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Office of Academic Administration and Student Affairs

Asst. Dean Stephen Sowle

Weeks of June 5 and June 12, 2017
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Law Review Eligibility and Summer Candidacy Program. Students may qualify for membership in the Chicago-Kent Law Review either based on academic performance (“grading on”), or through participation in the Law Review’s Summer Candidacy Program (“writing on”).  Section 1.12 of the Student Handbook explains the eligibility criteria for both grading on and writing on to Law Review. (Students who qualify for Law Review based on grades will be notified prior to the start of the Summer Candidacy Program.) This year’s Summer Candidacy Program will run from Wednesday, June 21 through Wednesday, July 5; there will be an informational session on Thursday, June 15, at 5:30 pm in Rm. 270. For further details, see the message, below, from the Law Review’s Executive Board.

Please note: The grade-on and write-on eligibility of first-year full-time Day Division students will be determined based on cumulative GPA and rank calculations that include all grades received in your first year, except that grades received for Legislation, or for an elective taken in place of Legislation, will not be considered.

Message from Chicago-Kent Law Review Executive Board:

Congratulations on completing the school year. This is a great accomplishment, and you should all be pleased with the progress you have made in your careers.  The Chicago-Kent Law Review would now like to formally invite you to participate in the Law Review's Summer Candidacy Program, which is the process for "writing on" to the Chicago-Kent Law Review.  This year, the Summer Candidacy Program will run from June 21, 2017 to July 5, 2017. (See Section 1.12 of the Student Handbook for eligibility criteria to participate in the Summer Candidacy Program.)

First, we would like to explain a little bit about Law Review, our role on campus, and the benefits that Law Review can offer you.  The Chicago-Kent Law Review is one of our oldest and most prestigious student organizations.  The Law Review compiles, writes, and edits articles spanning across all spectrums of the law, and our publications are shared throughout the nation and the world.  Law Review members will read and edit articles submitted from top legal scholars throughout the world, attend symposiums on Law Review topics, and research and prepare their own articles for publication.

As a Law Review Member, students have a number of unique opportunities, including:

- Access to a wide-ranging Law Review alumni network
- Ability to attend a pre-OCI panel with Law Review alumni who are partners and associates at many top firms in Chicago
- Participation in academic symposia and lectures
- Opportunity to become a published author
- Numerous happy hours, dinners, and an end-of-year banquet

The Law Review will be holding an informational session on Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 5:30 pm in Room 270, where members will answer any questions you may have about the Law Review, the Summer Candidacy Program, or the write-on process.  If anyone cannot attend the session, or has additional questions, please feel free to contact Executive Notes & Comments Editor Mike Zolfo at mzolfo@kentlaw.iit.edu or 630-818-0033.  

Thank you,

The Chicago-Kent Law Review Executive Board

Anthony Joseph, Editor-in-Chief
Collin Pochie, Managing Editor
Mike Zolfo, Executive Notes & Comments Editor

Notices to May 2017 Graduates.
 If you graduated in the Spring, please read the information below about your Kent email and network accounts, and your locker. If you have any questions, please let me know.

•Email, Network, and Print Accounts. Email accounts: Your Kent email account is for life. You can continue to use your Chicago-Kent email as long as you chose to do so. Network accounts: Your network account will be deactivated on Monday, July 31 (the first Monday after the July bar exam). Print accounts: Your free printing quota was reset to zero on Monday, May 15 (the first Monday after Commencement).

•Clearing Out Lockers. Please clear your lockers out no later than Monday, July 31. Anything left in lockers after that date will be removed. If you are unable to clear your locker out by that date, please contact me to make arrangements for your locker contents to be set aside for you. Note: This applies only to graduating students. If you are not graduating, you do not need to clear your locker out; you will keep your current locker until you graduate. 

•Student Health Insurance. If you have student health insurance through IIT, your coverage will end on August 11, 2017.

Dean's Certificate for Illinois Bar. We will mail a Dean's Certificate to the Illinois bar examiners for every graduating student after final grades for the Spring semester are received and processed, and we can confirm completion of all graduation requirements. We compile the list of graduating students from the list of those who submitted Applications for Graduation listing Spring 2017 as their final semester. Important note: University policy does not allow the certification of any student to the bar examiners if the student has an outstanding balance owed to the school.

Bar Exams in Other States.  If you plan to take a bar exam outside of Illinois, you should provide the Registrar with appropriate forms for the Law School to complete as soon as possible.

