I have just finished packing up my lovely apartment here on the UVA campus and am about to turn off the internet router, get in the car and move myself and many books and papers back to DC. Once unpacked in DC, I’ll be able to blog more this summer. But I did not want to leave without a post thanking all the wonderful people at UVA law school for the great semester I’ve had at the school.
The faculty and administration, the students and all the support folks, have been just marvelous. The warmth and collegiality of professors who didn’t know me or have any reason to be interested in what I do – stopping by my office to chat, going to lunch and coffee, reading things I was working on – I was touched and impressed by how much of a community of scholars and intellectuals make up the law school at UVA. The students were also great. Smart, thoughtful, diligent, engaged, and somehow managing to do that without a trace of arrogance.
One of the good things about visiting is that it helps one get a perspective on where one has fallen into a rut, doing the same things over and over. I’m coming back to my own very great faculty and students at American with a much stronger sense of wanting to reach out to friends and colleagues there and not simply hide out in my own research and teaching.
I also want to mention the JAG school at UVA. It was a privilege to be able to spend time there, teach several guest classes there, and spend time with the professors and students. That is a great institution. The United States JAG corps is a body of lawyers in military affairs and armed conflict unlike any in the world, and this school is a big reason why. A couple of the JAG professors came over and audited my human rights class at the law school and they contributed a depth of knowledge and real world wisdom that was irreplaceable.
So to Dean Paul Mahoney and all those at UVA, my thanks. I have only question, which is really more about the undergraduate college than the law school. I get that UVA is the Cavaliers and the colors are blue and orange. But where does the Hoo-Wah come from?