Barristers' Ball Wait List

The SBA is currently working on a solution to get students off of the wait list for Barristers' Ball. Getting people off the wait list involves adjusting the budget, negotiating with the National Constitution Center, and raising more funds (student fees are not being used).

In previous years (even when there was no conflict with holidays, the MPRE, or even when it was held at the Camden Aquarium), attendance has never exceeded 150 people. The demand for tickets this year was completely unprecedented. In fact, there was even debate within the SBA as to whether we would sell 150 tickets.

Students that are concerned with this situation are invited to e-mail me at ckwright@camden.rutgers.edu or 3L president Shannon Troutman at pres3L@camlaw.rutgers.edu. Updates are forthcoming.

-Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

SBA Meeting Minutes, 3/8/10

Hello everyone, Callan again. Here's a recap of what happened at last Sunday's SBA meeting.

- At the last meeting, we decided to table the discussion about inviting faculty members to Barrister's Ball so we could poll the students about it. Over the last two weeks, members of the SBA spoke to students, received e-mails, and had discussions on Facebook. The student response was overwhelmingly negative, so the SBA voted to not invite faculty members to Barrister's Ball. And on that note, please make sure you buy your Barrister's Ball tickets! They will only be available at the lower, $50 price to until the end of this week. Further details can be found at the Facebook page.

- SBA 1L representative Ryan Peters looked into the shuttle issue raised at the last meeting. According to Ryan, several years ago, the undergraduates formed a committee to determine how the shuttle should be operated. They decided that the campus center was equidistant to the other buildings on campus and was the most convenient stop for everyone. The university does not want to make an extra stop at the law school because it would throw off the shuttle schedule. There are two shuttles that run in seven minute intervals. To add a stop and keep the shuttles running on time, the university would have to run a third one. The cost of hiring another driver and running a third shuttle would be too great. Sorry all you commuters.

- One of the biggest problems the SBA is facing is that student groups are scheduling too many high-profile speaker events on the same days. We understand that speakers may only be available on certain days, but this is leading to fragmented student attendance at speaker events. Nothing upsets a speaker more than taking time off from work, and speaking to only a handful of students. The SBA is currently working on a solution to this problem. In the meantime, we ask that all student groups plan their speaker events well in advance. Also, when reserving a room, check to see what events are happening on that day and see if there are too many similar events scheduled.

- The refrigerators in the locker area will be cleaned out every Friday afternoon. Anything left in them will be thrown out. So unless you want to lose your super-cool Ghostbusters lunchbox, or those delicious leftovers from Mom, make sure you get your stuff out of there. If you have any questions, please contact Facilities Committee chair Shashi Dholandas at skashi83@camden.rutgers.edu.

- We have been told by Dean Baker that cleanliness issues in specific bathrooms and classrooms cannot be addressed unless she receives a complaint from a member of the student body. If you feel that an area of the law school is not being properly maintained, please let Shashi know.

And yet again, BUY BARRISTER'S BALL TICKETS!!!

Until next time,

Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

SBA Meeting Minutes, 2/21/10

Hello everyone! Here's a summary of what took place at yesterday's SBA meeting:

- Student Adam Rosen attended the SBA meeting and asked if there was any way that the commuter shuttle could make a stop at the law school, in addition to 3rd St. Now that 5th St. has reopened, this is something the SBA can look into. Many thanks to Adam for coming to the meeting and voicing his opinion! The SBA encourages students to attend meetings and voice their concerns.

- 3l President Shannon Troutman informed the SBA that some of the faculty is interested in attending Barrister's Ball. Faculty have not attended in recent years, but have in the past. One argument that can be made in favor of the faculty attending is that we could make Barrister's Ball a more professional, inclusive law school event like the Mary Philbrook Awards. The other argument is that we already have plenty of professional events and banquets that the faculty attend, and there is something to be said for having a student-only celebration. The SBA would like to stress that faculty members will not be taking seats from students. We would like student feedback on this issue. If you have questions or concerns, you can e-mail Shannon at pres3l@camlaw.rutgers.edu or myself at ckwright@camden.rutgers.edu.

