South Texas College of Law, Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 1, July, 1984 Page: 4 of 12
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Page 4
— ANNOTATIONS
July 1984
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Curriculum
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Grades mean everything
Anyone who thinks all those hours of studying are for the pure ac-
quisition of knowledge is full of a lot more than the study of law. All
that studying is for one thing — grades. Knowledge is merely a by-
product, kind of like smoke from a fire. Knowledge is temporary.
Grades are forever.
Grades can determine your social status, your professional status,
and even your financial status. How many $60,000 associates go to the
bottom one-third of the class? Your grades mean more to you than your
spouse. Spouses can change, grades can't. Between you and me, 1 think
grades are an arbitrary method of determining the true self-worth of a
person. Then again, everyone with a 70.1 average thinks like that. It
seems I always have the right answers, but unfortunately, the professors
never have the right questions. Law school has me so upset over tests, I
had to study three days before I took my physical exam. But before you
can fault the grading procedures you have to look at how grades are
born.
Before a grade is assigned, you have to get with your professor and
go through the act of taking a test. Similar to birth, people have been
known to sweat nervously before screaming in pain. The end result is a
final paper, which like a newborn baby, is unnamed, a privilege reserved
for the professor.
Grading a whole semester isn't easy. It's a long, time-consuming
process hauling all those papers up the proper stairwell. A large class
may take two flights to determine the proper curve. After careful
research, it has been determined that a letter-size paper is less
aerodynamic than legal-size paper. While it is against the Honor Code
to weight your paper, students have been known to use 70 or 80 staples
to keep their finals from falling apart.
Finals in law school are graded on the bell curve. Named after
Pierre Bell, the Father of Mediocrity, the curve guarantees that the
average student will obtain two As in his law school career. Thank God
Olan Boudreaux is gone. I'm sure he has my two As. The curve also
creates a curious phenomenon. Statistically, only five percent of the
class can get an A, yet when polled, 50 percent of a class claim an A
grade. Like a newborn baby, the grade seems to grow as it gets older.
Students always ask me, How can I get good grades in law school?
Here are a few hints:
1. Never sleep with a professor before you get your grade.
Committing yourself before the test gives you two chances
of getting your score reduced.
2. Think like your professor. How can he mark something
wrong he really believes in.
3. Finally, never write more than you know. Information ob-
tained from a Divine Source usually is not Shepardized.
Grades may take a long time to arrive, but like a bad habit, they're
hard to get rid of. Recognize them for what they are — they're not just a
number on a piece of paper, they're the meaning of your whole life.
Honor Code to be updated
By Barbara Pusch
Editor
The recently selected Honor
Court members have "committee-
ized" themselves in order to revise
the not-so-current Honor Code,
according to Morris Weiss, Honor
Court chief justice.
Revisions are necessary, Mr.
Weiss said, because "the current
Honor Code is outdated." The
code has not been updated since
1980.
Mr. Weiss explained that
"we're not creating new viola-
tions, we're tightening it up, mak-
ing it more readable and under-
standable."
Some of the proposed revisions
are to add job descriptions where
needed and to update procedures
in light of the college's admini-
strative changes.
For instance, the Honor Code
describes the duties of the chief
justice and the prosecutor but
does not describe the duties of the
asocíate justices.
The Honor Code makes refer-
ence to signing attendance cards
when "we now have (attendance)
lists," said Mr. Weiss.
Working as a committee has a
number of advantages, he said.
"It's a good forum for discussion,
a way of focusing ideas.
"We can come forth with one
set of suggestions, and get the ap-
proval of the Board of Governors
so they know we are conscientious
about what we're doing and not
just a group of students who
decided to revise the Honor
Code."
When the committee has com-
pleted its proposed revisions, their
proposals will be taken to the
Board of Governors, which is the
Student Bar Association's exe-
cutive board, for their approval.
The final proposed changes
then must be approved by the stu-
dent body by vote.
improvements in our program in
the future."
Dr. Pamela George has been
appointed as full-time, long-term
director of the Legal Research and
Writing I program. Dr. George
will plan course structure and
supervise the program.
Dr. George has a Master's
degree in Library Science and
Juris Doctor degrees. She has
been a full-time member of the
STCL faculty for four years and is
certified by the Texas Board of
Legal Specialization.
Additionally, qualified library
personnel will team-teach the use
of the basic legal source materials.
Sally Langston, Nancy Byrd,
Toni Forrester, Susan Spillman,
Monica Ortale, and Madeline
Coblenz will teach the use of
course materials in their areas of
specialization on a rotating basis
in conjunction with a primary
member of the faculty.
