Hello winter

Welcome back! PALS is gearing up for our Childhaven clothing/toy/food/diaper drive (we really need a shorter name) and some other things. We’ll schedule our quarterly meeting later, but meanwhile, here’s an update on what’s coming up. Please email kremerl... or stasiu... if there’s anything you can or want to help out on.

* The Graduate and Professional Student Senate will be lobbying in Olympia for more money for childcare for student-parents. If you are interested in testifying, meeting a legislator, writing a letter or anything else, please email kremerl...
* The Childhaven drive will be during the week that includes Valentine’s Day. Laura Arras and Christine Porter will be running it. We’ll need volunteers to help man the table and take things to Childhaven. Stay tuned for more info. Meanwhile, please start setting aside things that would be good donations for Childhaven: new and used toys and clothes that are in good condition, plus new diapers and nonperishable food.
* We’d like to have a panel discussion this quarter called Maybe Baby, on whether it’s a good idea to have a baby during law school. Email kremerl... if you're interested in working on it.
* Several groups would like to partner with us on an adoption panel. Lisa Goldoftas will be PALS’s point person on this. Let us know if you’d like to be involved too.
* Elections! According to our bylaws, we are out of office at the end of this quarter and the new presidents take over during spring quarter. Start thinking about whether you want to be a PALS officer for 2008-9.
* Babies! There will be a ton of new babies this quarter. The Remote Learning Room will be busy. If you use it irregularly, you may be surprised. Please try to keep it clean and be conscious of the room’s other users.
* Advocacy: Let us know if there’s anything PALS can do to help out with the administration or building management. We’re happy to throw our weight around for you.

Stasiu and Lisa

Food Friday: Pull-Apart Bread

This is how I procrastinate. Finals? What finals? Ok, to be more accurate, this is one of many, many ways I procrastinate.

My daughters made this bread last weekend. I did some minimal supervisory actions. This is a fantastic activity for the 2-and-older set, and the bread actually tastes great. The recipe comes from this month's RealSimple Magazine.

Easy Cinnamon Bread

2 1-pound packages refrigerated pizza dough
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted, plus more for the pan

Heat oven to 375.
Tear off small bits of the dough and roll them into 1- to 1.5-inch balls. Place balls on a plate.
Combine cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. Dip each ball in the butter, then in the cinnamon sugar. Drop the balls into a buttered Bundt pan.
Drizzle remaining butter over the top and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar.
Bake until golden brown, about 40 minutes. Remove and let cool 5 minutes.
Place a plate on top of the pan and carefully flip it over. Tap the bottom to release the bread. (I let the pan rest on top of the plate for a while so the bread would disengage by itself.)
Let people pull the bread apart with their fingers.

Santa photos

Here's a great opportunity to get family photos with Santa without the lines or extortionate prices at the mall.

The Latina/o Law Students Association has recruited Prof. Schnapper to play Santa Claus for photos next Wednesday. Apparently he’ll be all dressed up as the jolly old elf, complete with a festive, Latino-inspired backdrop. LLSA will take your photo with a digital camera and email it to you, and/or you can bring your own camera. LLSA will email you the photo they take. LLSA is asking for a $3 donation, but apparently everyone actually gives $5.

Money raised will benefits LLSA’s outreach programming for disadvantaged students.

Here’s the info:

Wednesday, December 5, 2007
2:30 to 4 p.m. in Gates Hall, Room TBA
UWLS Main Hallway
Email Rosario Daza, rdaza@... for more information.

Law School Stress talk

Adjunct professor Andy Benjamin spoke at lunch today at a meeting sponsored by Nontraditional Law Students. I was enlisted to take notes, and I took pretty thorough ones, so if you would like a copy, email me at kremerl@.... Here are some highlights.

Benjamin is a pretty thorough critic of the law school pedagogy. "We create cynical, angry, hostile folk," he said. Law school undermines professionalism and health, he said, because it:
* negates healthy values such as intimacy and community
* promotes unhealthy values, such as valuing external rewards, status and comparative worth
* substitutes competition and anxiety for healthy motivation such as personal enjoyment and values-based effort
* Habituates students to frustration of fundamental needs, such as health routines, self esteem, relatedness, authenticity and security.

