BY
The members of the Locational Options Committee agree with the RECORD that students can provide valuable input regarding the Allston question. (See “To Allston? Involve the Students”). We will hold at least one general meeting for students after spring break (and more if the level of interest is sufficiently high) to provide information about our work so far and to elicit comments and questions. Last week, we conducted a “focus group” with admitted students to obtain some sense of their views, and we have arranged to do another session of this kind during the next admitted students weekend. (We view the perspective of admitted but not yet current students as very interesting in light of questions raised about how a move would affect student recruitment.) And students may be interested to know — given that most of them will be alumni by the time any decision on Allston is made — that we also have talked or will talk to several alumni gatherings this term about the location issue. If the RECORD has constructive suggestions about additional ways to inform ourselves of student views, we would be delighted to consider them. The RECORD and other members of the Law School community should understand, however, that the Committee’s work, which will come to a conclusion this spring, is intended more to open than to close the debate concerning the law school’s location. Our mission is to gather relevant facts, articulate competing arguments and present plausible options — but not to state conclusions or make recommendations on whether to move to Allston. We hope that our work will prove useful in informing the debate about Allston that will continue, in the law school and the university generally, throughout most or all of the next school year.
Elena Kagan
Chair, Locational Options Committee