As
I
write
this,
it
is
Tommie
Give
Day,
the
cleverly
branded
annual
day
of
scholarship
fundraising
for
the
University
of
St.
Thomas
in
the
Twin
Cities.
I’m
just
about
to
make
a
small
donation
to
my
alma
mater.
Making
a
donation
to
the
law
school
you
went
to
might
seem
unremarkable.
Indulge
me
for
a
moment,
though.
I
think
it’s
worthwhile
to
take
a
look
at
all
the
things
this
school
has
done
right
to
entice
someone
like
me
who
otherwise
might
be
a
fairly
unlikely
donor
to
this
particular
cause.
Now,
you
might
first
be
wondering
why
I
think
of
myself
as
an
tough
donor
to
snag,
especially
considering
I
had
a
generally
good
experience
at
my
law
school
and
think
I
got
an
education
substantially
better
than
that
I
saw
nearby
peers
getting
at
competing
schools.
Generally
I
think
supporting
education
is
a
good
thing,
and
it
is
even
mildly
self-serving
to
support
the
law
school
you
went
to
as
it
helps
bolster
the
profile
of
your
school
among
potential
employers
(though
alumni
giving
is
no
longer
considered
directly
as
a
metric
in
the
U.S.
News
rankings,
and
you
should
be
looking
at
a
better
law
school
ratings
system
anyhow
like
the
one
right
here
at
Above
the
Law).
All
that
being
said,
a
lot
of
justified
resentment
is
out
there
among
law
school
graduates.
Law
school
is
too
expensive,
law
schools
allow
their
matriculants
to
accumulate
way
too
much
debt,
and
law
schools
pump
out
far
too
many
lawyers
considering
the
number
of
good
jobs
actually
available
to
graduates.
While
I
don’t
have
the
same
concerns
about
debt
as
many
of
my
cohorts,
I
have
a
few
resentments
of
my
own.
You
see,
my
law
school
is
a
Catholic
institution.
This
might
have
been
a
plus
to
me
at
the
time
I
was
choosing
a
law
school,
but
I’ve
been
an
atheist
for
over
a
decade
now.
I
am
truly
revolted
by
some
of
the
things
school
resources
have
gone
to,
like
advocating
to
strip
people
of
their
reproductive
rights.
That
is
a
really
hard
thing
to
get
over,
and
I’m
not
over
it,
and
I
will
never
be
over
it.
That
being
said,
every
single
person
I
went
to
that
law
school
with
who
I
am
still
close
friends
with
has
the
same
opinion
as
me
on
this
stuff.
I
was
helped
by
a
good
scholarship,
they
were
helped
by
scholarships,
and,
thank
noble
Fortuna
(she’d
be
a
really
appropriate
patron
goddess
for
a
law
school,
wouldn’t
she?)
one
can
choose
within
several
categories
where
your
Tommie
Give
Day
donation
goes,
enough
of
which
are
comfortably
distanced
from
anything
having
to
do
with
banning
abortion.
So,
check,
that
is
one
thing
this
law
school
has
really
done
right
in
its
donation
campaign:
allow
donors
to
get
their
money
to
some
needy
students
and
away
from
the
outright
evil
wing
of
the
institution.
The
really
big
win,
however,
the
thing
that
gets
me
onboard
more
than
anything
else,
is
the
sense
of
community
my
law
school
has
cultured.
More
than
one
of
those
aforementioned
godless
close
friends
has
called
me
on
a
previous
Tommie
Give
Day
to
encourage
a
donation.
No
institution
is
a
monolith.
All
institutions
are
made
up
of
people,
and
my
friends
from
law
school
are
some
of
the
best
people
I
know.
The
fact
that
people
I
know
and
respect,
people
who
vehemently
reject
the
most
damaging
aspects
of
Catholic
dogma,
still
care
enough
about
the
school
to
solicit
a
donation
speaks
very
highly
of
what
they
felt
they
got
out
of
their
educations,
and
to
what
we
can
help
provide
to
others
like
us
coming
up
through
the
ranks.
Then
to
a
far
lesser
extent,
there
is
the
power
of
raw
corporate
branding
and
rampant
materialism.
Although
not
all
law
schools
can
get
away
with
this
one
—
my
alma
mater
arose
from
an
undergraduate
university
that
now
has
Division
1
athletics
—
they
should
if
they
can.
I
now
have
a
stocking
cap
and
a
scarf,
with
leather
chopper
mittens
on
the
way,
all
emblazoned
with
the
school
logo
and
colors
as
little
donation
incentivizing
premiums
over
the
years.
Intellectualizing
how
my
donation
might
help
out
some
young
misfit
like
myself
is
all
well
and
good,
yet,
sometimes
you
also
just
want
a
new
hat!
While
law
schools
are
doing
a
lot
of
things
wrong,
this
is
an
example
of
one
of
them
doing
something
right.
I
actually
think
alumni
giving
was
a
valid
metric
for
U.S.
News
and
should
have
stayed
part
of
that
ranking
system
in
some
way.
It’s
an
imperfect
measurement
that
nonetheless
gives
prospective
students
a
pretty
good
idea
of
maybe
one
of
the
most
meaningful
considerations
in
making
a
decision
about
where
to
go
to
law
school:
do
a
lot
of
the
graduates
appreciate
what
they
received
there
enough
to
make
an
annual
donation,
or
is
there
a
high
percentage
of
the
graduates
apparently
harboring
regrets?
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].