- Reminder: Barrister's Ball will be held April 3rd. Tickets are on sale now, and the event is open to all students! For more info, please check the Facebook event page.

- The next SBA meeting will be held on March 7th at 6pm in the moot courtoom. We have tabled the debate about Barrister's Ball until then. If you have any questions or concerns, please attend! We love student feedback.

Until next time,

Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

SBA Meeting Minutes, 1/24/10 and 1/31/10 and Dean's Breakfast

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay, but here is a recap of what took place during our first two SBA meetings and at our first Dean's Breakfast of the semester:

- On January 24th, the SBA voted to approve the Spring Budget. Many thanks go out to our treasurer, Amanda Harber, for skillfully handling the complicated budgeting process. Also, I'd like to thank our student groups for adapting well to the new budgeting guidelines, coming up with some great programming ideas for the semester, and devising creative ways to cut costs.

- The SBA has some information about the July 2009 NJ bar exam results. First of all, New Jersey only releases a list of people who passed the bar. It is up to the individual law schools to locate their graduates in the pass list. This can often be difficult due to people who got married during or after law school, and may have different names than the ones the school has on file. Once the law school figures out how many of their graduates passed, they then self-report the statistics to the ABA. Our school is still working on calculating exact number, but estimates that we had about a 85% passage rate.

- Dean Solomon informed the e-board that the school would like to continue offering TA jobs to graduates, like they did last year. Dean Solomon is aware that the job market for law students is still somewhat bleak, and this program seemed to help out those students that took part in it last year. However, the graduate TA program is dependent on how much the school can fund raise, so more details will be revealed in the future.

- Just a reminder: the school does NOT rank its students. Any calculation of rankings is done solely at graduation, and only to determine which students graduate "with honors" and "with highest honors".

- Barrister's Ball will be held on April 3rd at the National Constitution Center. 3L President Shannon Troutman really outdid herself, and his should be an excellent event. Further event details and ticket info can be found at the Barrister's Ball Facebook page.

That's all I have for now. Expect a blog with minutes from the February 20th meeting of the SBA very soon!

-Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

SBA Meeting Minutes, 10/26/09 and 11/8/09

Hey everyone, Callan again. I guess I don't have to tell you that we're at the point in the semester where our schedules begin to get crazy. With that in mind, I have some highlights of the topics the SBA discussed in our last two meetings:

- The SBA will be forming a committee in conjunction with the faculty to determine what our July test takers did right and wrong in preparing for/taking the PA Bar Exam. We hope to create a survey for recent graduates to find out whether or not the student took a bar prep course, what their GPA was, etc. We want to find some patterns and get some answers regarding where we can make improvements and how we can raise our PA bar passage rate. Also, Dean Baker is in the process of crunching numbers and getting statistics about the NY and NJ bar results.

- The Ethics Committee has written a new, more comprehensive honor code and is currently in the process of getting the code approved by the law school faculty and Rutgers University. Jen Budd, the Ethics Committee Chair, is working out a system for getting student feedback on the new code. If you have any questions about the code, please e-mail Jen at jbudd@camden.rutgers.edu

- The 1L SBA representatives have been holding forums to address their classes concerns. They have a Facebook group where any member of the Class of 2012 can post questions.

- The Facilities Committee has been re-activated to address recent concerns about the cleanliness of the old building and refrigerator space in the new locker area. The Facilities Committee has set a tentative time for when the refrigerators will be emptied- Fridays at 3:30. When this becomes official, I will let you all know. If you have any facilities related questions, please e-mail the committee chair, Shashi Dholandas at skashi83@camden.rutgers.edu

- I have recently become a student representative on the Educational Policy Committee. If you have any questions or concerns about credits, classes, or anything else the Committee may cover, please e-mail me at ckwright@camden.rutgers.edu

- Lastly, there will be an Academic Dean's Forum held on Wednesday, November 18th at 12:30pm. Look for the location in a future e-mail.

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

- Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

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