General Announcements:
Student Organization Fair. The annual Student Organization Fair will
be held on Wednesday, September 5, from 11:30-1:00 (for day students) and from
5:00-6:00 (for evening students) in the second and third floor atriums. All students
are invited.
Disability Resources. Illinois Institute of Technology
provides individuals with disabilities reasonable accommodations to participate
in university activities, programs, and services. Individuals with disabilities
requiring an accommodation to participate in an activity, program or service (for
example, exam accommodations or classroom accommodations) should contact the university's
Center for Disability Resources.
Center for Disability Resources
Illinois
Institute of Technology
3105 S. Dearborn LS 252
Chicago, IL 60616
312/567-5744
disabilities@iit.edu
To Entering Students:
Welcome to Chicago-Kent! For those of you starting your first year, you
chose a terrific law school and we are pleased that you are joining our community.
You have an exciting several years ahead of you.
What My Office Does.
In my capacity as Assistant Dean for Academic Administration and Student Affairs,
I have responsibility for a number of areas that affect your life as a student.
I supervise the Registrar's office on scheduling your courses, administering your
exams, and maintaining your academic records. I oversee the Student Services office
on Orientation, academic and personal counseling of students, and applying the
school's academic regulations. More generally, my job is to make sure that your
life at the Law School remains as free from administrative hassles as possible.
If you think I can be of help, please call me (906-5282), come by my office (Suite
320C), or e-mail me (SSOWLE). If I'm not the right person to help you, I should
be able to point you in the right direction. My door is open without appointment,
so long as I am not otherwise occupied when you drop by.
Orientation
Week. The final schedule for Orientation week will be distributed in the packets
you receive when you arrive on August 20. In addition, the Admissions Office has
created a special web
site for entering students with links to lots of useful information. (A password
is required for access to this site; contact the Office of Admissions if you don't
have a password.)
Academic Support Program. You will receive
information during Orientation about the Academic Support Program (ASP), which
is designed to assist first-year students in developing the skills needed to succeed
in law school. One component of the program is weekly small group sessions focusing
on skills development in the context of each of your Fall doctrinal courses. We
will be sending invitations to selected students before the start of the regular
semester to join these sessions. If you do not receive an invitation and would
like to petition to join them, click
here for the petition form, which is due to me no later than Thursday, September
6. Information about the program and study resources is available on the ASP
web site.
CTA U-Pass Program. Chicago-Kent is a participant
in the Chicago Transit Authority's U-Pass program. The U-Pass is a discount fare
card allowing unlimited rides on all CTA buses and trains. All full-time day students
will receive a U-Pass card valid from August 27 (the first day of classes) through
December 21 (the end of Fall exams). New cards will be issued at the start of
the Spring semester. The charge for the card will appear on the semester bill
for each full-time student. Due to restrictions imposed by the CTA, the program
is not currently available to evening students or part-time day students. For
more details, see our U-Pass
FAQ, and visit the CTA's U-Pass
web site.
To Returning Students:
Welcome Back! I hope you had an enjoyable summer and that you
have a successful and productive year. If you would like to see me with a question,
problem, or suggestion, please call me (906-5282), come by my office (Suite 320C),
or e-mail me (SSOWLE).
Fall 2007 Semester Information. The Fall
2007 Term Information page has most of the information you will need in advance
of the start of the Fall semester - click
here, or go to the main Student
Portal page and click on the Fall '07 link under "Academic term information."
Print copies of many of the documents described below are available outside the
third floor cafeteria.
•Initial Reading Assignments
and Course Materials. Reading assignments for the first week of the
Fall semester are available on the Fall
2007 Term Information page. (Please note: The list of initial assignments
has been updated since it was first, and it may be updated again if we receive
additional assignments.) Not all professors submit initial assignments, so do
not be concerned if there is no listing for one or more of your Fall courses.
If you have not yet returned to school, you may ask the bookstore to hold
your Fall course materials for you until you arrive, or for an extra fee you may
request that the books be mailed to you. If you would like to take advantage of
either of these options, stop by the bookstore or call 312/906-5605. In addition,
you may order your course materials over the Internet by clicking on the Bookstore
link on the Student
Portal page.
•Course Information Updates.
Course information updates for Fall 2007 classes are available on the Fall
2007 Term Information page.
•Revised
Fall Schedule (with Classroom Assignments). A revised copy of the
Fall 2007 Schedule of Classes, including classroom assignments, is available on
the Fall 2007 Term Information
page. Classroom assignments will also be posted in the front lobby later this
week.
•Adding and Dropping Courses.
You may add an open course without special permission until the end of the
first week of classes. During the second week, however, you may add an open course
only with permission of the instructor. You may not add a course after the second
week of the semester. You may withdraw from any course except a required course,
a clinical course, Law Review, Moot Court, or Intensive Trial Advocacy at any
time prior to the date of the final exam or final paper (see § 3.10(c) of the
Student Handbook). There is no tuition penalty if you drop a course during the
first two weeks of classes. You will not receive a tuition refund, however, if
you drop a course after the second week of classes.
•Exam
Schedule. A copy of the Fall 2007 exam schedule is available on the Fall
2007 Term Information page. The Student Handbook requires that you take your
finals at the times scheduled unless you have an exam conflict (as defined below),
or you have a "serious illness or other extraordinary or compelling reason"
beyond your control. A Final Exam Reschedule Form will be posted later this semester
through Web for Students.
