Date: January 31st, 2006 1:41 PM Author: Godawful turquoise cuckold
"Right now, after about a week of study, I’m scoring in the 159 – 162 range on the LSAT. Hopefully I’ll be able to get that up to at least 165 by June which, along with good grades in my undergraduate degrees, should give me a fair shot of getting into some good law schools, including University of Texas."
The morning of Friday has now come and gone. A few questions and requests:
1. When did you begin grading our exams?
2. Was it not foreseeable that by giving a 20 page exam with a 6,000 word limit that you were thereby committing yourself to an extensive grading project that would require you to begin grading the exams before whatever your answer to #1 above is?
3. In our review session before the final you sermonized about the professional responsibilities of an attorney. Because we would hold such weighty responsibilities in our professional careers you said that you would impose similar responsibilities regarding the exam. In particular, you made it clear that you would brook no excuse regarding an exam turned in after the 8 hour time limit. You made it clear that we were responsible for planning ahead and ensuring that the 8 hour time limit would be honored. Do you feel no reciprocal responsibility toward us, your students? A responsibility that extends beyond ex post facto apologies?
4. Please stop saying "I'm so sorry". A) The phrase has lost all meaning from constant repetition throughout the entire semester. B) Few students believe you. C) Fewer students care whether you>subjectively impose upon yourself an appropriate level of guilt.
Sincerely, Dion Alaniz
------------------
Quoting rhills@umich.edu:
[Dear students,]
I am terribly sorry to say that, despite my best efforts, I find myself behind in my grading. I have almost completed grading the exams for Constitutional Law and hope to finish no later than the morning of Friday, 1/27.
I will post the grades with exam ID numbers on the ctools website as soon as I've finished grading -- by Friday, at the latest. I know that prospective employers will want your first term grades asap, and I will make every effort to speed the grading along.
[Professor Hills]
> > This automatic notification message was sent by CTools (
Date: January 31st, 2006 1:46 PM Author: charcoal gaped school cafeteria
First thought: that fucking subject line.
Subject: On being late with your grades
This immediately outs Dion as one of those insufferable academics who thinks every email they write is a treatise on the topic at hand. Deep in his mind I'm confident that he equates this email on his grades being a little late to Thoreau's essay on civil disobedience. Get over yourself, Dion. "Late grades" would have sufficed.
The funniest thing about this ridiculous subject line is that he follows the pretentious "On..." lead with the more conversational "being late with your grades." It's all or nothing, kid. Probably would have been better if you had "On the Grave Injustice of Late Grades" or "On Genocide and Famine, and Why Late Grades are Probably Worse Than Both," or "On My Being an Oversensitive 1L." As Dr. John Dolan said in his critique of "On Bullshit," the mixing of academic and populist diction in a title is a cheap gimmick, but in Dion's case I think it was accidental, which just shows him to be a clumsy and desperate academic poseur.
What's more, the subject line doesn't even make much sense. Traditionally, haughty academic titles beginning with "on" are followed by something concrete. Even "On the Origin of Species" had a fairly active flavor to it. But "On Being Late with your Grades" just sounds limp and tepid. He loses all the oomph of that badass "on" leader by following it with a passive, confusing and overly specific indictment of the professor. "On Late Grades" would have been better, amplifying the transgression beyond just Dion and his classmates and into an attack on the concept of late grading as a univeral failure of humanity. Only then would Dion's little manifesto truly become as grand as he would hope, tucked in every neurotic 1L's rolling backpack or clutched in their pale, trembling, carpal-tunneled hands.
Oh, I don't think it'll get the guy kicked out or blacklisted or anything. It just seems like a lot of effort and embarassment over something pretty minor. In general, the pissed off trying to be witty email is never very smart.
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:09 PM Author: french wonderful stead
it's clearly not in your character to do something like that. but you might overestimate the ease with which other people absorb obvious, rational insights. among law students there seems to be a strong need to be noticed -- preferably for something good. but, failing that, they will subscribe to the "no such thing as bad publicity" axiom. in any fairly big law firm, there are several comparable incidents every year.
That sounds like a correct analysis of the motivations behind emails like these. Also, I think sometimes people just get carried away with their own cleverness or righteousness or frustration sometimes. I don't think it's inaccurate to point out that sending a pissy email to a superior is seldom the wisest choice, though.
I've certainly had worse things forwarded to me. There will be a little flurry about this and it'll die down.
