$85K-a-Year Yale Law Cancels 31 Classes So Students Can Protest Kavanaugh
When Yale Law School students took to the campus Monday to protest against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, many did not need to worry about what might be happening in class.
The school canceled 31 of its classes that day to give students a wide open schedule to oppose President Donald Trump’s second nomination to the Supreme Court.
Students at Yale Law, which posts an annual cost of slightly more than $85,000, staged a sit-in wearing black to demonstrate against Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
WATCH: Dozens of students sit in silence, wearing black demanding thorough look into accusations against Yale alumnus and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 31 law school classes have been cancelled today in light of protest. #nbcct pic.twitter.com/yCthpadhuj
— Shannon Miller (@_ShannonMiller) September 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/danabolger/status/1043181207566118912
“The allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are rightly causing deep concern at Yale Law School and across the country,” Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken said in a statement, the New Haven Register reported.
“As dean, I cannot take a position on the nomination, but I am so proud of the work our community is doing to engage with these issues, and I stand with them in supporting the importance of fair process, the rule of law and the integrity of the legal system,” she said.
Anita Hill’s story especially relevant in New Haven, which is about a third black, speakers say. “Anita Hill, as a woman of color, as a black woman was not believed not just because of her gender but because of her race. These intersectionality concerns can not be erased today” pic.twitter.com/ugFFieHyqQ
— Rebecca Murdock (@RebeccaLurye) September 24, 2018
Yale Law School spokeswoman Debra Kroszer told Campus Reform Monday that “Yale Law School did not cancel all classes,” but, “many faculty members chose to reschedule or cancel their own classes today. And some held classes as usual.”
Some wondered if the time could have been put to a better use.
“While I respect the right of the students protesting to make their voices heard, I disagree with professors’ decisions to cancel classes at the request of those protesters,” said Emily Hall, a student at Yale Law.
“It effectively encourages students to participate in the protests and penalizes those who choose not to by disrupting the class schedule,” Hall said.
Yale professor Nicholas Christakis suggested that protesting in obedience to authority was not truly protesting.
“For civil disobedience to be praiseworthy and serious, protestors must be willing to bear the costs of the then-extant sanctions. Cancelling class so that students can protest, and doing so only for one end of political spectrum, seems hard to defend,” he tweeted.
For civil disobedience to be praiseworthy and serious, protestors must be willing to bear the costs of the then-extant sanctions. Cancelling class so that students can protest, and doing so only for one end of political spectrum, seems hard to defend. https://t.co/Ya9P2lqIW6
— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) September 25, 2018
Kavanaugh graduated from Yale Law School in 1990. One of the accusations of sexual assault against him stems form his time at Yale.
The Supreme Court nominee has denied all the claims against him.
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