Are you struggling in choosing between two professors? Did you take a class that was a waste of time? A class that inspired you? Please help your fellow students by posting your insights on the good and bad, humorous and (yawn!) dry side of BC Law’s courses and professors. Eagleionline’s Course Evaluations are anonymous and filling them out takes just a few minutes
In the meantime, click the “Continue Reading” link below for the inside scoop on Boston College Law School’s spring collection of classes.
Eagleionline Question of the Day: Did we forget to feature any professors?
Professor Paul Tremblay’s Community Enterprise Clinic is like the civil litigation clinic, but for those students interested in business and helping community-oriented entrepreneurs realize their dreams. This is the Community Enterprise Clinic’s first year, but you’ll likely have to wait another one to take this class, as initial interest in the clinic was overwhelming, and produced a long wait-list.
Expect some expert insight from Assistant Professor Joseph Liu’s IP Survey. He is currently working on a casebook on copyrights. In addition, this is a great class for students who love to talk. Some estimate that Liu, who always wears the color blue, devotes as much as 25% of class to in-class discussion. (IP Survey MWF 11:15-12:20). (Another little known fact about Professor Liu is that he is one of the few professors at BC Law to maintain a personal website.)
Dean Michael Cassidy is a strong contender for one of the most approachable members of the Boston College Law School faculty. He is rumored to know everyone in class by their first and last name. (Yes, you have a fair chance of being called on, but it’s easy to pass.) His 4 credit Criminal Law will be superb, but a real bear of a class for any upperclassmen to audit, much less enroll in.
Professor Dean Hashimoto, A.B., M.S., M.O.H., M.D., J.D. has finally learned that cardinal black-letter rule: never begin a class at 8:30 in the morning. Last year, his Evidence class started at the ungodly hour of 8:30 a.m. This year, his Business Law & Health Policy is scheduled from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Granted, the class is still on Friday, but hey, they can’t teach you everything at Yale Law.
Speaking of morning classes, Professor Ingrid Hillinger takes the cake as the earliest riser in the BC Law roster. Her Business Bankruptcy (TTh 8-9:50) may be early, but it’s well worth it. Hillinger is held in the highest esteem by students, despite the fact that her classes are rumored to be as early as they are challenging. Also, the recent credit crunch might make some experience in the field of bankruptcy quite useful.
Professor Dan Coquilette’s American Legal Education (T 4:45-7) may be taught on the other side of the Charles, but every minute you spend commuting will be well worth it. Coquilette is one of BC Law’s finest professors. He is an intelligent scholar, engaging lecturer, and, most importantly, a virtuous human being. (And yes, when Coquilette was Dean, BC Law never dropped below 20 in the rankings and everyone had parking.)
Adjunct Professor Thomas Carey’s Appellate Advocacy (Th 5-7) provides a unique opportunity for those advocacy buffs out there. It is one of the only classes where you get an opportunity to write a real appellate brief. Professor Carey seems to know every lawyer in town, as well as every judge. He uses these connections to collect a range of cases that the lead attorneys feel would be a good learning experience, or that they are just too busy to work on. Your experience can be hit or miss depending on the case you pick, but many students get a chance to argue their case before a MA Appellate court and at least one student has taken a case all the way to the SJC.
“Fantastic” and “genius” are two adjectives sometimes used to describe Professor Vlad Perju. He set a dangerous precedent last year, though, by gifting pizza and Belgian beer to his class. If his Spring Constitutional Law II (TTh 2) is anything like his Fall EU Law, expect organized lectures, answers to all your questions, and, of course, pizza. If you’re lucky Perju will also discuss the constitutionality of “Prohibition” over some home-made whiskey.
[Editor’s Note: The following comments were made anonymously on Eagleionline’s previous site. They are included here for historical purposes only, and do not necessarily represent the views of Mr. Stellato or Eagleionline.]
Eagleionline
We have addressed Course Evaluation data sharing (or lack thereof) at length in a recent editorial; racial issues at Boston College Law School continue to spark a great amount of discussion and controversy; anonymity on Eagleionline was the subject of a recent Conversations and Shades event. But there’s much, much more to say about what’s being said. Here’s a sampling :
Maybe the tree is bigger than the menorah because christmas trees are traditionally larger than menorahs.
I had both growing up, as my Dad was christian and my Mom jewish. The tree was always much much larger than the menorah.
This is really a “yearly discussion?” Who are the people who care about this sort of thing?
And why is the church on the BCLS campus so much bigger than the synagogue? Wait, there is no synagogue on campus-the injustice!
size matters is correct. christmas trees are traditionally larger than menorahs. even if they aren’t, doesn’t matter. boston college is a private, catholic law school — it need not worry about the sensibilities of a few petty students. the presence of the menorah demonstrates that bc does more than enough to be inclusive. i ask you, Jesse Stellato, why does bc have to imply that christmas and hanukkah are equally important?
where are you getting all this from anyway? did you overhear this while having a conversation with yourself? people don’t wonder why the christmas tree is larger! take a look around, Stellato! everyone knows of this school’s background and it’s association with the church. if you aren’t able to accept this, you should reevaluate your decision to attend bc and consider transferring.