A student is deemed to have an "exam
conflict" if he or she has two exams at the same time, or has two or more
exams within 24 hours (e.g., exams at 8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., or at 6:00 p.m.
and 1:15 the following afternoon). A conflict does not exist if two exams
are scheduled exactly 24 hours apart (e.g., exams at 8:30 a.m. one morning and
8:30 a.m. the next morning).
•Trial Advocacy
Section Assignments. If you are registered for Trial Advocacy 1 or
Trial Advocacy 2 for the Fall semester, a list of section assignments is available
on the Fall 2007 Term Information
page. If your section meets at the Daley Center, please be sure to bring your
Kent ID card with you, as you will be required to show it before being allowed
to enter.
•Bookstore Hours. The
Bookstore's hours for the Fall semester are available on the Fall
2007 Term Information page.
•2007-2008
Academic Calendar. The Academic Calendar for 2007-2008 is linked
to this page.
•Consider Taking Appellate
Courts & Procedure. [From Prof. Steinman] All through law school you
read appellate court decisions, and perhaps you plan to litigate. How much do
you know about appellate review: About who can appeal, when, where, and how?;
about the scope of review available before final judgment? Do you understand what
the various standards of review really mean, and what standard the courts will
apply to what issues? Are you sure of the degree to which the trial court record
and the issues you've raised – or failed to raise – in the trial court limit what
you can argue on appeal? Have you pondered when appellate courts feel free to
make new law and when they leave law making to legislatures? or the role of intermediate
appellate courts in lawmaking? Have you considered how the volume of litigation
has altered how appellate courts operate (their internal procedures, their use
of staff, the very structure of appellate court systems), and the implications
of those changes for how appellate counsel must work? Do you know much about U.S.
Supreme Court jurisdiction and certiorari policy, or the role of amicus curiae?
If these questions interest you, consider taking Appellate Courts & Procedure,
Mon., Tues., Thurs. 1:55-2:50 pm. We'll be using new materials by Meador, Baker,
& Steinman.
Spring 2008 Preliminary Schedule. The preliminary
class schedule for the Spring 2008 semester is linked
to this page. Please note: This schedule is only preliminary; there
will be additions to the class list and other changes made before the schedule
is finalized. The final Spring 2008 schedule will be issued later this semester,
when registration for Spring classes will also take place.
Fall U-Pass
Distribution. Fall U-Passes for upper-level students will take place in the
front lobby at the following times:
*Wednesday, August 22,
11:00am - 1:00pm, Front Lobby.
*Friday, August 24, 11:00am - 1:00pm,
Front Lobby.
*Monday, August 27, 11:00am - 2:00pm, Front Lobby.
After
Monday, August 27, you may pick up your U-Pass from the Registrar's office.
All
full-time day students (determined by your official division status, not by the
number of credit hours you take in a particular semester) will be issued U-Passes
valid from August 27 (the first day of classes) through December 21 (the end of
Fall exams). New cards will be issued at the start of the Spring semester. The
charge for the card will appear on the semester bill for each full-time student.
If you registered for Fall classes late or do not have a picture in our ID system,
we will not have a U-Pass for you. Please let us know that you qualify for a U-Pass
and, after we confirm your status, we will order one for you. For more details
about the U-Pass program, see our U-Pass
FAQ, and visit the CTA's
U-Pass web site.
Spring 2007 CALI Award Winners. The
CALI Excellence for the Future Award, sponsored by the Center for Computer-Assisted
Legal Instruction, is given to the student or students who receive the highest
grade in each section of each course. The CALI award winners for Spring 2007 courses
are available by clicking
here. If a section or a course is not listed, that means the professor elected
not to give a CALI award, or we have not yet heard from the professor. Congratulations
to all of you who received an award - you should be proud of your achievement.
London Law Consortium: Brochures Available. Chicago-Kent offers
a semester of legal study in London each Spring semester as part of a consortium
with six other schools. If you are interested in the London Law Consortium for
the Spring 2008 semester, please pick up a copy of the program brochure from Denise
Lang outside my office (Suite 320C). Spaces in the program will be allocated on
a first-come, first-served basis. We must submit to the program administrators
completed applications from all of our participating students no later than Tuesday,
September 7, 2007. If you wish to discuss the program in more detail, contact
Professor David Rudstein (drudstei@kentlaw.edu; 312/906-5354).
Serve
as a Mentor to an International Student. If you are an upper-level student,
consider serving as a Chicago Mentor to help orient one of our international LL.M.
students to life in Chicago and the U.S. This pilot program matches 2L, 3L, and
4L J.D. students with new LL.M. students. As a Chicago Mentor, you would be available
to answer questions about life in Chicago, public transportation, social events,
etc. You could even get together with your mentee for lunch, invite him or her
to a party at your apartment or home, or take them to a Chicago neighborhood festival.
If you are interested in being a Chicago Mentor, send an email to Assistant
Dean Lydia Lazar (llazar@kentlaw.edu) no later than Friday, September 7, with
the following information:
- Your name and email address
- Your year
at Kent
- If there is a language that you speak/read/write
- If there
is a particular country or area of the world that interests you
- Your age
and if you are male or female
- What type of law interests you
- What
neighborhood in Chicago (or suburbs) you live in
- Anything else that you
think would be helpful in matching you with an international student.
Joke
of the Week. George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill: "I am enclosing
two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have
one." Churchill's response: "Cannot possibly attend first night, will
attend second ... if there is one."
Poem of the Week. This
week's poem is "How
to Be a Poet," by "Wendell Berry.
