Assistant Dean Sowle’s Announcements, April 26-30
Academic Calendar Reminder. Please note the following dates for the closing period of the semester:
| Monday, April 26 | Monday classes meet (Dr. King's Birthday make-up |
| Tuesday, April 27 | Tuesday classes meet (Study Day make-up) |
| Wednesday, April 28 | Monday classes meet (Study Day make-up) |
| Thursday, April 29 | Thursday classes meet (Study Day make-up) |
| Friday, April 30 | Friday classes meet (Study Day make-up) (last day of classes) |
| Saturday, May 1 - Tuesday, May 4 | Read period |
| Wednesday, May 5 - Friday, May 14 | Final exams |
Teaching Evaluations. Teaching evaluations will be done online through the local Web for Students system for all classes, except for clinical classes (we will contact clinical students separately about submitting evaluations). The forms will be available from Monday, April 19. through the last day of classes, Friday, April 30. The forms can be accessed on the local Web for Students system. Once you log into Web for Students, click on appropriate link(s) in the lefthand menu. (There are specialized forms for Legal Writing 2, 3, and 4; all other classes are under the General Course Evaluations link.)
Teaching evaluations are anonymous and will not be available to professors until grades are turned in. Instructors will review the responses to improve the quality of their instruction and courses. The evaluations are also considered as one important factor in tenure, promotion, and compensation decisions for full-time faculty and are used as a factor in determining the effectiveness of part-time instructors.
Deadline to Revoke Spring 2021 Pass/Fail Elections. Students may revoke pass/fail elections and revert to standard letter grading through Thursday, April 29, 5:00pm. To revoke a pass/fail election, go to your Web for Students account and navigate to the appropriate link in the lefthand menu.
Spring 2021 Final Exams. The exam period will run from Wednesday, May 5, through Friday, May 14. To find your exam schedule, go to your Web for Students account and navigate to the "Spring 2021" link under the "Schedule" heading. Spring exams numbers will be posted at a later date (note: the exam numbers currently showing are for midterm exams, not final exams). In addition to the information provided below, please also see the Exam Quick Guide and, for complete information, General Procedures for Exams. If you have any questions, please contact exams@kentlaw.iit.edu.
•Types of Exams. There are four types of exams:
· Fixed Exams: The date and time are listed on your Exam Schedule in Web for Students.
· Floating Fixed Exams: For most first-year exams, there is a two-day window in which the exam can be taken. Please see the Spring 2021 Schedule of Classes for information regarding the open period for your course.
· Self-Scheduled Exams: Self-Scheduled exams can be taken at any time during the exam period. You will choose the date and time that you wish to take the exam. You do not need to preschedule the exam time.
· Take Home Exams: These are exams that are 24 hours or more. Please contact your professor regarding the exam parameters.
•Exam-Taking Details. This semester, most courses will have self-scheduled or take home exams, and all exams will be taken at home. The following instructions are applicable to all exams:
· You will use the Examsoft student portal (www.examsoft.com\chicagokentlaw) to download your exam questions and to upload your exam answers.
· You only need internet access to the Examsoft website- you DO NOT need to download any software, as you will not be writing your exam answer in Examplify.
· You can use any word processing program that you like, but all exam answers must be uploaded as a PDF.
· If you are handwriting your exam answers, you can submit a PDF document of your handwritten exams answers.
· Student conduct during examinations is subject to the Chicago-Kent Code of Conduct, which is set forth in Section XIX of the Student Handbook. With respect to communications between students during exam period, please note that, once you have taken the exam, you are not allowed to communicate with anyone about any aspect of the exam.
•>Requesting Exam Space in the Law School Building. Students who need a quiet place to take exams or who have poor Internet connectivity at home should complete this form to request use of a room in the building.
•Exam Conflict/Reschedule Requests. The Student Handbook requires that you take your final exams 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. If you have an exam conflict or believe you have other reasons justifying the rescheduling of an exam, please complete the Final Exam Reschedule form. To complete the form, log into Web for Students and navigate to the Final Exam Reschedule form in the lefthand menu. We will contact you to arrange an alternate date for you to complete your exam.
Summer 2021 Schedule and Registration.
•Add/Drop Period. The Summer add/drop period is now open and will run through Tuesday, June 1, at 9:00 pm. You may add open courses or drop courses without penalty through that date. The Summer Schedule of Classes is available on the Summer 2021 Quick Guide page.
•Consortium Arrangement. Chicago-Kent has a consortium arrangement with three other Chicago law schools under which students can take selected courses at the other schools. Under the consortium arrangement, students pay tuition to their home school, and grades transfer (not just the credits) and are counted in your GPA. We have now received the UIC/John Marshall course list, in addition to the Loyola course list (posted previously). We are still awaiting DePaul's course list. Please contact me as soon as possible if you are interested in taking a class through the consortium. Requests for available spaces will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note: Consortium courses may count toward a Chicago-Kent certificate program only with permission of Dean Sowle and the director of the relevant certificate program.
