Hastings has problems.

Last week there was a big brouhaha with the wireless internet on campus.

Our internet has been crappy for a while, and then they announced that they were going to reduce the bandwidth for students in order to increase it for faculty. There was a huge student outcry, even an online petition, and a few days later they reneged and promised to buy more bandwidth. The biggest complaint was that this important decision had been done with no warning and no student input. This has been a trend at Hastings; important decisions are made with no student input.

Literally a few days later, the new US News & World Report rankings came out, and Hastings has slipped a few more spots. Coincidence, no, not really. Student happiness may not be ranked, but alumni contributions are a big part of a school's ranking. Hastings alumni contributions are very low for a top-tier law school. The reason for that isn't because Hastings grads aren't successful. They are successful, they just don't want to give to a school that treated them poorly for three years. Same problem with my undergrad, UCSD.

Another thing that drags down Hastings' rank is the poor student-to-faculty ratio. It's all part of a bigger pattern: the administration doesn't feel the need to spend money on the students. The students consistently come last. Somehow, they forget that this is a professional school. There's no undergrad, and there's not a lot of research. (Sure there are a few journals, but that's not why professors come to Hastings.) The students are why this school is here, and yet our needs never come first. The result: the administration is shooting themselves in the foot. This school will never get the acclaim it deserves as long as the administration doesn't take care of the students.

J