–From Janet Rae Montgomery, Stanford Law School, Date of event: 1976
At Stanford, the law school was on the semester system, while the rest of the university ran on a quarter system. That meant that our finals periods did not coincide with those of the undergraduates.
MemLib, the undergraduate library, was always loud, but during finals it was a madhouse. Many undergraduates seeking peace in which to study were invading our law library. We had barely enough cubicles in the library to satisfy the law student demand, and the undergrads were messing up our study cubicles—moving our books and notes, etc.
Those cubicles were, after all, our “offices” on the school premises, so we complained and a student “guard” was placed at the entrance to the library. No undergraduates were to be allowed into the library unless they were studying a law-related subject.
One day the guard on duty was a 2L. A very attractive and skimpily dressed undergraduate padded barefoot into the library and started to breeze right by him.
“Wait a minute,” the guard said. “Are you an undergraduate?”
“Yes, why?”
“Well, undergraduates are not allowed in the law library.”
“What?! But I have a big exam tomorrow and this is the only quiet place I can find.”
“Sorry, but I can’t let you in.”
Pouting, and also trying to flirt with the guy, she asked, “Isn’t there some way you can bend the rules?”
He looked over to where three woman law students were watching the exchange, and decided he had better disappoint her.
“No, I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t let you in unless you’re here to study law.”
She brightened. “Oh, I’ve come to study the law of gravity.”
She got in.
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