Instapundit points us in the direction of Joseph Bottum’s First Things blog post yesterday; also Althouse’s comment:
[W]hile I was [at NYU Law School] I saw posters for a lecture this afternoon by Eugene Volokh on the structure of slippery-slope arguments. … the posters for Volokh’s talk read, as I remember: “Founder of The Volokh Conspiracy blog and Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at UCLA.”
I wonder how the Schwartz family feels about that. Indeed, I wonder how UCLA law school feels. For that matter, I wonder how I feel. Since when has even a blog as interesting as the The Volokh Conspiracy trumped, for a law-school audience, a chair at a major law school and all the speaker’s academic publications? A fascinating change in the culture of things.
Well, heck (and not speaking for Eugene), I feel pretty darn good as a coat-tails participant at VC!
JRL says:
A chair at a top law school may trump on the day that law school classes are as useful, smart, and interesting as the Volokh Conspiracy. I won’t hold my breath.
February 23, 2010, 11:24 amripcord says:
Seems like he was not saying that EV was personally changing the culture, but that the popularity/notoriety of the blog is an example of a broader change in culture.
Not particularly impressed myself, the tag line is simply there because it is what students will recognize. Scholarship and chairs are still more notable but students aren’t academics and this sort of thing is like a touch-stone to recognition for laymen.
February 23, 2010, 11:46 amManju says:
That’s nothing. When I co-lecture with Chairs of major academic institutions, my bio on the poster reads: “Manju: Commentator at The Volokh Conspiracy blog”.
Now, that’s changing the culture.
February 23, 2010, 11:57 amPatHMV says:
Is it a sign of a change in culture, particularly, or just that the good professor is becoming “popular” in non-academic circles. Perhaps he is simply becoming the Carl Sagan of the law, and thus being most noted for that, despite a significant body of professional work. If Carl Sagan (RIP) were to be introduced today, would anybody expect him to be introduced first by the fact that he accurately predicted the surface temperature of Venus? No, he starred in Cosmos and wrote Contact.
February 23, 2010, 12:00 pmJon Rowe says:
Didn’t Eugene or one of the others do a survey on cited articles by VC contributors and concluded that were the VC a “law school faculty,” it would be a top law school?
This reminds me of those studies where the income or stock value of big corps. are compared to entire major nations and the corps. are found to have larger economies.
February 23, 2010, 12:01 pmguy in the veal calf office says:
I don’t know the Schwartz family, but I assume their name is included solely because they paid a lot of money. That doesn’t convey merit to the title holder.
I’ve met many professors to whom I wouldn’t sacrifice 3 hours as a captive listener; inserting “UCLA Law ” in front of their name doesn’t change my skepticism.
I read Volokh frequently and by his posts know about Eugene’s mind, demeanor and viewpoint. So I’d say NYU correctly billed his appearance in order of importance.
February 23, 2010, 12:40 pmJohn R. Mayne says:
If you want to fill seats at a lecture, I think it’s true that the VC takes precedence from a practical point of view.
If you want to look at the broader question of what has more societal effect… well, I have no doubt that EV’s education of others and himself at UCLA is a big deal, and he’s a major contributor in that field. I find it difficult to believe that it exceeds the societal good done by the VC, though.
The blog reaches out to a wide variety of smart, interested people and is presented in a manner that doesn’t promote the tribalism of most political blogs. It’s thus more likely to both educate and change minds. I could be persuaded I’m wrong, but given the limited data I have, I’d be very surprised to find that EV (or OK’s) greatest contributions are purely academic.
I also have little doubt that the academic life enables this blog’s excellence; I doubt we’d have one without the other. But understating the value of this blog would be unfortunate.
Sure, a sponsored professorship at a well-respected law school has more status in most circles, and it surely pays better. It’s also a more accurate signal of legal knowledge than having a blog. But I think the blog actually has more value in this specific case, and that’s saying a lot. And I think advertising it as an affiliation is entirely appropriate – even desirable.
Am I mistaken?
February 23, 2010, 12:57 pmEcon_Scott says:
I credit Eugene Volokh and a few of his conspirators, with making all this Sturm and Drang of daily struggle with the law,
accessible, enjoyable sometimes, and coherent to the average Schmo, me.
