Hearsay

"The classic formulation is when an employer says 'I want to see if the employee is productive. I want to know that I'm liable for activities.' From the employee's side, it's just creepy."
--Assistant Professor Jonathan Zittrain '95, faculty codirector, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, from an April 9 Boston Globe story on using software to monitor employees' computer use.

"It's looking more and more like Microsoft will not be broken up. But anything the Court of Appeals does is likely to get appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court."
--Professor Einer Elhauge '86, on the ongoing antitrust suit brought by the Justice Department against Microsoft, from a March 4 interview in the Boston Globe.

"People are focusing on the wrong questions. They are considering incremental changes involving ballots and machinery and not talking about the issues of race."
--Assistant Professor Heather Gerken, commenting during a panel discussion March 19 at HLS on the aftermath of the presidential election in Florida, from a Harvard Crimson report.

"Parenting has more to do with social relationships than with biology. In my view, this is the right decision. It reflects the fact that from the child's point of view this man has been her father for seven years and he shouldn't be allowed to say now, simply because there isn't a sperm connection, that he's not the father."
--Professor Elizabeth Bartholet '65, on a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision that a man should continue child support payments after a genetic test showed he was not the child's biological parent, from an April 25 Boston Globe story.

"Many men and women experience law school as intimidating, perhaps because of its emphasis on individual performance in a large, intensely competitive classroom environment. This disproportionately may affect women who feel more pressure to perform well for many reasons, including the fact that when they speak, they feel as though they are speaking on behalf of women who are not present."
--Professor Lani Guinier, from a March 26 New York Times story on the increasing number of women going to law school.

"People can get into financial trouble today in ways that were simply not possible 20 years ago. People are getting $20,000 in debt, one pizza and one pair of tennis shoes at a time."
--Professor Elizabeth Warren, from an April 3 Washington Post story on credit cards for teens.

"This power is capable of being abused and there is good reason for at least being suspicious that powers were abused in this case."
--Professor Richard Fallon, on the possible link between donations and President Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, from a February 24 Washington Post story.

"Surely the impressive contributions of blacks and other minority graduates over the last 30 years constitute the best evidence of the value of diversity and inclusion in our nation's institutions of higher learning."
--Professor David Wilkins '80, on affirmative action's value to a university, from a February 13 Boston Globe op-ed.

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