This year, commencement ceremonies at UCSC took place from June 14-17. Most of the fourth year students whom I taught during the past academic year, and who graduated this year, have now received their diplomas, and have headed back home - or on to their next adventure, including law school, graduate school, travel, and the world of work! Congratulations to them all!
I am, myself, "graduating" from UCSC, at least in a way. I have recently retired, and resigned, and I have thus taught my last class at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I am going to miss teaching!
I have counted up the classes I have taught, and find that I have taught thirty-six classes at UCSC. I taught my first class in 2012, "Environmental Law And Policy." In 2013, I taught two other classes, "Law And Social Issues," and "Introduction To Legal Process." In 2014, I first taught "Property And The Law," and that is also the year that I first taught the "Senior Capstone" for Legal Studies, which I chose to focus on the themes of "Privacy, Technology, And Freedom." In 2019, I taught the Crown College Core Course, focused on "The Ethical Implications Of Emerging Technologies," and in 2022, for the first time, I taught a new course, that I was asked to initiate, "Cities, Urban Planning, And The Law."
I taught at UCSC for twelve years, and taught thirty-six classes, so (on the average) I have taught one class every Quarter for those twelve years, from 2012 to 2024. Most recently, I have typically taught "Property And The Law," "Cities, Urban Planning, And The Law," and "Privacy Technology And Freedom." As I think back, I want to express my gratitude most particularly to the students whom I have gotten to know through these teaching assignments. It has been both an honor and a privilege to have been able to teach - and to learn from - the several hundred students with whom I have been able associate during the time I have taught at UCSC.
Page Smith, the founding Provost of Cowell College, said that eduction is best described this way:
"The pursuit of truth in the company of friends."
That was my experience, exactly, during my time teaching at UCSC, and Page's observation inspired me, at the end of every Quarter, to send students off with three pieces of advice (and, I hope, inspiration):
- "A Piece of Good News," by Ugo Betti
- "Cantares," by Antonio Machado
- "Mississippi," by Bob Dylan
Dylan's song contains the following verse, which captures my feelings, as I think about the students with whom I have been so fortunate to have been associated:
Well my ship’s been split to splintersAnd it’s sinking fast
I’m drownin’ in the poison,Got no future, got no past
But my heart is not weary,It’s light and it’s free
I’ve got nothin’ but affectionFor all those who’ve sailed with me
Sail on my student friends - and let none of us be daunted by any stormy seas ahead!
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