Law in Cyberspace
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Should universities’ grant agreements be made publicly available? (Michael Simkovic)
Following up on my previous post, When do donor influence and ideology undermine academic integrity? The progressive activist group whose efforts forced George Mason to disclose some old grant agreements has created a petition asking George Mason to disclose all of its grant agreements. This echoes recommendations made by the Faculty Senate at George Mason following revelations of…
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When do donor influence and ideology undermine academic integrity? (Michael Simkovic)
Key takeaways Universities face serious threats to academic freedom from outside pressure groups Some Donors have made demands that can undermine university provision of unbiased, high-quality research Accommodating ethically questionable Donor demands can undermine public confidence not only in individual researchers, but in entire institutions and even in the broader academic enterprise Stronger, more secure,…
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Privatization scheme highlights rifts in Democratic party between donors and educators (Michael Simkovic)
Democrats in Colorado recently voted overwhelmingly to reject public school privatization and deregulation efforts (charter schools). Chalkbeat reports: "Delegates at the Colorado Democratic state assembly Saturday sent a clear message to the state chapter of Democrats for Education Reform: You don’t have a place in our party. After booing down the head of the education reform organization, who described…
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Zephyr Teachout (Fordham): Congress let Facebook CEO off the hook too easily (Michael Simkovic)
In the Guardian, Fordham's Zephyr Teachout argues that members of Congress let the CEO of Facebook off easily and essentially treated his hearing as an opportunity to curry favor with him. Teachout writes: "It was designed to fail. It was a show designed to get Zuckerberg off the hook after only a few hours in…
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Jake Brooks in NY Times: Direct Federal Student Lending Should Provide Insurance to Students and Public Investment in Education (Michael Simkovic)
John Brooks of Georgetown's excellent Op Ed is available here. Brooks calls to task some of the questionable and alarmist narratives that have been coming out of nominally liberal think tanks (which are funded by foundations linked to the private student loan industry and purveyors of ed-tech of dubious value), noting that Direct Lending, IBR and…
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Dangerous new bill could hurt taxpayers and make financing education more expensive (Michael Simkovic)
Higher Education could soon become substantially more expensive to finance. The federal government may reduce how much it lends to its most profitable borrowers—graduate and professional students—undermining the financial strength of the federal student lending program and reducing competition in the market for student loans. Borrowers could lose an important safety net that limits federal…
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Erin Rousseau, MIT: House Republicans Just Voted to Bankrupt Graduate Students (Michael Simkovic)
Following up on my previous post, Republican Tax Hikes Target Education, Erin Rousseau, a neuroscience graduate student at MIT, writes in the New York Times: "Republicans in the House of Representatives have just passed a tax bill that would devastate graduate research in the United States. . . . I’m a graduate student at M.I.T., where I…
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Republican tax hikes target education (Michael Simkovic)
The draft tax plan unveiled last week by House Republicans targets students and educational institutions for tax increases. The Republican proposal would eliminate the lifetime learning credit (worth as much as $2,000 per year per student), tax graduate students on tuition waivers, eliminate the (already limited) tax deduction for student loan interest, and tax endowments at…
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New American Foundation fires a prominent researcher who criticized one of its largest donors (Michael Simkovic)
The powerful Washington D.C. think tank New America Foundation, which has ties to the technology, finance, and aerospace industries, recently fired a researcher within days after the researcher praised the European Union for fining Google for antitrust violations. Google and its CEO are among the largest donors to New America Foundation, as well as other…
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Todd Henderson (Chicago): Lawyers make better CEOs in industries with high litigation risk (and worse CEOs elsewhere) (Michael Simkovic)
Professor Henderson finds that: "CEOs with legal expertise are effective at managing litigation risk by, in part, setting more risk-averse firm policies. Second, these actions enhance value only when firms operate in an environment with high litigation risk or high compliance requirements. Otherwise, these actions could actually hurt the firm." The full article is here.…
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The 10 most cited health law scholars, 2010-2014 (Michael Simkovic)
Mark Hall and Glenn Cohen have extended Brian Leiter's approach to ranking faculty by scholarly citations (based on Sisk data) to the field of health law. According to Hall and Cohen, the most cited health law scholars in 2010-2014 (inclusive) are: Rank Name School Citations Approx. Age in 2017 1 Larry Gostin Georgetown 510 67 2…
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Should a law school Dean be writing op-eds in support of controversial (or even uncontroversial) political appointees?
That's an issue posed by a dispute between Nancy Staudt, Dean of the law school at Washington University, St. Louis–who wrote an opinion piece in support of Andrew Puzder, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Labor, who is also an involved alum of Wash U–and Emeritus Professor Richard Kuhns, whose open letter you can read here: …
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Science at work: the “most influential” people in legal education
Blog Emperor Caron reports. Thanks to the many Deans and law faculty who have been regular readers and correspondents over the years!
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Should Venture Capitalists Compete with Law Firm Partners and Judges? (Michael Simkovic)
A partner in a prominent San-Francisco-Bay-area venture capital firm recently told me, “The tech sector is eating the world. The menu is full of inefficient legacy industries.” The thesis of USC Professor Gillian Hadfield’s new book, Rules for a Flat World, is that the legal profession should be near the top of the menu. Hadfield…
Do you know of anyone who’s taken the approach you describe, in philosophy or the sciences? It seems interesting.