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:01 PM Author: salmon disturbing trailer park private investor
not at all. can you imagine if the shoe were on the other foot.
the students deadline is one day and that passes. the person emails the prof and says sorry! it will be done by friday am. then that deadline passes. the student would get an F. so should the prof be fired or severely reprimanded. the admin lets this stuff fly so it was up to the student to handle it and he did an excellent job. i guarantee you that this profs grades will be handed in on time this upcoming semsester
You are operating under the assumption that the same rules apply both ways. Clearly, they don't. Sometimes you just have to quit being a whiny fag and accept the fact that your grades might take a bit longer.
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:00 PM Author: charcoal gaped school cafeteria
The morning of Friday has now come and gone. A few questions and requests:
1. When did you begin grading our exams?
2. Was it not foreseeable that by giving a 20 page exam with a 6,000 word limit that you were thereby committing yourself to an extensive grading project that would require you to begin grading the exams before whatever your answer to #1 above is?
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:02 PM Author: Submissive casino
What's really sad is that #3 and #4 were much worse than that, and so unnecessary:
3. In our review session before the final you sermonized about the professional responsibilities of an attorney. Because we would hold such weighty responsibilities in our professional careers you said that you would impose similar responsibilities regarding the exam. In particular, you made it clear that you would brook no excuse regarding an exam turned in after the 8 hour time limit. You made it clear that we were responsible for planning ahead and ensuring that the 8 hour time limit would be honored. Do you feel no reciprocal responsibility toward us, your students? A responsibility that extends beyond ex post facto apologies?
4. Please stop saying "I'm so sorry". A) The phrase has lost all meaning from constant repetition throughout the entire semester. B) Few students believe you. C) Fewer students care whether you>subjectively impose upon yourself an appropriate level of guilt.
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:15 PM Author: french wonderful stead
maybe it's true. you're so obsessed with the decorum of these things that you do neglect to cosider the possibility that there are crappy professors fully deserving of having their laziness or incompetence exposed.
Well it's certainly true that a lot of professors deserve blame for their grading habit. But I think it's generally unwise to send out mass emails, especially ones that try to be too clever or funny, because they have such a potential to be forwarded. Being straightforward and using another medium is usually a better way to get your thoughts across.
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:07 PM Author: charcoal gaped school cafeteria
JFC, profs are late with grades all the time and if you think that it merited talking down to a professor, well then I look forward to the day when you get passed over for promotion hundreds of times for saying something half this bad to one of your future employers.
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:12 PM Author: hairless puppy crackhouse Subject: This is hilarious
"What's truly scary about this is that Dion is not an aberration. While he may be an extreme example, there are thousands of douched-out gunner nutbag assholes just like him infesting law schools across the country.
In a disturbing example of personality-Darwinism, douchebaggery thrives at law schools across this country because more often than not, douchebags like Dion survive and become employed. Some of these douchebags then get involved in their law firms' hiring programs, and are prone to recommend the hiring of douchebags following in their douche-y trail. This has to be stopped."
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:13 PM Author: exhilarant puce den
The guy who sent the email is retarded for sending it, but he is 100% correct.
Can you imagine the prof's excuse being acceptable in any other profession? If he was willing to work more than 3 hours a day, he would be able to finish grading in a week.
If the prof was honest he would have said: "due to my laziness, I have been sitting on my ass for the past month and I refuse to work more than 4 hours a day."
Date: January 31st, 2006 2:14 PM Author: charismatic generalized bond
Are people really this steamed over slightly late grades? One of my profs took almost a year to post p/f grades for a class that basically nobody has ever failed.
"Practically every professor has learned of this controversy. I would not be surprised if it continues to follow him to his employers, etc. He won't get away with acting like this for long."
I doubt his future employers will care that much. They tend to be forgiving of email problems - Jonas Blank still has his job.
He'll get made fun of by fellow students for a year or two, maybe get on the bad side of a few professors, but that will probably be it unless he does other things of this nature.
Employers certainly won't care about that. If he's the kind of guy who does that kind of shit all the time it'll probably come back to him, but I doubt anyone hiring him will care about these particular instances.
Date: January 31st, 2006 6:22 PM Author: hairless puppy crackhouse Subject: Here's the blog for anyone who didn't get to see it
Read from the bottom up:
"Notify Blogger about objectionable content.
What does this mean?
Blogger
MMS Friends
Get your own blogFlag BlogNext blog
BlogThis!
Dion Alaniz Wants Answers, Professor Hills
On January 27, 2006, a 1L at the University of Michigan Law School sent an email to his Constitutional Law professor, taking the professor to task for being late in grading his Con Law exam. He is a douche. This is his story.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Click here to read the loathsome email in its entirety.
posted by alaniz_vs_hills at 11:47 AM 4 comments
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Dion On...
