March 18, 2008 Issue
Law School Building Expansion Project In The Design Phase
By Sarah Rizzo
The Michigan Law School’s building expansion project is currently in the design phase after the Board of Regents formally approved the proposal in December. With an estimated cost of $102 million, the project will include the construction of two buildings. The Board of Regents will vote again in the future on the design and construction schedule.
In December, the Board also voted to approve the hiring of Hartman-Cox Architects of Washington D.C.; Integrated Design Solutions of Troy, Michigan will work with Hartman-Cox on the expansion designs. Hartman-Cox’s previous projects include law buildings and libraries at Georgetown University, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Connecticut. Integrated Design Solutions is currently working on the University of Michigan’s art museum renovation. The schematic design drawings are in the drafting process.
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Letter to the President On Football Ticket Policy Change
Dear President Coleman,
I write this letter to you extremely hurt by the lack of consideration
the Athletic Department has decided to show the University’s graduate
students. It has recently come to my attention that graduate students
here at the University of Michigan are going to be afforded the lowest
level of seating preference in coming football / all other sporting
seasons.
As a lifelong Michigan resident, a die-hard UofM football fan, and a
law student at your university, I am disappointed, hurt, and confused
by this decision.
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PRS Strategery: Steep Learning Curves, Relatively Easy Fixes
By Rebecca Oyama and Charlie Clinch
In the previous issue, the RG set out to explain the basics of Michigan Law’s Priority Registration System (“PRS”). Our brief survey indicated that PRS may offer some advantages over systems used at our peer schools; however, a few common concerns suggest that simple modifications could do much to improve our system’s efficiency and transparency.
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“Navigating the Jurisdictional Maze: Combating Crime in Indian Country"
The Native American Law Students Association at the University of Michigan Law School invites you to American Indian Law Day 2008!
Submitted by NALSA
This year the program will focus on crime in Indian Country, specifically domestic
violence and the manufacture, sale, and use of methamphetamine. Speakers will discuss the barriers that have been created to achieving criminal justice in Indian Country, how crime is currently being combated, and what actions are currently being taken to obtain justice.
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Senator Levin Helps Clinic Students Seeking Clemency for Client
By Anna Magazinnik
On February 18, two Michigan 3Ls interviewed Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) for a DVD that they will use to supplement their petition for clemency for Thomas Cress. Cress, who is borderline-mentally disabled, has served twenty-two years of a life sentence without parole for the rape and murder of a Battle Creek teenager. Cress has steadfastly maintained his innocence and passed a lie detector test. For many years, students from the Michigan Clinical Law Program have been trying to free him. Having exhausted all of his legal options, the students are appealing to Governor Granholm for clemency.
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Constitutional Cocktails: The Lethal Injection Debate Explained
By Dan Jones,
ACLU Publicity Co-Chair
On March 5, the ACLU chapter of the University of Michigan Law School hosted “The Constitutionality of the Three-Drug Cocktail: The Lethal Injection Debate,” a panel discussion of pending Supreme Court case Baze v. Rees. Professor Kim Thomas, moderator, was joined by Columbia University Hospital Anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Heath and accomplished capital punishment defense litigator George Kendall.
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18 U.S.C.A. § 2421: Spitzer? I hardly knew her!
By Rooks
For anyone living under a rock – yes, Sub-3 counts – Eliot Spitzer, (newly former) governor of New York, was recently discovered, via federal wiretap, to be patronizing some seriously expensive (like, more than a week’s salary in NYC Biglaw expensive) prostitutes. When the prostitution ring got busted, so did he, and Albany still has a touch of the vapors to prove it.
Since about 37 different people this past week asked me what I thought about Spitzer’s shenanigans and if I was planning to write something about the entire debauched debacle, I figured that popular demand dictated that I weigh in on this, a completely over-reported subject. So, if you’ve reached your Spitzer saturation point and cannot deal with even one more article about the guy, blame your classmates.
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A Blast From The Past!
By Meredith Weill
Here at the Res Gestae, we decided to take a peek into our filing cabinets. Navigation of the contents was somewhat hazardous (nary a Pendaflex and very few labels in sight), but the risk yielded some great treasures from the nearly 60 years of RG history. Over the next several issues, we will be bringing to you, Dear Reader, the best results of our RG office excavations—opinion pieces from the mid-twentieth century (What insight they could provide into the thinking of the partners at the firms where we will work!), photographs illustrating contemporary fashion (Were you aware that Professor Krier wore velour pants?), and other fun, in a section we’re calling, “Kicking it Old School.” We hope you enjoy it.
This week, we inaugurate Kicking it Old School with a “then and now” edition. On March 7-8, the Law School’s chapter of the Federalist Society hosted the organization’s 2008 National Student Symposium: The People and the Courts (see page 6). The last time the National Student Symposium came to Michigan Law was in 1989. Then, the topic was “Property: the Founding, the Welfare State, and Beyond.” Both events featured an outstanding slate of speakers. Here we present to you snapshots from yesteryear... and about a week ago.
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Be Kind Rewind
By George Bishop
With his latest offering, Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has given us a valentine to the filmic medium. Be Kind Rewind is goofy, maudlin and full of flaws but is also witty, genuinely sentimental, and relentlessly inventive. Mr. Gondry has wrapped up everything that America loves about the movies, from the laughable lows to the spectacular highs, and presented it as a gift to the audience.
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