University of Michigan isn’t the only T14 getting harassed by FASORP. As if getting singled out by Supreme Court cases and Executive Orders wasn’t enough, Harvard recently had to deal with the spite group emailing their 1Ls as they prepare for the arduous write on process. While the Harvard Law School dean made a point of not drawing unnecessary attention to the messages that circulated, chances are its the same ones FASORP sent to UMichigan. The Crimson has coverage:
Harvard Law School Dean of Students Stephen L. Ball condemned a pair of mass emails sent to law students on Friday that accused the Harvard Law Review of discriminating against white authors and urged applicants to falsify their racial and gender identities on application materials.
Ball called both messages “disturbing” and one of them “hateful” in a Saturday email to the HLS student body.
To summarize, the disturbing message likely threatened all students to preserve their personal statements to be used as evidence in a future lawsuit and the second advocated for law students to, among other things, cross dress and pretend to be trans from now until the Law Review selection process is over to better their odds.
It would be one thing if FASORP was comprised of a bunch of scorned twenty somethings that are hellbent on revenge because they didn’t get the Law Review seat they felt they were entitled to. But the F in FASORP stands for faculty. At the time of writing, membership in the group is anonymous. That’s unfortunate — because every professor that is a member of FASORP that hasn’t stepped up to condemn a multi-institutional attempt at encouraging law students to lie on their personal statements in the hopes of getting ahead in the Law Review selection process should have their academic integrity questioned for tacitly approving of what at minimum should be some sort of honor code violation. Because that’s what FASORP’s cutesy strategy would amount to, if taken seriously.
As far as the students are concerned, don’t be oblivious to the coffee without cream vs. coffee without milk problem FASORP is inviting you to disavow. FASORP’s cowardly “Hey, there’s no harm in being a fraud just in case!” is their way of dancing around what should be a character and fitness issue. Put simply, if you can square your willingness to commit an honor code violation as some harmless error because you think the game is rigged, that cuts against your merit — GPA and write on score be damned. Is lying to get ahead really what you want to rest your prestige on?
FASORP’s attacks against University of Michigan were poorly executed. They involved a lot of speculation about how personal statements could be used for discriminatory ends. There were other problems — they didn’t appear to read the evaluative criteria for selection before they whined about not being chosen and there’s no escaping that the trolling above is in bad faith. But it would feel wrong to not at least acknowledge there may be other issues at case. The Washington Free Beacon recently shared what they described as internal documents that show proof of Harvard Law review staff using DEI principles in their process of determining which articles submitted to the journal should be published. It also isn’t exactly clear how the Review’s holistic review committee that made diversity and inclusion its “first priority” in 2021 has operated since the Supreme Court ruled affirmative action unconstitutional in 2023. That said, as interesting as the Free Beacon article is, it is largely focused on the behavior of Harvard Law review members after they’ve been selected, not the selection process itself.
To the students at Harvard preparing for the write on process: do your best as you are. You could try and cut corners or skew things in your favor by lying to get ahead, but it comes with a moral cost.
HLS Dean of Students Condemns ‘Disturbing’ Mass Emails Sent to Students After Law Review Controversy [The Crimson]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
The post Harvard Law Students Hit With Invitation To Lie On Their Law Review Personal Statements, Professors Should Speak Out On It appeared first on Above the Law.
University of Michigan isn’t the only T14 getting harassed by FASORP. As if getting singled out by Supreme Court cases and Executive Orders wasn’t enough, Harvard recently had to deal with the spite group emailing their 1Ls as they prepare for the arduous write on process. While the Harvard Law School dean made a point of not drawing unnecessary attention to the messages that circulated, chances are its the same ones FASORP sent to UMichigan. The Crimson has coverage:
Harvard Law School Dean of Students Stephen L. Ball condemned a pair of mass emails sent to law students on Friday that accused the Harvard Law Review of discriminating against white authors and urged applicants to falsify their racial and gender identities on application materials.
Ball called both messages “disturbing” and one of them “hateful” in a Saturday email to the HLS student body.
To summarize, the disturbing message likely threatened all students to preserve their personal statements to be used as evidence in a future lawsuit and the second advocated for law students to, among other things, cross dress and pretend to be trans from now until the Law Review selection process is over to better their odds.
It would be one thing if FASORP was comprised of a bunch of scorned twenty somethings that are hellbent on revenge because they didn’t get the Law Review seat they felt they were entitled to. But the F in FASORP stands for faculty. At the time of writing, membership in the group is anonymous. That’s unfortunate — because every professor that is a member of FASORP that hasn’t stepped up to condemn a multi-institutional attempt at encouraging law students to lie on their personal statements in the hopes of getting ahead in the Law Review selection process should have their academic integrity questioned for tacitly approving of what at minimum should be some sort of honor code violation. Because that’s what FASORP’s cutesy strategy would amount to, if taken seriously.
As far as the students are concerned, don’t be oblivious to the coffee without cream vs. coffee without milk problem FASORP is inviting you to disavow. FASORP’s cowardly “Hey, there’s no harm in being a fraud just in case!” is their way of dancing around what should be a character and fitness issue. Put simply, if you can square your willingness to commit an honor code violation as some harmless error because you think the game is rigged, that cuts against your merit — GPA and write on score be damned. Is lying to get ahead really what you want to rest your prestige on?
FASORP’s attacks against University of Michigan were poorly executed. They involved a lot of speculation about how personal statements could be used for discriminatory ends. There were other problems — they didn’t appear to read the evaluative criteria for selection before they whined about not being chosen and there’s no escaping that the trolling above is in bad faith. But it would feel wrong to not at least acknowledge there may be other issues at case. The Washington Free Beacon recently shared what they described as internal documents that show proof of Harvard Law review staff using DEI principles in their process of determining which articles submitted to the journal should be published. It also isn’t exactly clear how the Review’s holistic review committee that made diversity and inclusion its “first priority” in 2021 has operated since the Supreme Court ruled affirmative action unconstitutional in 2023. That said, as interesting as the Free Beacon article is, it is largely focused on the behavior of Harvard Law review members after they’ve been selected, not the selection process itself.
To the students at Harvard preparing for the write on process: do your best as you are. You could try and cut corners or skew things in your favor by lying to get ahead, but it comes with a moral cost.
HLS Dean of Students Condemns ‘Disturbing’ Mass Emails Sent to Students After Law Review Controversy [The Crimson]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
The post Harvard Law Students Hit With Invitation To Lie On Their Law Review Personal Statements, Professors Should Speak Out On It appeared first on Above the Law.
