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 8.26.19 A new year and rising excellence
“Get ready to embark on a wild ride unlike anything you’ve ever experienced, packed with thrills, chills, and probably a few spills. Being a 1L will challenge you like you’ve never been challenged….. The first year of law school will be one of the hardest years of your life. Law school will profoundly alter the way you think, and view and interact with the world around you. Your 1L experience will change who you are, whether you want it to or not. “ Andrew McClurg, 1L of a Ride, A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School
Monday Morning Message 8.19.19 Welcome to our incoming class
“Study while others are sleeping, decide while others are delaying, prepare while others are daydreaming, begin while others are procrastinating, work while others are wishing, persist while others are quitting” - Anonymous Dean of an Anonymous Law School
Monday Morning Message 8.12.19 Hate Speech and the First Amendment
“The Constitution is a pantheon of values, and a lot of hard cases are hard because the Constitution gives no simple rule of decision for the cases in which one of the values is truly at odds with another….. We want order and security, and we want liberty…..” - Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter
Nineteen minutes before the first 911 call alerted the authorities to a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, a hate-filled, anti-immigrant manifesto appeared online by the same man who killed 20 innocent people.
Can the penalty for his horrific crime be increased because he wrote those hateful words? As repugnant as his words were, is such a penalty enhancement a violation of free speech under the First Amendment?
Monday Morning Message 8.5.19 Cybersecurity
Our hearts break for the innocent victims and their loved ones in El Paso and Dayton. There are countless lessons to be learned from these and other horrific tragedies, and I’ll have much more to say about gun violence, hate crimes, and domestic terrorism in a future Monday Morning Message.
This morning, I want to discuss another threat to our democracy, safety, and way of life – cybercrime. Every day, we are reminded that we live in an uncertain world with an uncertain future.
Monday Morning Message 7.29.19 Bar Exam Inspiration
“Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.” – Mia Hamm
The Ohio Bar Exam is this week - July 30, 31, and August 1, 2019 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus.
Last year’s graduating class raised the bar. Our bar passage rate was 93%, the highest of Ohio’s nine law schools. At Commencement, I challenged our talented 2019 graduates to celebrate what they had accomplished, but to raise the bar again and exceed 93%!
Monday Morning Message 7.22.19 The Sky is Not the Limit
“The sky is not the limit … there are footprints on the Moon!” – Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin , Apollo 11 Astronaut
“ It's time to go back to the moon. It's time to stay. We shouldn't do an expedition. When we do that, we will find it's a very useful place to build all kinds of things we will use to explore the solar system.” - Jeff Bezos, Founder, Blue Origin
Monday Morning Message 7.22.19 The Sky is Not the Limit
“The sky is not the limit … there are footprints on the Moon!” – Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin , Apollo 11 Astronaut
“ It's time to go back to the moon. It's time to stay. We shouldn't do an expedition. When we do that, we will find it's a very useful place to build all kinds of things we will use to explore the solar system.” - Jeff Bezos, Founder, Blue Origin
Monday Morning Message 7.22.19 The Sky is Not the Limit
“The sky is not the limit … there are footprints on the Moon!” – Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin , Apollo 11 Astronaut
“ It's time to go back to the moon. It's time to stay. We shouldn't do an expedition. When we do that, we will find it's a very useful place to build all kinds of things we will use to explore the solar system.” - Jeff Bezos, Founder, Blue Origin
Monday Morning Message 7.15.19 Jump Start the Next Chapter of Your Life
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” –Plato
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our vision is to be the leading student-centered public law school in the nation, but every law school says that they are “student-centered,” so what does that really mean? It means that at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, we’re dedicated to every student’s success…. even before Day One.
Monday Morning Message 7.8.19 Could You Pass the American Citizenship Test?
"The only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen." -- Justice Louis D. Brandeis
We welcomed almost 7,500 new citizens in nearly 110 naturalization ceremonies throughout the country last week in conjunction with Independence Day.
But first they had to pass a citizenship test.