It was only a few days ago that we were telling you how stress and mental health issues were going through the roof at Columbia Law School — and students said the administration was making the situation worse by doing things like enforcing a strict grading curve, eliminating reading week, and shortening the academic calendar. But despite a blizzard in the intervening time, tipsters at the law school say the admin has already made strides to help alleviate the pressure cooker students find themselves in this semester.
The good news — and it’s really good news — is that Dean Gillian Lester has responded to the, admittedly harsh, criticism thrown her way in a productive way, and seems dedicated to making real changes to help improve the material conditions for law students. If you’ll recall, the CLS Student Senate had a petition with specific demands like doing away with the shortened academic calendar, getting back a reading week, and making study space available for students taking exams. After a meeting with the administration on Tuesday, the Student Senate reports significant progress on a number of the issues:
You can check out the Student Senate’s full report on the progress of all of the demands on the next page.
The dean also sent around an email (available in full here), acknowledging:
Hearing from you, reading your posts, and listening to your stories, I feel deep empathy for you in recognition of the hardships you have experienced. I want you to know that I hear you, and that is weighs heavily on me how difficult this year has been for so many of you. To help alleviate these burdens, the Law School, working in partnership with the Student Senate, is making several immediate structural changes this spring.
Which also provided a thorough update on the changes at the law school. Tipsters report students are pleased with the developments so far, and are hopeful there’ll be improvement on the the issues — like the strict curve — remaining.
Law school is challenging under the very best of circumstances, and adding in a global pandemic is sure to make it even worse. It’s good to see the law school is — finally — doing what it can to make it more bearable for students.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).