•Course Fee. A course fee of $350, in addition to regular tuition, will be charged to full-time students for each regular classroom course taken during the Summer term, including any courses taken through our exchange program with DePaul, Loyola, UIC/John Marshall, and including classes taken through other ABA-accredited schools. The fee does not apply to part-time students; it also does not apply (for any student) to clinical courses, externships, or Independent Research credits pursued at Chicago-Kent; and does not apply to courses taken through Chicago-Kent exchange programs with universities abroad. If you qualify for financial aid loans, those can be used to cover the cost of the fee; scholarships, however, cannot be used to cover the cost of the fee. Notice to part-time students: You may see the course fee on your account if you take a regular classroom course; a credit equal to the fee will be applied to offset the charge at the end of the Summer add/drop period.
•Petitioning to Take Summer Classes All-Online. As with the past two semesters, you may petition to take Summer 2021 classes remotely if you have health or other pandemic-related reasons for doing so. Please complete this form if you would like to request taking Summer classes online.
•Intensive Trial Advocacy. We offer two sections of Intensive Trial Advocacy 1 each year -- one in August, the week before Fall classes start, the other in January, the week before Spring classes start. Registration for the August section will take place as part of Fall 2021 registration (not as part of Summer registration).ᐧ
Fall 2021 Semester. As previously announced, the university anticipates returning to regular in-person classes for the Fall semester. We now expect to issue the Fall schedule of classes during the week of May 3. In order to avoid distracting students with course scheduling during read period and exam period, registration will not take place until sometime during the week after the end of the Spring exams. Information for first-year students on upper-level requirements and course planning is available below.
Law Review Summer Candidacy Program. [Message from the Law Review editors:] The Chicago-Kent Law Review would like to invite any students interested in joining the Law Review to attend one of our Summer Candidacy Program information sessions:
- Tuesday, April 27 at 12:30 PM
- Wednesday, April 28 at 3:30 PM
- Friday, April 30 at 5:30 PM
- Sunday, May 16 at 2:00 PM
- Wednesday, May 19 at 6:00 PM
During these sessions, we will cover Bluebook basics as well as how to approach the summer write-on process. All sessions will be held via Zoom and you do not need to attend more than one session. Please see the attached flyer for the meeting links.
As a reminder, the following students will automatically be invited to join the Chicago-Kent Law Review based on their academic performance:
- Full-time day division students who have completed their first year and rank in the top 7% of the full-time day division class
- Evening division and part-time day division students who have completed their first year and rank in the top 7% of the combined evening division and part-time day division class
- Evening division and part-time day division students who have completed their second year and rank within the top 7% of the combined class of first-year day students and second-year evening and part-time day students
The other method for joining Law Review is through participation in the Summer Candidacy Program. Because the Law Review is no longer requiring applicants to meet a minimum cumulative GPA, the Summer Candidacy Program will begin before Spring 2021 grades are released. This is a change from past years. This means that first-year rankings will not be available prior to the start of the write-on process. For this reason, everyone is encouraged to participate in the Summer Candidacy Program regardless of the potential to fall within the top 7%.
If there are any questions or concerns, please reach out to the incoming Executive Notes & Comments Editor, Elizabeth Jedrasek (ejedrasek@kentlaw.iit.edu), or refer to § 1.12 of the Student Handbook for more information about eligibility requirements.
Dean's Certification Form for Illinois Bar. We will mail a Dean's Certification form 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 2021 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 Forms for Other States. If you plan to take a bar exam outside of Illinois, you should provide me (at ssowle@kentlaw.iit.edu) with the appropriate form(s) for the Law School to complete as soon as possible.
Classrooms for Remote Classes. As previously announced, we are making classrooms available on-site for remote classes in situations where students do not have sufficient time to travel from home to school (or vice versa) in between the remote class and an on-site class they have the same day. A list of classrooms for the week of April 26 is available by clicking here. Please note: These rooms should only be used by students who requested a room (we have notified all such students by email). Given classroom capacity limitations, students not already approved may cause the room to exceed the available capacity.
Counseling Services. This is a reminder that the university provides counseling services free of charge for students. Click here for details on the available resources, including individual counseling through Skylight Counseling Services.
In addition to resources available through the university, the Lawyers Assistance Program also provides assistance to law students. LAP provides free and confidential assistance to members of the Illinois legal community, including students, and can help you with issues of addiction, stress, anxiety, depression, focusing, worries about the character and fitness process, and having a successful first-year transition. Click here for more information about LAP and the services it provides.
Information for 1L Students on Upper-Level Course Selection and Requirements. In response to inquiries and comments recently, we are providing (somewhat earlier than usual) a guide we publish annually that provides detailed information on graduation requirements, upper-level course selection, and related subjects. The guide, entitled "Where Do We Go From Here? Information for Students Entering Their Second Year," is available by clicking here.
If you signed up for the Faculty Advisor Program, you should have received an email last week with the name of your advisor. If you didn't receive an email, please contact Jenna Abhijeet at jabhijeet@kentlaw.iit.edu. Faculty advisors are available to help by discussing with you your approach to studying, career options, course selection for upcoming semesters, and other law school matters that may interest or concern you.
Joke of the Week. An optimist sees a glass as half full. A pessimist sees a glass that's half empty. An engineer sees a glass that's twice as big as it needs to be.