A quick Googling of Dion's name yields this blog. Whether or not it is the same Dion we don't know. That's up to you to decide (although the blogging Dion was planning to go to law school this year). He posted all of this on the internet, so of course he wouldn't mind us taking a look, right?
The bulk of the blog is made of up crazed diatribes apparently dispatched during various solitary hikes along the Appalachian Trail.
Compared to these gems, the infamous email is about as nutty as a tax return. Based upon the blog, we have concluded that it is very, very likely that Dion will track and kill us. And he'd be successful. So there's that.
What time is it? It's crazy time:
On Elves and Dew (love of):
"I didn't start out here as a naive sap. I had the 2 canonical experiences that harden a young man past his boyish love of elves and dew."
On Cannibalism:
"I think just about everything makes me cry. I indulge myself when i cry. As i'm crying outward I crawl back in on myself to eat the marrow of it - relishing every fatty delicious bite. It makes me sick and ashamed. I try not to think about it too much. Is that me? Am I doing that to myself?"
On defenses to formations of contracts, and iguanas:
"'Fuck you god – I signed that contract under duress!' and I was back out surfing before fully digesting the iguana."
On what it all means:
"Is that the final conclusion of an authentic life? Lying on the floor masturbating with a gun to one's head?"
On LSD:
"My belly button sprouted a sunflower. Sometimes i cry when that happens and look around to see if anyone saw. Often i don't know whether to cry or to fight. Often I can't tell the difference. They seem the same. I like fighting. It makes me want to cry, which makes me angry, and makes me want to fight more."
On getting stronger:
"It was a rough hike over Dugger but as soon as it was done my body felt great about continuing and there was enough light to push on to Terrapin. Damn! My body is getting so strong!"
On getting even fucking stronger than that:
"And each day I feel my body growing stronger! I feel like a monster, a complete brute, a huge twisting mass of muscle that pushes its way wherever it wills to go. I love the flesh!"
On surfing in Mexico several times:
"I went surfing in Mexico several times."
On light bestiality:
"I kissed a pony but haven't told my wife yet. She won't be jealous. She'll just laugh."
On schizophrenia:
"I signed my first register on the A.T. today. I signed it "Crom". Crom will be my trail name on the A.T. He breathed into me the gift of defiance at birth and I'll be damned if I waste it."
On Crom:
"Crom is so smart."
On schizophrenia, II:
"There are many parts of my psyche that fear this because they know it means their possible destruction. They fear what I am doing and with wild panic attempt to abort this mission. But Crom, the beast, the destroyer, the liberator will not let them."
On creating a bullshit reason to rationalize bitching out on a hike, apparently 4 hours after seeing Red Dragon:
"And shortly after passing the shelter I realized there was no need for my hike to continue. My metamorphosis was complete."
On alter-ego's reaction to above-referenced pussing-out on a hike:
"Crom raised no protest. Not a peep. Having observed that the metamorphosis he had been tasked to propel me through had been completed he once again returned to his long slumber."
On application of swidden farming techniques, or, On electroshock therapy:
"I believe I am destroying vast acres of myself. Scorching the earth on wide planes of my mind so that something new can emerge in its place."
On revisionist memory of high school:
"From confused and depressed pre-teen, to dashing high school surfer guy, to brooding collegiate intellectual, to polyester clad night club dancing performance artist...Crom has been there to destroy what was and allow what will become."
On Dasher, on Dancer...:
"In the desert, and the frozen wasteland, I - dion - reemerge as an entity distinct from and in contrast to WORLD. I am a being exposed in naked fragility. But it's *MY* fucking naked fragility! I own it. I make it. I burn it. I destory it. I heal it."
posted by alaniz_vs_hills at 1:09 PM 0 comments
Monday, January 30, 2006
Now go get your shinebox
As I understand it, Dion sent his bratty salvo around noon Friday, and grades were posted shortly afterward (likely due in no part to his tragically misguided missive). Prof. Hills followed up today with a group email describing access to a marked-up exam, as well as his dressing down of Dion. The relevant part:
One final note on professional civility: Although I am sure that this admonition is entirely unnecessary for most of you, I remind you that the rules of professional conduct of every state bar as well as the model rules of the ABA require that "[a] lawyer shall treat with courtesy and respect all persons involved in the legal process." (Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 6.5).
This general admonition is generally taken to require that attorneys "treat all other counsel, parties and witnesses in a civil and courteous manner, not only in court, but also in all other written and oral communications" and to "abstain from disparaging personal remarks or acrimony toward other counsel, parties, or witnesses." (Local Rules of the U.S. district court for the Eastern District of Michigan).