It has allowed me to help a couple of very bright and not oddly, conservative kids who haven’t made a career decision yet, to consider Law School, or least become interested in the Haas School MBA/JD program.
February 23, 2010, 12:59 pmLibertarian1 says:
Does this mean that as part of my official CV I may include the line:
“official commentator on the Volokh Conspiracy”, the #1 legal blog in the US.? :>)
February 23, 2010, 1:26 pmSuperSkeptic says:
I would think “No.” That is, unless you are given “official” sanction by Professor Volokh or another co-conspirator acting as an authorized agent of Professor Volokh. I imagine you could use the word “unofficial” – although that would likely devalue the notion of including such a line in your CV to the point of obsolescence.
Also (and although I may agree in opinion), I am not sure under what rubric you are asserting that this is “the #1 legal blog in the US.”
February 23, 2010, 1:41 pmLarryA says:
If I were doing such a poster I’d also list VC first. It’s more unusual, and a bigger event draw.
I’d guess that featured speakers at law schools routinely hold prestigious chairs. Holding a chair may be important, but it doesn’t distinguish you from the herd the way a popular blog does.
How many of you are more familiar with Glenn Reynolds as InstaPundit than as the Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee?
February 23, 2010, 2:05 pmHans Clapton says:
If Eugene spotted Joseph changing would he have seen Bottum?
February 23, 2010, 2:16 pmChris says:
To guy in the veal calf office:
Maybe you have not heard of Gary Schwartz. He was a great law professor and teacher (died a few years ago) at UCLA School of Law. I know this in part because I had him for 1L Torts in Fall Semester 1982. He also made significant contributions to the legal literature. I am sure that EV will be proud if he can live to the accomplishments of Gary Schwartz.
February 23, 2010, 2:48 pmPatrick says:
I went to that talk at NYU, and it wasn’t because Prof. Volokh teaches at UCLA. If the point is to get law students, who go to lectures by distinguished faculty members twice a day, to come to a lecture, you don’t talk up the professorship.
February 23, 2010, 3:14 pmJoseph Bottum Spots Eugene Volokh Changing the Culture | Liberal Whoppers says:
[...] more here: Joseph Bottum Spots Eugene Volokh Changing the Culture [...]
February 23, 2010, 3:19 pmMichael F. Martin says:
How snotty!
February 23, 2010, 4:04 pmShelbyC says:
Why not? How much money have you given to the cause of legal education?
February 23, 2010, 4:15 pmCLS student says:
At columbia the billing just said Professor Volokh UCLA Law under the title of the talk. Further down on the flyer, his biography listed volokh conspiracy in the penultimate sentence.
February 23, 2010, 4:38 pmAnon Y. Mous says:
I was hoping to see something from EV in the comments, but I guess he’s gotten too big for a little thread like this one. :)
February 23, 2010, 5:06 pmSteve says:
From this comment thread, I learned that commentors at the Volokh Conspiracy agree that being the founder of the Volokh Conspiracy is a big deal.
February 23, 2010, 5:19 pmTony Rodriguez says:
I see nothing wrong with leading that flyer with the website, doesn’t detract from how great it is that you hold a chair named for a terrific professor and very nice man who taught us Torts 20+ years ago.
February 23, 2010, 5:51 pmguy in the veal calf office says:
I said nothing about the merit of donor or person for whom the chair is named.
And its great that the chair is named for a terrific guy, but again, NYU billed the event in correct order of importance from a marketing standpoint.
February 23, 2010, 6:14 pmNickM says:
I took Torts and Admin Law from Professor Gary Schwartz, as well as having him as my comment advisor and working as an RA for him the summer after 1L.
I’m pretty sure he would have found it very funny.
Nick
February 23, 2010, 9:24 pmDavid Sucher says:
Maybe a bumper sticker?
February 23, 2010, 11:08 pm…along the lines of
“No secret about the Volokh Conspiracy”
Dave Hardy says:
I’ve been practicing law for three decades, and I’m not sure what an endowed chair is, except that someone puts up money and someone else (the dean? the whole faculty? the family of the donor?) chooses who gets the title. Whereas quite a few thousand people know about this blog, which suggests which item should get first listing.
February 24, 2010, 9:54 pmDesiderius says:
Way to blow our cover, EV. Next you’ll be out hawking it on street corners.
Some Conspiracy this is!
February 25, 2010, 8:50 am