PA Bar Results

Students,

This morning the SBA E-Board met with Deans Solomon, Baker, Ferzan, and Professor Nissen to discuss, among other things, the PA Bar Results.

The Bad News

http://www.pabarexam.org/pdf/statistics/july/j2009.pdf

As you can see, our passage rate is not as high as we would like. The administration and the SBA is working together in an attempt to gather some empirical data which will hopefully help point towards a specific problem which can be remedied. More likely, there are a number of steps which can be taken, both by individuals and by a law school, which will help raise our passage rate in the future.

The Good News

Rutgers-Camden, for both accreditation and US News Rankings, is only judged by the New Jersey Bar passage rate. This is because the largest percentage of Rutgers-Camden students take the New Jersey bar.

See you when the NJ results come out...

Sandy Budd

SBA President

SBA Meeting Minutes, 10/11/09

Hey everyone, Callan here. Can you believe we've reached the halfway point of the semester already? Here's what the SBA discussed at last Sunday's meeting:

- There will be a Red Cross Blood Drive from 8 am to 6pm on Monday, October 19th. The Red Cross bus will (likely) be parked under the 5th St. bridge. Please sign up at the following website for a donation time: http://www.membersforlife.org/pennj/schedule/login.php?sponsorcode=271

- The SBA has been advised of some problems with the facilities, mainly the cleanliness of the old building, and the lack of space in the refrigerators. In response, Shashi Dholandas has been appointed the head of the newly-reactivated Facilities Committee and Ashley Robinson will be assisting him.

- We have been advised by IT that the LCD TV should be coming to the 5th St. bridge relatively soon. It will have a scrolling list of law school announcements about events and meetings, thus addressing many of the advertising difficulties that student groups have been facing.

- A major topic of discussion at the last meeting was the recent PA Bar Exam passage rates from this past July. The Exec Board will be meeting with the Deans this Friday, to discuss what this means for Rutgers Law. One of the ideas proposed by the SBA members was to form a committee with the Deans, and get a survey of recent graduates. This survey would ask whether this summer's Bar exam takers took a prep class, if they took more than one state's Bar exam, etc. Our main goal is to figure out what our school is doing right AND wrong in terms of preparing its students to take the Bar Exam.

That's all I have for now. Until next time!

-Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

1L Representative Election Results

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you all know the results of the 1L Rep Election that took place on Tuesday the 15th. The SBA would like to welcome the following new members:

Full-time Representatives
- Brett Marie Burns
- Christopher Leavel
- Christine Schantz
- Christina Smith

Full-time Alternates
- Nicodemo Fiorentino
- Robert Kadel

Part-time Representatives
- Samantha Foss
- Ryan Peters

Also, the 1L reps attended the budget meeting yesterday and the SBA approved this year's budget.

Until the next installment,

Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

SBA Meeting Minutes, 9/13/09

Hey everyone, Callan again. Here are the minutes from our meeting this past Sunday:

- We still need people to serve on the following SBA Committees: Ethics, Rules & Oversight, Finance, Facilities, Election, and Social. Please contact Dave Tauster at dtauster@gmail.com if you're interested in joining a committee.

- The SBA voted to pass new budget, presidential fund, and standing committee bylaws. These changes have been immediately implemented.

- The SBA hasn't been given a date as to when the 50" LCD TV screen will be installed on the bridge. We are aware that student groups have experienced difficulty with publicizing events. We are working on a temporary solution to this problem, and will speak to the administration about it.

- Dean Andrews is getting close to setting a date for Dean’s Law Day in the Spring. She is attempting to schedule Dean’s Law Day so it does NOT conflict with the UVA Softball Tournament like it usually does.

- University Senator Shashi Dholandas informed Rutgers University President McCormick that there hasn’t been any progress with the Greenscape Project located under library bridge. President McCormick intends to work on this problem with Chancellor Pritchett.

- Lastly, if you are a 1L, VOTE today in the SBA representative elections! To vote, go to the law school intranet >>> student resources >>> online polling system. The polls are open from 9am to 9pm. If you are experiencing technical problems with the voting website, please contact IT and not Shannon Troutman.

The next SBA meeting will be on Wednesday, September 16^th at 12:30pm in rm. E110. At this meeting we will welcome our new 1L representatives and pass the budget.