I insist that law students follow these standards of courtesy, civility, and respect in and out of my class. In grading exams and, indeed, in teaching the course, I operated under the standing assumption that every student does their best to understand the material, attend class diligently, do the reading, and otherwise generally act in good faith. Therefore, throughout the term, I have endeavored to respond to student questions and requests with professional courtesy and civility, without invective, sarcasm, or imputations of bad faith. While perfection in class attendance, class preparation, exam-taking, etc., is not to be expected, civility and courtesy are always required.
I expect the same standard of professional conduct from you in discussing the examination procedure, grades, or any other topic. I am happy to listen to any disagreements that you might have with my grading procedures: I will not tolerate such disagreements registered with "disparaging personal remarks or acrimony" (to quote the local rules of this federal district).
I said good day!
posted by alaniz_vs_hills at 2:13 PM 4 comments
The Original Email
I'll paste the forward in its entirety, removing some formatting notations for readability.
---------------------
Forwarded Message:
From: dalaniz@umich.edu
Date: Jan 27, 2006 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: [LAW 540 001 F05-Announcement] On being late with your grades
The morning of Friday has now come and gone. A few questions and requests:
1. When did you begin grading our exams?
2. Was it not foreseeable that by giving a 20 page exam with a 6,000 word limit that you were thereby committing yourself to an extensive grading project that would require you to begin grading the exams before whatever your answer to #1 above is?
3. In our review session before the final you sermonized about the professional responsibilities of an attorney. Because we would hold such weighty responsibilities in our professional careers you said that you would impose similar responsibilities regarding the exam. In particular, you made it clear that you would brook no excuse regarding an exam turned in after the 8 hour time limit. You made it clear that we were responsible for planning ahead and ensuring that the 8 hour time limit would be honored. Do you feel no reciprocal responsibility toward us, your students? A responsibility that extends beyond ex post facto apologies?
4. Please stop saying "I'm so sorry". A) The phrase has lost all meaning from constant repetition throughout the entire semester. B) Few students believe you. C) Fewer students care whether you>subjectively impose upon yourself an appropriate level of guilt.
Sincerely, Dion Alaniz
------------------
Quoting rhills@umich.edu:
[Dear students,]
I am terribly sorry to say that, despite my best efforts, I find myself behind in my grading. I have almost completed grading the exams for Constitutional Law and hope to finish no later than the morning of Friday, 1/27.
I will post the grades with exam ID numbers on the ctools website as soon as I've finished grading -- by Friday, at the latest. I know that prospective employers will want your first term grades asap, and I will make every effort to speed the grading along.
[Professor Hills]
> > This automatic notification message was sent by CTools (
> > You can modify how you receive notifications at My Workspace >
> > Preferences.
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
posted by alaniz_vs_hills at 10:01 AM 2 comments
The morning of friday has now come and gone!
On January 27, 2006, a 1L at the University of Michigan School of Law named Dion Alaniz sent an appalling email to his Constitutional Law professor (and others), taking the professor to task for being late in grading his Con Law exam. Thanks to the power of email forwarding, Dion's email made it out of the U. Mich campus and quickly spread across the Internet as all awful things these days must do.
While there's certainly something unsavory and probably misogynistic about the term, there's really never been a better fit for it: Dion Alaniz is a fucking douche.
Dion will be a minor internet footnote at best in a week or two, the latest funny email forward spawning millions of "who is this guy?" responses. But there's a lesson to be learned from Dion's douchebaggery - an important lesson.
What's truly scary about this is that Dion is not an aberration. While he may be an extreme example, there are thousands of douched-out gunner nutbag assholes just like him infesting law schools across the country.
In a disturbing example of personality-Darwinism, douchebaggery thrives at law schools across this country because more often than not, douchebags like Dion survive and become employed. Some of these douchebags then get involved in their law firms' hiring programs, and are prone to recommend the hiring of douchebags following in their douche-y trail. This has to be stopped.
Dion Alaniz can't be un-douched. But others can.
posted by alaniz_vs_hills at 10:00 AM 1 comments
About Me
Name:alaniz_vs_hills
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* Dion wanted to go to U. Texas
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* Click here to read the loathsome email in its entirety.
Date: January 31st, 2006 5:26 PM Author: provocative shrine
While I can understand why this prof's behavior would be really annoying, I feel the need to point out that, contrary to what someone said above, shit gets done late in all professions, even in the "real" world.