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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My DH is a law prof.  Totally normal and usually there is an open signup or it is a seminar/reading group.  Many years we host students for Thanksgiving who can’t go home for whatever reason (our family is out of town, so why not).  The school encourages mentoring strongly and there is a budget for lunches/coffee/etc. with students.  How are you supposed to write a good, personal recommendation if you don’t know them at least a little?  Also, it helps you connect different personalities to the right clerkships.

I think the Amy Chua situation was a problem because her husband is a creep who isn’t supposed to be around students socially.[/quote]

I think there were other problems with Chua as well.  I think it wasn't just that her husband is on suspension for sexual harassment, but also that she and her husband would make remarks and say gossipy, exclusionary things about students who were not necessarily in attendance.  And that's really exclusionary and hurtful and, given the amount of power that Chua and Rubenfeld wielded over securing clerkships (Chua used to sit on the clerkship committee and was extremely influential over matching students with federal judges until the dean asked her to step down), extremely unfair.

I have A BUNCH of opinions about the Chua stuff.  If you read the comments on her twitter, a LOT of them are obviously racist and anti-asian and a lot of people are still angry at her for the whole Tiger Mom phenomenon.

And, too, I think a lot of people are angry at her for supporting the Kavanaugh nomination and writing a supportive editorial about him in the NYT and about why he was a judge she would want her child to clerk with.  There are two layers to this anger -- just anger over supporting this republication nomination when it should have gone to Merrick Garland.  But also the fact that she wrote this editorial saying her daughter Sophia was supposed to clerk with him in the court of appeals and now would not be clerking with him at the SCt so clearly she was not biased -- and then Sophia doubled down and said she wouldn't be clerking for him since she was serving in the military -- and THEN Sophia actually did clerk for him at the Supreme Court.  Talk about quid pro quo, lying, privilege, the works!!!

And then there is the other side about how did all this info about Chua's agreement with the Dean ever get into the hands of the Yale Daily News in the first place?  Clearly the Dean shouldn't be leaking those types of agreements.

I don't understand the disconnect between what the students alleged happened at Chua's house (dinners with students and important members of the legal community) and what Chua said happened (individual meetings with individual students in crisis when her husband Jed wasn't home).  Did they have dinner and wine or not?  Were there other important lawyers there or not?

I also saw a tweet from Chua yesterday saying to leave her kids out of it.  I understand it but I don't think that's fair given the fact that Chua used her privilege to help her oldest daughter Sophia get a clerkship with Kavanaugh -- and this year in a few months it will be Lulu's turn to apply for clerkships.  These are not 16 year old kids -- they have graduated college and are in law school already, they are full adults who are making decisions to use Chua's (and until recently, Rubenfeld's) power to go into the legal field and secure clerkships etc.  Sophia is on twitter retweeting Chua's tweets -- why exactly should she be kept out of it and not be expected to defend her or her mom's decisions?

On the other hand, the anti-asian comments and bias is undeniable.  So it's hard to criticize but not be a part of that.   [/quote]

Poster you were responding to here—yes, you are right there is a lot to Chua that is problematic, I don’t follow her or any other law Twitter scandals so you definitely know more details than I do.  She and her family have been aiming to be the Kardashians of Legal Academia for so long it isn’t funny.

But what isn’t problematic is the concept of professors having groups of students over for perfectly normal social occasions, to get to know them, to mentor them, and to help them make connections down the road.  That is a good thing for students (if you aren’t a racist creep).  Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  I personally would be perfectly happy entertaining students less, but it isn’t good for the students.

I think the other elephant in the room is COVID.  No one has been entertaining like normal because of COVID.  So that is a bit weird.[/quote]

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