Look, nobody, and I mean nobody, is as fanatical about their college hoops as the people residing in the great state of Kentucky. With no professional team located in-state, college basketball is really all they have. They’re nuts about it–legitimately nuts, but in a good way.
This includes a group of first-year law students enrolled at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University. So it’s no wonder they felt shafted when they found out that a mandatory “professionalism” lecture had been scheduled on the same night as the opening night of the NCAA Tournament. It was even worse because UK was scheduled to open their tournament against East Tennessee State, and the future litigators wouldn’t be able to watch their beloved ‘Cats hit the hardwood.
But in a lovely bit of irony, the law students didn’t miss a minute of the action–thanks to their iPhones.
This “professionalism” lecture, a mandatory event for 1L’s, consisted of a very conservative attorney/judge/sheriff from Cincinnati talking about the need to return prayer and spanking to schools, and a very liberal ACLU attorney stressing the importance of pro bono representation of child molesters. Event titled “Lawyers: Agents of change, or Preservers of the status quo?” And yes, the entire class of 1L’s were playing on their iPhone’s during the entire event following March Madness.
See, the irony is that during the lecture on “professionalism,” the students were anything but, choosing to focus their attention on the tournament action found on their iPhones, instead of listening diligently to the guest speakers who had given up their own time to come speak to them.
No offense, but I’m with the kids on this one…100%.
Too bad Associate Dean of Academics Lawrence Rosenthal isn’t. Nope, he is none too impressed with the gang and their iPhones, and he penned a letter to let the first year students know about it.
Dear First-year Students:
It was good to see all of you at last night’s professionalism program. After reading many of the comment sheets, it seems that most of you enjoyed it. This, of course, I was happy to learn.
I was not, however, particularly pleased with some of the behavior I witnessed last night. Most students were paying attention to what our speakers were saying, and I commend those students for behaving in an appropriate, professional manner. However, I noticed several students, both men and women, watching the NCAA tournament on their laptops; constantly looking down at their iPhones or other electronic devices; and texting messages to fellow classmates or to people not at the presentation.
While I understand that people are interested in the NCAA basketball tournament, and that they might not have agreed with the viewpoints expressed by the speakers, this conduct was patently rude and inexcusable. The ironic thing about this situation is that these presentations were supposed to teach students about “professionalism,” and I could not think of any behavior less professional than what I saw last night. Would you act this way in front of a judge? Would you act this way in front of a client? I can only hope the answer is “no.”
We all have things we would rather be doing at certain times (for example, I would rather be watching the Union / St. Lawrence hockey game tonight than teaching a make-up class), but as a professional, I know that my responsibilities as a faculty member and administrator come before my desire to watch the game. I know that when my class is over, I will be able to find out who won. Similarly, all of you would have been able to see the results of the basketball games after the 1.25-hour presentation last night. I don’t think there would have been any significant consequences had you actually listened to the entire presentation rather than focus on your iPhones, your laptops, and your other electronic devices.
Thankfully, I do not think that the speakers were able to see what was going on in the audience. That does not, however, make rude behavior any less unprofessional. I can only hope that as you progress throughout your law school careers, you will learn what “professionalism” truly means.
Lawrence D. Rosenthal
Associate Dean for Academics
NKU – Chase College of Law
That may be the most well-written piece of claptrap that never once made me want to wretch. Word to the wise, Dean Rosenthal, you’re wasting your time trying to compare first-year law students missing the UK/East Tennessee State game to you missing the Union / St. Lawrence hockey game–if anything, it shows 1) how out of touch you are with students and (big time) college sports, 2) how you fail to mention that you get PAID to teach that make-up class and 3) that you are a complete douchebag.
Hopefully the students can come up with a way of exacting revenge on the Dean and his fancypants letter…