Until next time,

Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

SBA Election Information for 1Ls

Hello again, everyone! Callan here. The following is from the e-mail that 3L President Shannon Troutman sent out today. I'm putting it here in the blog as well because there is a lot of important information about the upcoming SBA elections:

Elections for 1L SBA Representatives will take place on Tuesday, September 15th. Four full-time and two part-time representatives will be elected. Campaigning IN ANY FORM may not take place before Friday, September 11th. A violation of this rule may result in your exclusion from the ballot.

The following is taken from the SBA Constitution, and describes the role and responsibilities of class representatives:

" e. The Class Representatives shall:
1. Serve on the Council as voting members.
2. Actively seek out and determine the concerns of the students in their
class and convey those concerns to the Council.
3. Be charged with the duty to work diligently and to serve the interests
of all students."

Shannon will be sending out information about how to get your name on the ballot and the voting procedures shortly. If you have any further questions, e-mail Shannon at troutman@camden.rutgers.edu.

SBA Meeting Minutes, 8/30/09

Hey everyone, Callan here.

We had our first SBA meeting of the semester this past Sunday and I wanted to give you a brief rundown of some of the things that were discussed. I will do this for each meeting we hold.

Budget Guidelines
If you are a student leader interested in budget information, please see Amanda Harber's e-mail from August 28th.

If you have deleted that e-mail and need the information, please e-mail Amanda at aharber@camden.rutgers.edu.

Dean's Forums (locations TBA)
- Dean Ferzan’s Academic Forum: September 23rd at 12:30pm
- Dean Solomon's Non-Academic Forum : October 7th at 12:3opm
- Dean Ferzan’s second Academic Forum: November 18th at 12:30pm

SBA Bylaws
Bylaws have been placed on the table and will be discussed and voted on next meeting. If you have any questions, please see one of your elected representatives.

SBA Committees
If you are interested in being on a committee, please email SBA Vice-President Dave Tauster at dtauster@camden.rutgers.edu.

Committees which (may) need students are:
- Safety
- Ethics
- Facilities
- Finance
- Rules and Oversight
- Social

Faculty Committees
Geoff Stark and Shashi Dholandas have been appointed to serve as student reps on the Educational Policy committee.

That's all I have for now. Stay tuned for a new blog post all about the upcoming Fall SBA elections! The next SBA meeting will be held on Sunday, September 13, 2009 at 6pm in the moot court room in the new building.

-Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

Big/Little Program, Riversharks Game on 8/20, Welcome Back Party

Welcome back! I hope everyone's summer treated them well! Now that the new school year is upon us, you'll be hearing more from me via this blog. Here is some news from the SBA:

First, 2L Representative Frank Schultz is organizing the Big/Little Program. For those of you that don't know, 1Ls that opt into the program are assigned a 2L or 3L big buddy to help them with their initial transition to the law school experience. If you are a 1L that would like to opt into the program, or an upperclassmen who has some free time and is willing to meet with their littles and dispense some friendly advice, please send Frank an e-mail at fwschult@camden.rutgers.edu. A reception to meet with the littles will be held Wednesday, August 26, at 3:45 pm for those of you that can make it.

Second, the SBA has secured 250 tickets to the Camden Riversharks game on Thursday, August 20th. The game starts at 7:05pm, but there is an all-you-can-eat-and-drink special “Yuengs and Wings Night” which runs at the stadium from 6-8pm. There is a $15 charge for the special (purchased inside the stadium) which is completely separate from our FREE tickets. We will be attending the Orientation BBQ tomorrow at 12:30pm where we will be handing out tickets to all who are interested in attending the game. If you are not able to be at the BBQ but still want to come to the game, e-mail SBA President Sandy Budd directly at sbapresident@camlaw.rutgers.edu, and he can make arrangements to get tickets to you at the gate.

Third, there is a Welcome Back Party being held at The Victor’s Pub (located at 1 Market Street, facing the Delaware River and Ben Franklin Bridge) on Friday the 21st, starting at 8pm.
For more information, go to the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128559121032

That's all I have for now. I hope everyone has a great start to their Fall semester!

-Callan Wright, SBA Secretary