Solutions:
Address health and social issues:
* solid sleep, eating, exercising patterns
* Social support
* Knowledge of signal emotional states – result in activation of wellness behaviors
* Balance struck in all areas of life
* Any two of four conditions above absent, seek assistance from Sandra, SBA, Mentors
Minimize unnecessary excessive stress:
* Eliminate habitual overwork
* Abandon zero-sum competitive “need to win” paradigm, which creates perception of failure for any previously successful students
* Build skills at collaboration and legal counseling.

I know some people are interested in this: Benjamin repeated the observation that he has been criticized for making in orientation sessions: single women tend to be the most negatively affected by law school. Women in relationships tend to survive law school's stresses better. "Romantic involvements are protective," he said. "I’m not joking. Please start dating."

Here are symptoms of depression to look out for:
* mixture of anxiety, depression and hostility
* thoughts of killing self
* feeling so unhappy that you cannot shake it
* dissatisfied or bored with most aspects of life
* nicotine use (the most efficient anti-dysphoric on the legal market)
* disruptive sleep – never feeling sufficiently rested (early waking, inability to fall asleep)
* increased social isolation
* limiting normal exercise patterns

If you have more than two of these for more than a couple of weeks, he said, get counseling.

The session covered more ground, including many very specific questions from students. Also, all these lists came from his powerpoint, which had cites for studies that were the sources of the info. If you want the notes or the powerpoint, email me.

Diversions

It's getting toward the end of the quarter, papers are due, exams are coming. Time for distractions.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a link to the now-classic “Landlord” video with Will Ferrell. Caution: if you don’t like seeing 2-year-olds swear, you might not like it. Oh, come on, it’s totally worth it.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74

Here’s a mom’s version of the William Tell Overture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ati3k32-NXI

(thanks Mary Whisner)

And finally, this is just an amazing wildlife video. This is NOT funny, just amazing. It gets a bit grim about two minutes in, and then gets even grimmer, but the ending is great. It’s called the Battle at Kruger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

Managing stress

Here's a nice event held by Non-Traditional Law Students (NLS is generally for older, second-career-type students, or anyone who considers themselves different from the traditional path). Last year NLS held a couple of events with Andy Benjamin, and they were well-received. I'll be going to this one -- please rsvp to Lisa G at lgoldoft@ ... if you are planning to go.


Stress & Uncertainty: Andy Benjamin on Balance During Law School.
As the end of the quarter fast approaches, many of us find ourselves getting caught up in the stresses of preparing for exams, doing job searches, and dealing with other life demands. Join us for a lunchtime talk with Andy Benjamin about dealing with law school stressors and gaining better perspective and balance. The event will take place on Wednesday, November 28, 2007, from 12:30 to 1:20, in Room 118. Lunch will be provided.
Please RSVP if you are planning to attend so we can order enough lunches for everyone. We also welcome specific questions for Andy, which will be presented anonymously. Please send RSVPs and any questions to: lgoldoft@...

Balancing a legal career and childcare

A new study analyzes some of the ramifications of taking time out to take care of children. The study uses data from University of Michigan Law School grads. It's called "Gender and the Legal Profession" (follow link for the full study). The study profiles not only what happens when you take time out (you end up being happier, but less wealthy -- surprise!), but also what type of people do it, and some of the social stereotypes around it.

One of the study authors described the results to Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession:

In a nutshell, we find that childcare responsibilities drive much of the differences in income and promotion experienced by men and women lawyers, and that men who miss paid work to do childcare experience the same disadvantages as women who miss paid work to do childcare. We also find that both more men and more women lawyers are missing paid work to do childcare, that they are taking longer absences from paid work to do childcare, and they are working less hours after they return to their careers.

Some of our less systematic, but more curious findings are that: in part male lawyers earn more than women lawyers because they are more interested in income than the woman lawyers; women who have kids but who do not miss paid work to do childcare are more likely to be in private practice and be a partner than women without kids, even though women without kids work more hours; and women who miss paid work to do childcare have significantly higher LSAT’s and GPA’s than women who don’t miss paid work to do childcare.