Barristers' Ball Ticket UPDATE

Hello yet again! The following is taken from Shannon Troutman's most recent e-mail. Please read it ALL carefully before contacting Shannon:

The SBA has worked very hard to be able to extend the number of Barristers' Ball tickets by 75. This accommodates all of the 3Ls and 2Ls on the wait list. Unfortunately, the ticket price had to be increased to $60, but remember that this includes an open bar, dinner and dancing all evening at a fantastic venue. 1Ls on the wait list may still have a chance to purchase tickets, but we won't know this information until Tuesday morning.

I know that some people cannot understand why we cannot accommodate everyone. When we planned the event, we based it on the number of students who have attended Barristers' Ball in recent years. These numbers have hovered around 130, and there was concern that we would not even sell 150 tickets this year. This would have been a major problem, because when you plan a large event, you must guarantee a certain number of people to the caterer. If that number of tickets did not sell, we would have had to cancel the event all together. Additionally, every Barristers' Ball has had a limited number of tickets available-- it's just that those events never sold out, so you never heard about a limit.

As for the date of the event, as mentioned in Shannon's initial e-mail about Barrister's Ball, it is the least inconvenient date during Spring semester. We conducted an informal poll before selecting the date to make sure that there would not be a huge number of conflicts. As evidenced by the historic demand, it does not appear that the date is *that* much of a problem. There is no way to make everyone happy.

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The Impact Booth has a list of the students who will have the first opportunity to purchase tickets off the wait list. These student will also receive a separate e-mail from Shannon. Wait list tickets will be on sale at the Impact Booth starting tomorrow morning (Friday, 3/26) and the first group will have until Monday at 7:00 p.m. to purchase their tickets. At that time, if there are remaining tickets, they will be opened up to the remainder of the wait list.

The Impact Booth is open Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and Monday (9:00 am to 7:00 pm). You can call (856) 225-6211 and purchase your tickets over the phone.

Finally, if you have an question or concerns, Shannon specifically requests that you e-mail her at pres3L@camlaw.rutgers.edu. If she doesn't know there's a problem, she cannot address it. Also, if you know someone who has not been receiving these e-mails, please tell them to check their Camden e-mail account and their spam folder.

Hoping this is the last time you hear from me today,

Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

SBA Election Information

Hello all,

Sorry about the double posts today, but it's that time of the year.... where I must step down from my post as your faithful scribe and welcome the next SBA Secretary. It's election season! Below is important information about running for a SBA position:

Elections for 2010 - 2011 SBA positions will take place between Tuesday, April 6th and Friday, April 9th. If you are interested in running for a position, you MUST fill out an Affidavit of Candidacy (attached to the e-mail you received from the 3L President) and turn it in before the deadline. Candidates are not allowed to campaign in any form or manner until the date designated below.

Also attached to the e-mail from Shannon is the SBA Constitution, which contains the descriptions of each of the positions, as well as election guidelines. Side note: if you are interested in running for SBA Secretary and want to speak to me about what I do, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at ckwright@camden.rutgers.edu. It would be a pleasure to speak with you.

If you would like to run for two positions (example: if you run for an e-board position and lose, but would like to run for for a rep position as well), that is allowed.

The timeline for the elections is as follows:

1. Tuesday, March 30th

- Affidavits of Candidacy due in the 3L lockbox by 6:00 p.m. The lockbox is located on the second floor of the old building, near the printer.

2. Wednesday, March 31st

- Meeting for all candidates to go over campaign rules and regulations. ALL candidates MUST attend. Failure to attend may result in your name being removed from the ballot. The meeting will take place at 1:30 p.m. in room 204 of the old building.

3. Thursday, April 1st through the end of elections

- Campaigning begins. Any campaigning before this date may result in your name being removed from the ballot. Failure to follow all campaign rules may result in your name being removed from the ballot. Reminder: leaving or posting fliers/posters in the law school is NOT permitted.

4. Monday, April 5th

- Candidate Forum: students will have the opportunity to ask candidates

questions at 1:30 p.m. in Room 204 of the old building.

5. Tuesday, April 6th

- Voting begins for the SBA e-board (President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary), as well as the 3L President. Polls will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

6. Wednesday, April 7th

- Runoff election, if necessary. Polls open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

7. Thursday, April 8th

- Voting for all other positions such as:

- University Senator

- ABA / LSD representative

- 3L class representatives (3 positions, 2 alternates)

- 2L class representatives (4 positions, 2 alternates)

- Part-time class representatives (2 positions, 1 alternate)

- Polls open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

8. Friday, April 9th

- Runoff election, if necessary. Polls will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

All election results will be announced via e-mail by Shannon Troutman. Any questions or concerns should be forwarded to her at pres3L@camlaw.rutgers.edu.

Lastly, there will be a SBA meeting this Sunday at 6 p.m. in the moot courtroom.

That's all I have for now.

-Callan Wright, SBA Secretary

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