14 April 2021

The Term for This Is "Grooming"

As you may be Aware, Tiger Mom author and Yale Law School professor Amy Chua got into a bit of trouble around the time of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, because she told women who were applying for clerkships with him that they needed to have a certain look, and that it was no accident that his female clerks, "looked like models."

Given that Chua had a huge role in securing clerking positions for law students there was a bit of a to-do about this.  She was removed from the clerkship committee, where she took the leading role.

There was also a bit of a to-do about her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, was suspended from his professorship at Yale for sexual harassment, and forbidden from having contact with students for a period of time.

As a part of dealing with her husbands behavior, Chua agreed to the following:

Additionally, Chua also agreed “on her own initiative” to stop drinking with her students and socializing with them outside of class and office hours, according to the letter.
On her own initiative in this case means, she was told that her husband used her parties to hit on students, some drunk, and that it needed to stop.

Well, it turns out that Chua continued to throw the parties with first year law students, and as a result we learn that, "Yale Law School Strips Amy Chua Of 1L Group For Repeated Violations".

It appears that attendance at the parties appeared to be pretty much mandatory, and that students complained to the administration, and perhaps to the Yale Daily News, which reported the story:

Law professor Amy Chua will no longer be leading a first-year small group at the Yale Law School next year after students raised allegations that she is still hosting private dinner parties at the home she shares with her husband, suspended law professor Jed Rubenfeld, despite having agreed in 2019 to cease all out-of-class hours interactions with students.

Chua did not respond to multiple requests for comment on her 2019 agreement and punishment, the allegations or losing her small group.

Chua previously agreed to stop drinking and socializing with her students outside of class and office hours in response to allegations of misconduct, according to a December 2019 letter obtained by the News from Law School Dean Heather Gerken to affected parties. But law students met with Law School administrators on March 26 and brought forward documented allegations reviewed by the News that Chua has continued hosting private dinner parties with current Law School students and prominent members of the legal community. Three days later, Chua was removed from the list of professors who will lead small groups, which are intimate groups of around 15 first-year law students led by a professor at the Law School, for the 2021-22 academic year.

………

The News spoke with seven Law School students and alumni, all of whom were granted anonymity due to fear of professional retribution, about Chua’s alleged misconduct and the terms of her punishment. They all emphasized the immense power and influence that Chua holds in the legal community and at Yale, including her prior service on a clerkship committee that helps law students secure their first jobs in the field.

………

Chua and Rubenfeld first came under public scrutiny in September 2018 when they reportedly told female law students that they needed to look and dress a certain way to attain clerkships for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ’87 LAW ’90.

Rubenfeld is currently serving a two-year suspension from the Law School following a University Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct investigation into allegations of verbal harassment, unwanted touching and attempted kissing in the classroom and at his home. Students have since called for Rubenfeld’s permanent removal and demanded greater transparency about the findings of the sexual misconduct investigation into him, but University President Peter Salovey has not released any specifics about Rubenfeld’s case.

A report published in October by students from two groups at the Law School — Yale Law Women and the YLS Title IX Working Group — details a timeline of the case against Rubenfeld, which begins in September 2008 with a report of the “monthly soirees” held at Chua and Rubenfeld’s household. The report also reveals that Rubenfeld’s small group was reassigned in the fall of 2015 after an “informal investigation” from the Law School into his behavior in the classroom and at his house.

I understand that tenure is an important part of academe, but it also appears to me that there are certain lines that should not be crossed, and in this case have been crossed repeatedly.

It's a complete sh%$ show, and Yale should cut its losses,

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