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April
26 / 27, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
Plant?
Gary Leupp
Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong
Robert
Sandels
Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy?
CounterPunch
Wire
An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against
Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
Gancarski
Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
Basement
Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
April
25, 2003
David
Vest
It's Not the Oil; It's the Art!
Steven
Higgs
All About Tucker Carlson
Walt
Brasch
The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance
Alexander
Cockburn
The Decline of American Journalism:
the Case of Judy Miller
Zeynep
Toufe
A Letter to the People of Iraq from an Anti-War Activist
CounterPunch
Wire
Season of the Witch: Jeane Kirkpatrick Unbound
Hammond
Guthrie
Springtime in Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/25
Website
of the Day
Having
a Great Time, Wish You Were Here: Postcards from a War
April
24, 2003
Lois
Whitman
An Open Letter to Rumsfeld on the
Child Detainees at Guantanamo
Uri
Avnery
Abu vs. Abu: It's Not About Egos
David
Lindorff
Day Care in the Name of National Security? About Those Kids in
Camp X-Ray
John Grebe
Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple
Dokhi
Fassihian
Monster.Com: Ethnic Cleansing on the Web?
CounterPunch
Wire
Israeli Army Chief Threatens Peace Activists
Sam
Hamod
Our Man in Baghdad
Annie
C. Higgins
Do You Regret Being an American?
Harold
A. Gould
Will They Hate Us Forever?
Stew Albert
Big Brother in Bed
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/24
Website
of the Day
Muscles
Abroad
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Cassel
Civil Liberties
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April 29,
2003
Law School in Freefall
Brush with the
Law
by ANTHONY GANCARSKI
Gonzaga University's Law School, in Spokane, Washington,
fell to the bottom [4th] tier in US News and World Report's annual
ranking of law schools, released this month. Despite the local
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW featuring quotes from students and administrators
saying the expected -- "Gonzaga is the top private law school
in the Northwest" -- the institution nonetheless dropped
from 138 to 177 in the annual rankings. That's what happens when
less than two-thirds of your students pass the Bar.
And, of course, I saw it coming. But
a little too late. After I moved across the country to accept
a scholarship from Gonzaga on the strength of its social conscience
and self-presentation as a "law school on the rise".
That said, I probably should've been put off by the GU Law School
website's obsessively detailed description of the new facility.
Depicted as "the building of the 21st century", the
structure was "completed with the precision of a well-planned
military campaign.
And who says American architecture doesn't
shock and awe? Certainly not GU Law's Webmaster, who holds forth
at excruciating length about the building's virtues. The walkway
leading to the building, for example, is "lined with flowering
trees". "You enter the building" -- picture yourself
doing it! -- "through a monumental arched entrance framed
in granite." The granite features "a geometric design"
that "alternates between rough and smooth stone."
According to the site, the law school
is full of "sweeping" views. A "sweeping series
of open staircases" connects the floors of the building.
The third-floor student lounge boasts a terrace with a "sweeping
view of the Spokane River". All of this, according to unnamed
students and faculty, at once "welcomes visitors".
"The building exudes a certain 'wow' factor."
As does Gonzaga's new law school ranking.
Wow, prospective law students are undoubtedly saying to themselves,
this school isn't worth my time. 177th out of 185 schools in
the nation? For a school charging over $21k per annum for tuition,
it's criminal to have a student-teacher ratio of 25:1. To put
that number in perspective, Yale's ratio is less than 8:1. Even
among fourth-tier schools, GU's ratio is the worst in the nation.
How is that possible, when the school
boasts a structure as lavish as one of Saddam Hussein's "presidential
palaces"? Daniel Morrissey, Dean of Gonzaga's Law School,
claims "financial constraints imposed on us by the University's
Central Administration" have stopped the law school from
hiring additional faculty, expanding the law library, and so
on.
Looked at in that context, the question
is begged: why did the Law School buy such an ambitious building
if their funding was so tenuous? Who ultimately is responsible
for the Law School's decline in national prestige? Can Morrissey
reasonably blame his higher-ups at the University? If so, why
stop there? Why not blame the American Catholic Church itself?
After all, if the Church weren't so scandal-ridden, then there
might be money for Gonzaga to meet US News's criteria.
How compromised is the future of Gonzaga's
law school? Stung by reports that Gonzaga graduates -- in contrast
to its gaudy promotional literature -- are having a hard time
finding work, Morrissey is encouraging students to seek employment
outside the Northwest. What better testament than that is there
to the mismanagement of Gonzaga's law school? The legal profession
is rooted in locality; typically, attorneys study in the state
where they hope to practice law, so that they can develop contacts
and learn the idiosyncrasies of their state [or region's] laws.
To convince students that the Gonzaga
law experience is worth over $60k for tuition alone, then to
tell them that their degrees may lack the tangible value promised,
is nothing short of fraud. Such bait-and-switch tactics are not
the hallmarks of an institution interested in justice, equity,
and [as the marquee sign in front of the University itself flashes]
"educating people the world needs the most." Rather,
they are mechanisms used to service an untenable institutional
debt load, to sell students on the benefits of a Gonzaga Law
Education, and then to tell them once committed that not all
benefits can be delivered.
Dean Morrissey claims that "it won't
be hard for Gonzaga to bounce back into the third tier".
But just months ago, at Gonzaga Law's Fall Orientation, the carefully-managed
buzz was that Gonzaga was certain to become a second-tier school
by the time the most recent class graduated. The US News ranking
should be a terminal embarrassment for Morrissey, who recently
got his job only to find that he's poised to take the fall for
what amounts to malfeasance by the school he heads.
Anthony Gancarski attended Gonzaga Law School for just over a
term. This column originally appeared in the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
He welcomes email at Anthony.Gancarski@attbi.com
Yesterday's
Features
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
Plant?
Gary Leupp
Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong
Robert
Sandels
Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy?
CounterPunch
Wire
An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against
Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
Gancarski
Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
Basement
Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
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