Celebrating the 'Perfect' Dean

As most of the Harvard community prepares to welcome Drew G. Faust as its next President, some Harvard Law School students are lamenting the selection committee’s failure to appoint their beloved Dean Elena Kagan, who had been considered for the job.

Disappointed Kagan loyalists honored their Dean with a party on Feb. 13. Law school student and Kagan supporter Samuel Flaks says the event “was partly a consolation prize, but really students just talked about all the great things she’s done for this school and about how much they love her.”

Kagan’s accomplishments were celebrated at the party: The room was decorated with skates and tampons to recognize the skating rink she arranged for and the sanitary products she put in bathrooms. Kagan is also praised for the comfortable chairs she put in the library and the coffee she brought to students with early classes. To first- year law school student Jacob K. Jou, it is these “little things” that set her apart as an administrator.

In addition to providing quality recreational space and helping students engage in proper hygiene, Kagan has also won accolades for the intellectual environment she has created at the Law School. Charles C. Simpkins, another student, appreciates Kagan’s role in “diversify[ing] the law school both intellectually and in terms of minorities.”

Simpkins, however, is not entirely convinced by all the Kagan hype. “It would have been great to see how she would have dealt with what some people have coined ‘the imperial presidency,’” Simpkins says. “But there’s got to be something wrong with her. Otherwise she’s just too perfect.”