Student Loan Debt

June 5, 2007

Senator Jack Scott, Chair
Senate Education Committee
State Capitol, Room 2082
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: (APLLPI), AB 171 (Beall), Hearing Date June 13, 2007

Dear Senator Scott:

I am writing in support of AB 171 (Beall), Assumption Loan Program for Law in the Public Interest (APLLPI). The APLLPI would give students like me the financial ability to enter into the field of public interest law and give back to our communities.

Many graduating law students are prevented from considering a public interest job because of unprecedented levels of educational debt, which for most law students exceeds $80,000. This cumulative debt is a strong consideration in whether I will be able to pursue a public interest career focused on serving California’s communities most in need of legal assistance. This is especially true when private sector jobs earn a salary that can be three times as much as that of a public interest salary.

Many schools offer only a minimal amount of loan repayment assistance through school funded programs. In addition, very few employers have the ability to provide loan repayment assistance to newly hired graduated law students. The Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Program will ease a grave barrier to entry into public interest law, allowing more students wishing to pursue a career in this area to move forward with this dream.

I strongly support AB 171 and respectfully request your support as well.

Sincerely,

Zahra Billoo
1L at UC Hastings College of the Law

VA Tech Copycat Threat @ Hastings

April 25, 2007

To: Boalt Community

From: Dean Christopher Edley, Jr.

It has been a week since the distressing events involving a Boalt student’s threat —a hoax — against the community at Hastings College of the Law. I am writing to let you know that all our actions following the incident have been taken with the intention of securing the safety and well-being of our community and that at Hastings, while respecting the procedural rights of the student.

On Wednesday, April 25, 2007, the Law School filed a complaint with the U.C. Berkeley Judicial Affairs Office against the law student who claimed responsibility for posting the threat on a website. We, the administrative leadership of Boalt, believe that the student’s action is clearly in violation of a number of regulations detailed in the Student Code of Conduct. The case will be adjudicated by Judicial Affairs according to campus regulations. Those regulations prohibit us from disclosing the name of the student against whom we are proceeding.

Based on the facts as we understand them today, we have recommended expulsion. This is based not only on the intrinsic wrongfulness of the act itself, but also the disruption, turmoil and emotional toll on the Hastings community and, to a more limited extent, the Boalt community as well. I have received ample evidence of this through a great many emails, some of them painful to read.

This incident has once again confirmed for me the strength and qualities of the Boalt community. Even in this challenging circumstance, you have engaged in thoughtful and productive discussions. We should all take some pride in this, imperfect though we are.

Christopher Edley, Jr.
Professor of Law and Dean

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April 26, 2007

To the U.C. Hastings College of Law community:

On behalf of students at Boalt Hall, we express our deep sympathy and sincere disapproval for the unfortunate events associated with the recent threat to the Hastings community.

Understanding the pressures common to our field of study, particularly at this stage in the academic year, we find what transpired to be particularly inappropriate. The collective discomfort on each of our campuses underscores our interdependence as students. We can only hope that this incident will strengthen the bond between our schools in the future. Please accept our sympathies.

Sincerely,
Boalt Hall Students Association

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(Regular updates on the Hastings threat drama are available at Memoirs of Hastings.)

Alhamdulillah.

So, Alhamdulillah I just got word that my Moot Court brief will not be needing revision over Spring Break. Now though, I no longer have any excuses to justify not having started to pack for Louisiana!

BTW a few of us are trying something out. Bloggers gone wild? Your feedback would be appreciated.

Alhamdulillah for the victory in the Senate today! Major props to Muslim Advocates, MPAC and the ACLU amongst others. For those of you out there who don't vote, this should be taken as a sign that we, the electorate, actually do have some power.

@ the Printer

My Moot Court brief is done-done-done! Well, almost, it's at the printer!

The Secular Islam Summit ended last night. Sound interesting? Check out what CAIR Tampa Executive Director, Ahmed Bedier, had to say about it:


The folks at Eteraz.org covered the summit from the inside. I'd say it is the closest thing to balanced I've seen as of yet.

Questions

1. Do men who kill themselves for Allah get 40 virgins?

2. What does Islam say about homosexuality?

Funny. Last Thursday was one of the few times I have felt productive in the sense of Islamic work since arriving in San Francisco back in August.

I received an email looking for volunteers to help out with a field trip some students were taking to the Jones Street Mosque (interesting mosque, 5 minute walk from UC Hastings). I responded expressing interest.

So, after Torts I headed to the mosque. I prayed Zuhr and then went downstairs to the Community Room where the kids were. Sevim was at the front of the room talking to them, so I quietly took a seat in one of the empty chairs at the back of the room. That was short lived. She spotted me a few minutes later and called me up, before heading off to take a well deserved break. There I was, all by myself in front of 80+ high school freshmen. All of a sudden I wished I still taught Sunday School, I hadn't worked with a similar age group since March 2005.

The kids were visiting from a high school in Berkeley. And the portion of the program I was facilitating: an informal Q&A session. Reference the opening of this post for questions 1 & 5, respectively.

. . . Alhamdulillah. . .