Higher Ed Bubblegum?

Glenn Reynolds (among others) likes to write about the “higher education bubble.”  But maybe we’ve all missed higher education bubblegum?  With all of the difficulties law schools are having right now with declining enrollment (applications off overall by more than 50 percent from 10 years ago), it is good to know that at least Touro Law School has it’s priorities straight:

Billy Joel and the Law: A Touro Law Conference

On behalf of Touro Law Center, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the conference on Billy Joel & The Law, and to thank you for your participation. This conference follows in the path of previous conferences exploring connections between the work of a singer-songwriter and the American legal system. In 2005, Widener Law School hosted The Lawyer as Poet Advocate: Bruce Springsteen and the American Lawyer, and in 2011, Fordham Law School hosted Bob Dylan and the Law, co-sponsored by Touro Law Center. Building on the success of these events, we will consider ways in which Billy Joel’s work relates to American law, society, and culture. Sessions will offer a wide range of perspectives, including those of judges, lawyers, law professors, and music scholars. We look forward to a meaningful and entertaining event that will foster thought provoking conversations about the relevance of Billy Joel’s work to our understanding of the American legal system.

Hat tip: Paul Caron/TaxProfBlog, where the following comment appears:

Obligatory reminder that Touro:

– Has a 146 median LSAT, down from a 151 just a few years ago.
– Has lost about a third of its entering class size in the last few years.
– Costs nearly $73,000/year between tuition and living expenses
– Only 122 of 230 grads in the class of 2013 found FT, LT, license-required jobs within nine months of graduation at any salary.
– None were in BigLaw, pretty much the only job that can kinda justify $73,000 tuition & living expenses for the school.

It would seem that Touro would have priorities other than hosting a Billy Joel and the Law conference.

I’ll only go if the audience is made to sing Billy’s “Angry Young Man”:

And there’s always a place for the angry young man
With his fist in the air and his head in the sand
And he’s never been able to learn from mistakes
So he can’t understand why his heart always breaks
And his honor is pure and his courage is well
And he’s fair and he’s true and he’s boring as hell
And he’ll go to the grave as an angry old man

Yes there’s always a place for the angry young man
With his working class ties and his radical plans
He refuses to bend he refuses to crawl
And he’s always at home with his back to the wall
And he’s proud of his scars and the battles he’s lost
And struggles and bleeds as he hangs on his cross
And likes to be known as the angry young man.

Unfortunately, not enough law professors, and still fewer politicized students, hjave taken to heart the indispensable middle stanza of the tune:

I believe I’ve passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight
I once believed in causes too
I had my pointless point of view
And life went on no matter who was wrong or right.

Actually, scratch that bit about having the audience sing this.  Im fact, how about scratching the conference altogether, and just watching the original:

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses