Early Wednesday morning Jonathan Kwan, my former research assistant, dropped by. It was good to be able to visit with him. He shared his plans about going back to California and taking the California Bar prep course and the California Bar. He was excited about the fact that his parents were coming from California and his sister from the East Coast to attend graduation. I looked forward to meeting them and wished him well as he leaves us and goes forward into his new life. Thanks Jonathan for all the help you gave me as my research assistant. Keep in touch.

Lunch was delightful. At 11:30 a.m., I took our faculty and staff graduates to lunch. Our graduates are: Mark Morley, Angela Hackstadt, Heather Nelson, and Jason Springman. Unfortunately Angela wasn’t able to join us. I gave each graduate a bottle of champagne and we had lunch at Bordinos. It was a lot of fun and the meal was good, too. I had an open face crab sandwich. Mark had the wrap – marinated flank steak, fried red onions, and romaine lettuce with chunky Gorgonzola dressing and diced tomatoes wrapped in a herb and garlic tortilla and a dessert of tiramisu. Heather ordered the chicken wrap and a dessert of Golden baked apples in a fluffy bread pudding with caramel and vanilla sauces. Jason’s meal was the veggie sandwich – roasted mushrooms, havarti cheese, roasted red bell peppers with dill mousse, sliced avocado, cucumbers and mixed greens on toasted Pullman Bread and for dessert, a flourless chocolate cake with ganache and raspberry sauce. Each of our sandwiches came with homemade potato chips.

After a great lunch with them, I came back for three afternoon meetings- one with Prof. Flaccus, one with Prof. Matthews, and one with Prof. Mark Killenbeck. Prof. Flaccus and I visited about the progress of the courtyard, and some of the challenges that had arisen concerning the landscaping. She has volunteered an amazing amount of time to ensure the success and beauty of the plantings and I know all of us are grateful to her for her efforts.

I also met with Professor Matthews and Mark Killenbeck. They are both working on interesting scholarship. Professor Matthews is in the process of co-authoring a book on payment systems with Professor Steve Nickles. She is also working on a law review article that looks at Arkansas’ adoption of the Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act. Professor Killenbeck has written two entries for the Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions, 2nd ed. The entries cover the Gonzales v. Raich and Morse v. Frederick cases. He also completed entries on Bank of the United States; Spencer Roane; State Rights; and Joseph Story for the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is in the process of completing the second in a series of periodic essays for Historically Speaking, this one on the topic of Chisholm v. Georgia and Textual Fidelity. With all that, he is also working on a Vanderbilt Law Review article entitled, “Justice William Johnson, Nationalist.”

Once the day ended, I went home looking forward to reading the newspaper and relaxing. It’s a busy time of year including the annual faculty review meetings, as well as my own review with Provost Smith.