Nobelists, professor's dog help raise money in auction

A newspaper cartoon signed by Nobel laureates, an autographed copy of Michael Jordan's book "Rare Air" and an afternoon with Cass Sunstein's dog helped raise $17,000 last month in the annual Law Students Association charity auction. All proceeds of the event benefit the Blue Gargoyle Youth Service Center in Hyde Park.

Richard Epstein, the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor in the Law School, served as auctioneer for the event. Of the 90 items offered, some of the more popular ones were those associated with the University's Nobel laureates. The item receiving the highest bid was a Chicago Sun-Times cartoon featuring U of C Nobel Prize winners and signed by seven Nobel Prize-winning faculty members; the cartoon sold for $800. Lunch with 1991 Nobel recipient Ronald Coase, Senior Fellow and the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus in the Law School, sold for $420.

Other items included the autographed copy of "Rare Air," which sold for $280; an Encyclopaedia Britannica set that sold for $600; and eight sky-box tickets to a Chicago Cubs game, donated by the law firm of Baker & McKenzie, that sold for $650. A weekend at the summer home of Geoffrey Miller, the Kirkland & Ellis Professor in the Law School, went for $510, and the afternoon with the dog of Cass Sunstein, the Karl N. Llewellyn Professor in the Law School, sold for $80.

In the three auctions held so far, the Law Students Association has raised more than $40,000 for the Blue Gargoyle, which sponsors after-school tutoring programs, job-training workshops and counseling for at-risk youths and adults. Housed in University Church at 5655 S. University Ave., the center serves Chicago's entire South Side.