“christmas trees are traditionally larger than menorahs.”
This is wrong.
For example,
http://www.mikeash.com/israel/pics/15-8-giant_menorah.jpg
http://www.celeeevansporcelain.com/images/celee_4seasons_t.jpg
no, you’re wrong Bil.
See, for example, the display in the law library. I’m sure Jesse Stellato has a picture
petty,
haven’t you seen charlie brown christmas?
haven’t seen it. are you familiar with how the grinch stole christmas? there’s a remake of it coming out soon. it takes place at bc law and the casting people did a great job. jesse stellato stars as the grinch. some are already screaming “oscar!”
Bil,
Granted, throughout history there have been many large menorahs. I would imagine the first one, used to light an entire temple was very large. My point was that in the average household a menorah is fairly small. All of my Jewish friends, including myself have menorahs that are counter-top size. Although some people, especially apartment dwellers, probably have small christmas trees, I would say it’s a fair generalization that the average American household has a christmas tree that is significantly larger than the average American’s menorah. Again, I point to my own experience of having both a very large tree and a fairly small menorah.
Although Jesse’s bringing this up doesn’t infuriate me in the way it seems to infuriate some posters, I do think the anger expressed here is a perfect example of why it’s a bad idea to take political correctness too far. There are far greater problems in the world than getting upset because a Catholic school has a small menorah. Personally, I think BC does more for its Jewish students than the average secular school, and should be praised for it. So really in the end, I think this is making mountains out of molehills.
I will say that Jessie’s second point, about the food, does upset me. I realize it’s only a small amount each day, but that adds up. I remember my undergrad doing the same thing (displaying meals). So I’m guessing it’s a pretty standard thing. I think BC would be better served donating that food to local homeless shelters and using written menus, or pictures.
For all the South Park discussion about Christmukahwanza decorations, can we get some more details on Stuart Hall being raised?
Wasn’t this the actual plan when they were designing the Library and East Wing (hence the doors that go to nowhere)?
Any chance we could use those funds for a tuition break instead?
good luck getting eagleionline to discuss its source on that.
Jesse was either kidding or trolling with the christmas tree point. I’m pretty sure he’s kidding.
However, with the food point, having worked in a crappy corporate restaurant chain (the Olive Garden) for four years while in college and having asked that myself, I think I know the answer. The idea is that you don’t want to create any incentive to “waste” (as in overproduce, cook the wrong item etc.,). Also, because the food is perishable, its logistically tough to do it without possible exposure in the event spoiled food is donated.
Not saying its right, just saying thats the thinking as it was explained to this self righteous waiter back in the day.
I hope he was joking with that post about the Xmas tree. I am a Jewish student, and am not at all offended by the tree, or its relative size to the menorah. I am actually much more offended that someone would make a stupid news article about it and then attribute it to “some people are saying” in order to stir controversy and piss off students, making it seem like all the Jewish students are complaining at a Catholic law school (which we certainly are not). Don’t create ridiculous straw man arguments. If you actually think it is an interesting topic, how about phrasing it as “At a Catholic law school, should there be displays of all religious holidays?” and not “some people (read: jews) are mad about the size of the xmas tree.” come on.
size matters,
you might want to check your sarcasm detector, i think its broken.
Sorry, I didn’t look at your linked pictures… only have so much time to waste on here.
Holiday Size Chart from largest to smallest:
1) Tree
2) Reindeer
3) Santa
4) Candles
Love,
Rudy
As for #2, my bigger complaint with the cafeteria is getting raped on prices. I get a tuna sandwich on wheat bread, chips, and a soda, at a freakin school cafeteria and it costs me $11.
A large soda is like $3, thats heading towards movie theater prices. Then, best of all, is the raping that occurs at the end of the semester when they sell bulk candy and a large bag of gummy worms is like $24 and a large sheet of Rice Krispy treats, which I’ve seen at the store for FOUR DOLLARS is sold for something like THIRTY DOLLARS.
I know this was true at my old college, but I bet BC makes a huuuuuge killing on this whole deal. Sick.
bil
BC is a non-profit, and they pay cafeteria workers a living wage. So, you getting ‘raped’ allows Celi to pay her rent.
Also, UGBC elections have been held in past years where students had a choice between cost and quality and chose quality.
So, nobody is making a killing.
anon,
while bc is certainly a non-profit, i would be shocked if the cafeteria didn’t make money for the school. i believe that the money that the cafteria makes is fed back into the university system. there is simply no way that a cafeteria that charges the prices bc does is not making money.
i agree completely with bil, it is sickening that the cafeteria charges such outrageous prices. being that bc’s newton campus is so isolated and that even the main campus does not really allow students easy access to other food options, i feel that bc has a duty to charge fair prices, not the inflated prices that we see.
why must a large soda cost $3 when it cannot possibly cost the school more than 25 cents (cup included)?
