The Student Bar Association encountered difficulties while trying to pass a referendum to encourage student-faculty communication and increase bar passage rates.
The goal of SBA, according to former President Desmonde Bennett, was to gather the suggestions and opinions of students, summarize the information, and present it to the faculty for consideration.
Philip De Paula, SBA treasurer, said, “The administration enacted a change whereby 1L students in the bottom 25 percent of their class, instead of taking a Moot Court class, take Principles of Legal Analysis, intended to give them the skills to succeed in law school, and geared towards eventual bar passage.”
Former SBA Vice President Brittney Bullock objected to this change, concerned that it would upset students placed in the PLA class.
Because those in the PLA class would be unable to participate in Moot Court, they would also be unable to participate in Brief Relief, an annual party held to commemorate the Moot Court students turning in their final assignment.
Bullock believed there should not be a party for Brief Relief since it would not target all 1L students.
“To say that I was the sole cause of no Brief Relief is a lie. It was a majority board decision,” Bullock said. “I’m not saying that no 1L cared about Brief Relief; however, I will say that not one single 1L came to me to say anything.”
After holding a town hall meeting and finding that students approved of the PLA class and overall curriculum change, the majority of SBA Executive Board members decided they had misgauged students’ opinions on issue.
According to 3L representative Hope Revelle, some law students took the issue personally, while others saw no issue at all.
“This was reflected in the debate over how the referendum should be worded,” Revelle said. “It’s difficult to write even one sentence that a room full of students will agree on.”
Bennett said that SBA recognizes that the curriculum is a work in progress.
“We encourage the faculty to consider additional curriculum changes that would achieve our common goal of increasing the bar passage rate,” Bennett said.
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