Moreover, the size of each basic
legal research and writing class
will be reduced in order to allow
for individualized, intensive in-
struction. Since class sizes will be
reduced, more sections of Legal
Research and Writing I will be of-
fered, Dean Ensle said.
Dean Walker said that STCL's
new program is the first of its kind
in the country and was proposed
by Dr. George.
By restructuring the program,
the college is emphasizing its com-
mitment to the legal research and
writing program, Dean Ensle said.
"It must be demonstrated to
our students that we are striving
for academic excellence in all
fields and that we attach' special
importance to the legal research
and writing course."
Procedure I and Remedies: In
an effort to ensure adequate con-
sideration of equitable remedies,
Procedure I has been expanded to
four semester hours of credit.
Remedies will remain an extra-
ordinary remedies course, and no
longer will be required for gradua-
tion, according to Dean Ensle.
However, those students who
have completed the three-hour
Procedure I course by the end of
this semester still must take
Remedies in order to graduate.
Criminal Procedure: Criminal
Procedure will be increased to
four hours of credit in the Fall.
This approach is utilized by most
law schools, Dean Ensle said.
The expanded format will en-
able complete instruction in both
Texas and federal criminal pro-
cedure.
Legal Ethics: What has been
known to students as Legal
Ethics, a one-hour, pass/fail
course, has been expanded to the
two-hour Professional Responsi-
bility course, which will be graded
on a numerical basis.
The curriculum committee re-
commended this change "because
a one-hour course does not permit
full development of both the Tex-
as and the new ABA codes, which
is the basis for a separate Bar ex-
amination," said Dean Ensle.
All Texas law schools follow
this format, he added.
Trust Law: In answer to an in-
creased emphasis of Trusts on the
Bar exam and inadequate cover-
age of the subject in Wills, Trusts
and Estates, a two-hour Trusts
course, which stresses Texas law,
will be offered in the Fall.
i: Though students now
will be limited to three seminars
during their tenure in law school,
Dean Ensle stressed the flexibility
of that rule.
"Students have been taking
seminars without regard to getting
a good sound education in law
and preparing themselves for the
Bar," he said.
"But, if the student can demon-
strate he or she has a degree pro-
gram which is sound and ade-
quate, and prepares them for the
Bar examination, the registrar has
the authority to permit the taking
of more than three seminars."
Law Journal, Appellate Advo-
cacy and Legal Research II: The
aggregate amount of hours which
a student will be permitted to take
has been reduced from six to five
for all three courses. As of the
Fall, these courses will be graded
on a pass/fail basis.
"Legal Writing II credits are, in
the opinion of the faculty, being
misused," Dean Ensle said.
"Some (students) are taking ex-
cessive hours of writing courses to
avoid difficult Bar examination
subject courses for the purpose of
maintaining a higher grade point
average.
"Others are using those hours
to raise their averages so that they
may remain in school, rather than
completing primary courses in
normal sequence," Dean Ensle
said.
As to Law Journal, "some
students are accepted into Law
Journal at an early stage as a
result of high grades in a few
beginning courses.
"As a result of receiving high
grades for six hours of Law Jour-
nal, they are able to perpetuate,
unfairly it is believed, a high
average throughout law school,"
he said.
By limiting the combined num-
ber of hours a student may take of
the three courses, and by grading
them on a pass/fail basis, "these
deficiencies in our curriculum can
be corrected," he said.
International Law: The basic
International Law course has been
increased from two to three hours
in order to accommodate an in-
creasing interest in the subject and
to provide adequate consideration
of the topic.
Tuition increases
of a new Legal Research and Writ-
ing I program. "Their salaries will
be raised to that comparable to
assistant professors so we'll have a
library staff that is very well
paid," Dean Walker said.
The Dean said that tuition in-
creases are not allocated to con-
struction or expansion costs at
South Texas College of Law.
The Tower will be completed
and the library will be expanded as
funds for those projects are avail-
able.
Expansion in the next year "will
be governed a great deal by the
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money situation," he said.
"I do not borrow any money,
so it really depends on the fund-
raising."
In the past 12 years, the Dean
has raised $24 million for the col-
lege.
"We already had the money
when we started (construction on
the Tower)," he said. "It was
built all by paying cash as we
went."
Construction funds have been
donated to STCL by local founda-
tions, Dean Walker said.
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Pusch, Barbara E. South Texas College of Law, Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 1, July, 1984, newspaper, July 1984; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144422/m1/4/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting South Texas College of Law.