Spring 2017 Grade Submissions. For courses with fixed exams, grades are due four weeks from the date of the exam. For courses with take-home exams, grades are due no later than four weeks from the final due date for the exam. For courses with self-scheduled exams or no exam, grades are due no later than Friday, June 9, 2017 (four weeks from the last day of the exam period). You can access your grades by logging into Web for Students, then clicking on the Spring 2017 link under the Grades and Rank heading.

Fall 2017 Registration. The Fall 2017 Quick Guide page is available by clicking here (it is also available by going to the Current Students page and clicking on the Fall 2017 Quick Guide link).

Add/Drop Period. The registration system reopened on Thursday, May 4 for students to see what Fall classes they were admitted into, and to make adjustments to their schedules. If you did not register during the initial registration period, you may do so now. You may continue to make adjustments to your schedule until the end of the Fall add/drop period on Friday, September 1, at 11:50pm.

Wait List for Prof. Shapiro's Section of Constitutional Law. Although we do not keep wait lists for most courses (given the way we conduct registration), we are keeping a manual wait list for Prof. Shapiro's Constitutional Law section. If you attempted to register for Prof. Shapiro's section but were closed out, and you wish to be added to the wait list, please email Dean Sowle at ssowle@kentlaw.iit.edu.

Wait List for Ethics and Advocacy.  We are also keeping a manual wait list for Ethics and Advocacy. If you attempted to register for this class but were closed out, and you wish to be added to the wait list, please email Dean Sowle at ssowle@kentlaw.iit.edu.

Initial Reading Assignments and Course Materials. A list of initial reading assignments for Fall 2017 courses will be posted no later than Friday, August 4. It will be linked to this page, and will be available on the Fall 2017 Quick Guide page (also available by going to the Current Students page and clicking on the Fall 2017 Quick Guide link).

You may ask the bookstore to hold your Fall course materials for you when they arrive, or for an extra fee you may request that the books be mailed to you over the summer. If you would like to take advantage of either of these options, stop by the bookstore before you leave, or call the bookstore at 312/906-5605. In addition, you may order your course books over the Internet by clicking on the Bookstore link on the Current Students page.

Exam Information. Information about Fall exams -- which exams will be fixed, self-scheduled, and take-home, and the dates of fixed exams -- will be provided prior to the start of the Fall semester. (Under our current procedures, we need enrollment information for elective courses before determining which category they fall into.)

•Graduating Students: Reduced Loads and Tuition Discounts. Students graduating at the end of the Fall 2017 semester who need fewer than the minimum number of hours to graduate may take fewer credits without special permission. In addition, if you will be graduating at the end of the Fall 2017 semester, and will be taking more than the 87 credits required to graduate, you may receive a 50% discount on each credit you take over the required 87 credits. If this affects you, please contact me by email no later than Friday, September 1, and I will arrange for the credit to be applied to your account. Please note: Financial aid is not available for any courses you take that are not necessary for you to reach the required 87 credits.

•Pass/Fail Limitations. Although there is no overall limit on pass/fail credits, there are two types of limits to the pass/fail credits you can take:

Pass/fail election: Students may elect up to 6 credits pass/fail during their entire time at Chicago-Kent. This pass/fail election applies to upper-level elective courses that normally are letter-graded; classes that are only offered pass/fail do not count toward this 6-credit limit. The following classes may not be elected pass/fail: (1) required courses, including Professional Responsibility; (2) seminars, whether or not being taken to fulfill the graduation seminar requirement; (3) courses that have been designated by instructors as ineligible for the pass/fail election (these courses are indicated on each semester’s schedule of classes); (4) courses that are graded only on a pass/fail basis (as noted above), such as clinical courses, Moot Court, and Law Review; (5) LL.M. courses; (6) Trial Advocacy and Appellate Advocacy courses; and (7) courses taken to fulfill the requirements of any certificate program. Fall pass/fail registration will open shortly before the start of the Fall semester (keep your eye on Dean Sowle’s section of the Record). A student taking a course on a pass/fail basis must earn at least a C to receive a P (Pass). If you pass the course but fail to earn at least a C, you will receive a grade of LP (Low Pass).

Clinic limitation: You may take no more than 24 credit hours toward graduation for the following courses combined: in-house clinical courses, externships, and Business Entity Formation. (Students in the Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Program (LADR) and the Criminal Litigation Program are exempt from this limitation.)

Joke of the Week. What’s the tallest building in the city? The library, of course -- it has the most stories.


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