General
Announcements:
Student Organization Fair. The annual Student
Organization Fair will be held on Wednesday, September 3, from 11:00-1:00 (for
day students) and from 4:00-6:00 (for evening students) in the second and third
floor atriums. All students are invited.
Disability Resources. Chicago-Kent
College of Law provides individuals with disabilities reasonable accommodations
to participate in law school 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 Jenna Moroney, Chicago-Kent's Director of Student Services (6-5282 or
jmoroney@kentlaw.edu or office 310A).
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 (320C), or e-mail me (ssowle@kentlaw.edu). 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 18. 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
Friday, August
29. 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 25 (the first day of classes) through December 22 (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 2008 Semester Information. The Fall
2008 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 '08 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
2008 Term Information page. (
Please note: The list of initial assignments
has been updated since it was first posted, 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 2008 classes are available on the
Fall
2008 Term Information page.
Revised
Fall Schedule (with Classroom Assignments). A revised copy of the
Fall 2008 Schedule of Classes, including classroom assignments, is available on
the
Fall 2008 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 2008 exam schedule is available on the
Fall
2008 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 2008 Term Information
page.
Please note: If your section meets at the Daley Center, please
be sure to bring your Kent ID card with you, as you may 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
2008 Term Information page.
2008-2009
Academic Calendar. The Academic Calendar for 2008-2009 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? Would you like to hear directly
from a Seventh Circuit judge about how things work in this circuit? 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. 10:40-11:35 pm. We'll be using materials
by Meador, Baker, & Steinman.
Spring 2009 Preliminary Schedule.
The preliminary class schedule for the Spring 2009 semester is available on the
Fall 2008 Term Information
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 2009 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:
*Thursday, August 21,
11:00am - 1:00pm, Front Lobby.
*Friday, August 22, 11:00am - 1:00pm,
Front Lobby.
*Monday, August 25, 11:00am - 2:00pm, Front Lobby.
After
Monday, August 25, 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 25 (the first day of classes) through December 22 (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 2008 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 2008 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).
Joke
of the Week. "Why do they call it a 'building'? It looks like they're
finished. Why isn't it a 'built'?" (Jerry Seinfeld)
Poem of the
Week. This week's poem is
"How
to Be a Poet," by "Wendell Berry.