Assistant Dean Sowle’s Announcements, May 24-28
Summer 2021 Term.
•Add/Drop Period. The Summer add/drop period is 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.
•Canceled Class. Software Patents has been canceled due to low enrollment. It has, however, been added to the Fall 2021 class schedule.
•Initial Reading Assignments and Course Materials. A list of initial reading assignments for Summer courses is available on the Summer 2021 Quick Guide page.
•Classroom Assignments. A version of the Summer schedule that includes classroom assignments is available on the Summer 2021 Quick Guide page.
•Pass/Fail Elections. If you would like to request a summer class for pass/fail, you may do so through your local Web for Students account. The form is in the lefthand menu once you log in. The deadline for submitting a pass/fail election request is Tuesday, June 1, at 9:00pm. Not all courses are available for the pass/fail election. Please review section 2.4 of the Student Handbook for more information.
•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
Notices to Graduating Seniors. If you are graduating this semester, 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 choose to do so. Network accounts: Your network account will be deactivated on Monday, August 7 (the first Monday after the July bar exam). Print accounts: The free printing quotas were reset to zero on Monday, May 17.
•Clearing Out Lockers. We will distribute information shortly about clearing out lockers; we won't remove any locker contents until after the July bar exam. Please 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 9, 2021.
•Access to Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg. May 2021 graduates will have access to Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg services over the summer. Please click here for details, including any restrictions placed by the vendors.
Spring 2021 Grade Submissions. For courses with fixed exams, grades are due four weeks from the date of the exam. For courses with self-scheduled or take-home exams, grades are due four weeks from the last day designated for submitting the exam for the course. For courses with no exam, grades are due Friday, June 11 (four weeks from the last day of the exam period). All grades, therefore, should be received and posted no later than Friday, June 11. You can access your grades by logging into Web for Students, then clicking on the Spring 2021 link under the Grades and Rank heading. Grades are posted as they are received.
Fall 2021 Schedule and Registration. As previously announced, the university anticipates returning to regular in-person classes for the Fall semester.
Please note:
*Software Patents (canceled for the Summer term) has been added to the Fall 2021 schedule (see pg. 4 of the schedule).
*The seminar option for Legislative Advocacy (see pg. 8 of the schedule) was listed with incorrect times; as with the course option, it will meet Tuesdays, 4:00-5:50pm
•Schedule of Classes. The final Fall 2021 class schedule is available on the Fall 2021 Quick Guide page by clicking here, or by going to the Current Students Portal page and clicking on the Fall 2021 Quick Guide link.
•Registration Instructions. Registration will take place from Thursday, May 20, at 9:00am through Wednesday, May 26, at 9:00pm. You may register at any time during that period. After the end of the initial registration period, the registration requests will be processed according to each student’s registration priority. In other words, registration will not be conducted on a first-come, first-served basis. As long as you register during the designated period, you will have an equal chance of being admitted to a class as other students within your registration priority group.
To learn what classes you have been admitted into, you must check the online registration site on or after Tuesday, June 1, at 9:00am. Registering for a class during the initial registration period is no guarantee that you will be admitted into the class – you must check the web site on or after Tuesday, June 1, to learn what classes you have been admitted into.
•Change of Division Requests. Students wishing to request a change of division for the Fall 2021 semester (e.g., from evening division to full-time or part-time day division, or vice versa) should contact me at ssowle@kentlaw.iit.edu.
•Exam Information. Information about 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. We anticipate that exams in most upper-level courses will be self-scheduled or take-home.
•Graduating Students: Reduced Loads and Tuition Discounts. J.D. students graduating at the end of the Fall 2021 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 2021 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 Wednesday, September 8. Important note: Financial aid is not available for any courses you take that are not necessary for you to reach the required 87 credits.
•Consortium Arrangement: Chicago-Kent has a consortium arrangement with three other Chicago law schools -- DePaul, Loyola, and UIC-John Marshal -- 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 not yet received the lists of available classes for the Fall, but will post them as we receive them on the Fall 2021 Quick Guide page.
•Pass/Fail Limitations for Upper-Level Courses. Certain upper-level electives may be taken pass/fail, subject to the limitations described below; required courses, however, may not be taken pass/fail. Sign up for pass/fail will take place closer to the start of the Fall semester. 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 any course taken to satisfy the Professional Responsibility graduation requirement; (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) Financial Services LL.M. courses; (5) 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 my 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 & Transactions. (Students in the Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Program (LADR) and the Criminal Litigation Program are exempt from this limitation.)
•Experiential Course Requirement. Students must complete a total of six credits from an approved list of experiential courses (click here for the list). Most students will already satisfy four of these credits through the required sequence of Legal Writing 3 and Legal Writing 4. However, students who opt for the Legal Writing 4 Equivalency Class (see below) should consult the list of approved courses to determine whether the qualifying activity counts toward the experiential requirement. Law Review does not count toward the requirement.
•64-Credit Classroom Course Requirement. At least 64 of the 87 credits required for graduation must be in courses that require attendance in regularly scheduled classroom sessions or direct faculty instruction. Clinical coursework counts toward the 64-credit requirement, but externships, extracurricular activities (including credits earned for participation in a law journal, moot court competitions, trial advocacy competitions, or as a Teaching Assistant), and courses taken in another academic unit (e.g., the Stuart School of Business) do not count toward the 64 credits.
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 Exams in 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.
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.
Joke of the Week. Never trust atoms; they make up everything.