I agree that BC’s prices are way too much. But this is definitely an issue at many colleges/universities. At my undergrad university, a state school, the on-campus convenience stores charged prices that were significantly higher than what you would find at a CVS or Walgreens and the dining halls were similarly overpriced.
I disagree with anon in that these prices are about paying the cafeteria workers a “living wage.” I think it is more about the fact that the school knows it can get away with charging high prices and does so. A deli sandwich costs $5+. This is two slices of white or wheat bread, 2 slices of cheap turkey, mustard, lettuce and tomato.
anon,
I went to a school that was roughly the size of BC’s Newton campus. My school cleared $50k+ per year in profits from the dining hall. So obviously this isn’t a BC issue, but doesn’t mean I cant bitch about it.
At least law students don’t get it as based as the freshman who are usually forced into a meal plan.
Also having worked somewhere where hot meals are made and is state-monitored…I’m sure way more food than is out on that table gets thrown away every day. I agree, I’m not sure the display is needed (it’s probably just a product of the cafeteria managers being forced to come up with “fresh” new ideas at meetings). However, while trying to feed the masses and make several options available, I’m sure lots of perfectly edible food (by normal person standards anyway) gets thrown away to comply with health codes and operations norms.
I do not find the Christmas tree in the library as offensive as a teacher permitting her students to name a teddy bear ‘Mohammed.’ Both offenses deserve the death penalty, but the perpetrator of Teddybeargate deserves it twice.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8T88JT80&show_article=1
“Peaceful” religion?
Umm… without considering this as something like a practice issue spotter - what would be the problem with a shelter or something picking up the food at the end of the day and just absolving BC of any potential liability?
The amount of food (crappy food, but still food) thrown away after sports events is also substantial.
[comment deleted as inappropriate/hate speech- Eds.]
I can’t concentrate on the merits of this discussion until someone verifies that the graphic accompanying this article resembles the phantom gourmet’s logo.
When did this website turn from informative to a bunch of new kids writing complaints about the adminsitration. You go to an awesome school, get over the little things. There are kids at BU, Suffolk and NEU who would die to be in your position.
First off, forget about starving people all over the world - there’s a bunch of poor hungry law students who have to walk by $19.99 Steak dinners and $24,95 lobster tails each night while we buy two slices of bread and a coffee. The only upside is that no one seems to mind when you snag a few bites off of the display when you’re out of cash and hungry.
Second, I would be more sympathetic to the whole ‘living wage’ for Cely argument if I didn’t see about 15 managers always floating around performing critical quality control functions like sticking thier fingers into the soup to see if its hot enough and snacking on food out of the salad bar to see how fresh it is (okay - these are slight exagerations, but the point it the same)…Why do they need so many managers to mill around all day? I mean at peak times, there’s only a handful of food service staff, and at off times, you’d swear they were filming extra scenes for “I am Legend” or “28 Days later” or something since its such a ghosttown.
And Jesse - I love you man, but trying to start a controversy over the relative sizes of a Christmas tree at a Jesuit institution to the Menorah it displays is like pointing out that a football player spends more time in the weight room than in study hall. I mean, who would assume that’s out of line, or otherwise not expected? And you neglected to mention that BC Law does cancel all classes in observance of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur…
While I can understand criticizing the dining hall for some of the things it does, especially in regards to pricing, it makes absolutely no sense to claim that the sample items on the display are contributing to world hunger. If that food were not put on display, it would not be going to a poor country, it would not be going to a homeless shelter, and it would not be helping anyone.
If BC wanted to do something with their leftovers, they could. Panera Bread, for example, gives all of their leftover breads etc… to local shelters at the end of the day.
If you really want to devote energy to the issue, convince local businesses like Dunkin Donuts or other coffee shops/delis that have perishables left over at the end of the day to donate them, don’t criticize a college dining hall–would you really want the food that freshman and law students have sneezed and breathed all over and have been sitting out all day to be donated somewhere?
In regards to pricing, the law students get ripped because the freshman have a plan that allows them to eat, and eat well with the food at those prices. Because we don’t have meal plans, we don’t get the benefit of the discounts they do per item. If you put money on your card, though, instead of paying in cash, you get a 10% discount on everything you purchase.
Re: the christmas tree and the menorah–sure it’s a topic of discussion. I walk into the library almost every day and i see a comparatively huge tree with a small menorah. It might be nice for the library to actually put candles in the menorah or something like that. But to stir up controversy over it? I’m sure there are more important issues we could discuss.
Is it possible that the size of the tree and menorah are determined using a statistical formula based on the percentages of Jewish and Christian students? Or maybe a mathematic function that uses three dimensional rendering to determine the appropriate size based on the know religious beliefs of those students who turn in course evaluations? Maybe we can feed the menorah the food from the tables and it will grow and then it can battle the tree for space in the front of the library.