforms should not be executed hastily.

“At many schools, these efforts have crashed and burned because there has been a failure to achieve consensus,” she said, reminding students that the race for curriculum reform would be “more of a

long-term process—a marathon rather than a sprint.”

Racing Across the River

While Kagan frequently solicited students’ input in response to their own questions, when the discussion turned to a possible campus in Allston, she readily presented her own views.

She drew on her administrative experience as the head of the Locational Options Committee, which University President Lawrence H. Summers convened in 2001 to discuss the law school’s options both in the North Yard and across the river.

Matthew DelNaro, a third-year student at HLS, asked Kagan about the logistics of a move to Allston.

Summers will have final say in the decision, Kagan told students, adding that the committee has “done a good job, better than anyone else” addressing the question of who might move, and where exactly they could go in Allston.

She listed several different scenarios, including moving professional schools, science laboratories and graduate student housing.

Many questions remain unanswered about Allston, she said, including how much money Harvard will spend on creating new campuses.

HLS’ opinion on the Allston acreage is divided, Kagan said.

“This is a divided campus, a two-headed beast,” she told students. “And while faculty spaces are fine, what is not fine about our campus is student spaces—the student center, the gymnasium, the dorms.”

This disconnect causes divided opinion, Kagan said.

“So if you ask faculty if they want to move to Allston, you will find something close to profound, vehement opposition. But students have more conflicted views,” she said. “Right now, we are just waiting to see what happens next.”

Culture Clash

While administrators worry about finding adequate space for students, several students yesterday said problems at the Law School extend beyond building additional classrooms or dormitories.

One student described “student intolerance” at HLS, citing instances when students were mocked for speaking in class or dressing a certain way.

Kagan said she agreed with the student, lamenting that “there is a type of student culture here where it is kind of embarrassing to be into classes.”

Kagan added that she and her fellow faculty members felt that there was “an absence of an intellectual community” at HLS.

Students said they also felt a lack of community—but attributed this to a lack of school spirit.

“It would be nice if we got a t-shirt or pen at the beginning of school...or if professors [and] administrators actually got excited when they were talking to us, and just made us feel great about being here” first-year HLS student Walter Mosley said.

Lucas S. Osborn, a second-year student at HLS, emphasized the importance of extracurricular activities. He said that he had heard a rumor that Kagan thought extracurriculars were too dominant, and that academics deserve more attention.

“To me, being serious about extracurriculars means being serious about classes,” Kagan said, denying the rumor. “I see engagement in one implying engagement in the other, and we want 100 percent of students to be engaged and participating in school life...but I don’t believe that learning at the Law School only happens outside of the classroom.”

Students present at the meeting noted a strong contrast with current HLS Dean Robert C. Clark, who they said rarely held open meetings with students.

But HLS spokesperson Michael A. Armini cautioned against comparisons between Clark and Kagan.

“Different people have different leadership styles,” he said. “Clearly Elena Kagan is comfortable jumping right into a setting like this. We should see it as a good thing and not use it as a way to question Bob Clark’s approach. He tended to meet with students in smaller settings.”

Kagan met with about 30 student leaders on Monday, and has scheduled individual meetings with the entire faculty—all 81 members—before the end of the academic year.

—Staff writer Lauren A.E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.