Sign up to receive an emailed copy of the Dean's Monday Morning Message each week!
Send me my Monday morning message
Monday Morning Message 10.7.24 Carrying the Torch
“Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations.” ― George Bernard Shaw
“Words cannot express the gratitude I have for the scholarship you all have so kindly decided to offer me…You all have given me the opportunity to fulfill my destiny and for that I am forever grateful ! My son will one day be able to say that his mother was given a chance despite financial hardship, and this blessing can teach him that if you dream big enough, no obstacle will be big enough.” -recent 1L Student
Monday Morning Message 9.30.24 Civil Discourse and Freedom of Speech
“Although there is a First Amendment right to speak and to protest, this is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions….The First Amendment does not protect speech to silence others or to disrupt.” - Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkeley School of Law
“Book bans …. shut down conversations about important issues….. Young people have a right to the resources and stories that help them mature, learn and understand their world in all its diversity.” – Ashley Hope Perez, Author, Out of Darkness
Monday Morning Message 9.23.24 Let Freedom Read
“…..libraries should be open to all — except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.”
— President John F. Kennedy
“Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book...”― President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Monday Morning Message 9.9.24 Celebrating Over 50 years of Access and Opportunity
“Most people miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” –Thomas Edison
Please join us on Friday, September 20, 5pm at CSU Law to celebrate our Legal Career Opportunities Program (LCOP), a groundbreaking program that has been changing lives for more than fifty years. The invitation is below.
Monday Morning Message 9.3.24 Four Core Values That Whisper in Our Ears
This is the first Monday Morning Message of the Fall 2024 Semester. Monday was Labor Day, so the message is being posted today.
“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.” - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
We strive to be a law school that welcomes and encourages diverse viewpoints but where we share common values. Research shows that when we get better at who we are, we get better at what we do (Better Humans, Better Performance, Peter Rea, James Stoller, Alan Kolp).
So when we welcomed our 195 first year students (the largest 1L class in 15 years, a 99% increase in 1L enrollment since 2016), we administered a pledge about values to all our 1L students.
Monday Morning Message 6.10.24 Before Your Email Inbox Gets a Summer Break!
“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.” - Maya Angelou
We are giving your email inbox a summer break! The Monday Morning Message will resume the week of August 19, 2024, the first full week of fall semester classes.
In the meantime, I have just one request.
Monday Morning Message 6.3.24 The Power of Shared Experience
“As the first Arab American to receive this recognition, this award is especially important not only me—but to my family and community as well. They have always been by my side throughout my journey. …..When I was growing up, education was not a given for women in my culture. Fighting for the opportunity to get my undergraduate degree and then pursue law school was another fence I had to climb. ….
Monday Morning Message 5.20.24 Commencement 2024!
“Start each day with the optimism that it could be one of your best, don’t cruise through life on autopilot. Be sure to revel in each day…..
The skillset you are leaving here with is your ability to look at situations from many perspectives. I would argue that this trait is more valuable today than ever, and more at risk in our polarized environment where every issue has an immediate magnetic attraction to a preordained position…. The world is subjective and unyielding positions bathed in absolutes are more often the source of conflict than the solution……