To Faculty and Staff:
Welcome to the spring semester! We recognize that it has been a trying time since the onset of COVID- 19 and we appreciate your vigilance in preparing your courses. We thank you for your hard work and preparation on behalf of our students and the Law School. Please know that we continue to adjust our program to effectively address the needs of the community at this time. If there is anything that we in Academic Affairs can do to support your return to the building this semester let us know.
The purpose of this memo is to provide some important information and reminders about the Law School’s academic policies. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you have about the information in this memo or about any other academic matters or issues. You can reach me by e-mail at fareed.hayat@law.cuny.edu
Remote Class Request
In response to the Community’s concerns about the increase of the Omicron variant, Interim Dean Capulong submitted a request to the Chancellor asking him to allow the Law School to go remote for the first two weeks of the Spring semester. Academic Affairs has no authority to approve remote instruction for the first two weeks of the semester. We understand that some professors have elected to hold their classes remote for the first week or two, however, the Chancellor has not approved remote instruction, and classes held remotely will be in conflict with the University’s mandate. Faculty in need of an accommodation based on a medical exemption should submit their request to Elizabeth Johnston in Human Resources.
Important Dates
Classes begin on January 18, 2022 and ends on April 27, 2022. Grades are due on Monday, May 23 for 4L part-time students, 3L full-time students, and 1L part-time students.
Grades are due on Thursday, June 2 for all other students.
Midterms and Finals
Midterms are March 7-18th. Final exams will be given May 4th through May 12th. Please let Midiam Ramirez know when your midterm will be. Please speak to your support staff person regarding your exams, and whether you will be giving any quizzes or midterms. Exams are expected to be administered in class, unless your class has a take-home exam. Please notify us as soon as possible.
Take-home exams and all coursework must be submitted to you before the end of the exam period.
Recording Spring Classes
All spring classes need to be recorded for students who cannot attend classes and have received a reasonable accommodation from Student Affairs, Disability Services. Please contact Student Affairs at Kennedy@law.cuny.edu. The decision to record classes is in response to students’ request. Students will follow the protocol to request accommodations. See Flow Chart below for advising students on acquiring accommodations.
Disability Services manages accommodations and is the official liaison between the faculty and the student. Students with reasonable accommodations will be able to join classes remotely. Each classroom is equipped with a web camera and computer. Faculty members need to log in to their Zoom accounts before the start of each class. In addition, faculty members need to enable the waiting room to manage access to the class. Finally, the webcam needs to be pointed towards the faculty member and/or the presentation slides.
It is important to note that only students who have received accommodations should be allowed to join the class via Zoom. Other students who have accommodations but cannot enter the class via Zoom will be provided the link to the recording. Recordings should not be readily available to all students unless they have an approved accommodation. The goal is to follow the University Policy to provide in-person instruction while making recordings available to students who have accommodations.
The Audio-Visual Department (AV) will manage the class recordings and Disability Services will coordinate sharing the links. Faculty must record to iCloud. AV cannot access recordings made to personal laptops or desktops.
A series of training sessions will be scheduled for those faculty members who need assistance.
Academic Policies
Grades
CUNY Law operates on a letter grade system with interim steps. All courses should be graded on the following scale: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D and F.
Grades will be based on the student’s total course performance. CUNY School of Law requires at least two assessment devices for each course and strongly encourages multiple formative assessments regardless of whether they factor into a student’s overall grade. Please provide Academic Affairs with a copy of your syllabus and the number and type of assessment devices (e.g. in class midterm, take home final, final paper, etc.) on which student’s final grade will be based.
Syllabus and Course Information
Students should receive a syllabus during the first week of classes. The syllabus should include the following information:
- The syllabus should explicitly identify the material and skills students are expected to master for the assignment of a final
- The syllabus should include course-specific learning outcomes indicating which of the Law School’s outcomes students 1) will have been introduced to; or 2) will be competent in, after successfully completing the course. You can find the Law School’s learning outcomes on our
- The syllabus should identify the evaluative devices that will be used to gauge performance. The evaluative devices may include a mid-term examination, a written final examination, a paper or other written or oral assignment, attendance, participation, a simulation component, or any combination of those or other performance
- The syllabus should explain how course grades will be determined. Either the syllabus or a separate writing distributed during the first week of classes should include the due dates and relative weights of the assignments or exams that will count towards the grade, as well as a description of how grades will be
- Any change to the grading process must be provided to students in
- The syllabus should state that the rules and procedures of the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy apply to all courses offered at the Law School. You can include language such as: “The rules and procedures of the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy apply to this course, and all courses in the law school. The full text of the policy may be found in the Student Handbook available on the CUNY School of Law website here.
- Please also review the Student Handbook’s policies on exam requirements. All accommodations must be made through the Student Affairs Office. The full text of the policy may be found in the Student Handbook available on the CUNY School of Law
- Please also refer students to the policies in the Student Handbook regarding exam requirements, including the need to notify Student Affairs in advance if they will be seeking an accommodation or if there are any anticipated difficulties taking exams at the appointed
- As you construct your syllabi, please plan your classes so that the amount of work expected is consistent with our Credit Hour Policy and ABA requirements. Our credit policy can be found here: http://www.law.cuny.edu/academics/academic-policies/credit-hours- policy/CUNY-credit-hours-policy-11-4-16.pdf. As a general rule, two hours of outside-of- class work is expected for every class
Please forward a copy of your syllabus to Vicki Hickey in the Academic Affairs Office.
Examinations
Faculty members must speak to their faculty support staff in the first week of the semester in order to determine type, grading schedules, and policies for the semester. All students are assigned exam numbers. These numbers should be used for any evaluation devices you use except those where the students receive individual, person-to-person feedback from you on their work product (e.g., where draft papers are submitted and the student is expected to meet with the Professor and rewrite the document such as in seminar classes or clinics and concentrations). Faculty support staff is able to assist you in preparing grading sheets.
Collaboration & Academic Integrity
Learning to work collaboratively is a valuable lawyering skill and collaborative learning is an important pedagogical technique, especially for adult learners. At the same time, we recognize the value and importance of independent work and regularly give assignments and exams that require independent work by each student. If you plan to have students work together on an assignment, please consider carefully how you instruct them regarding the scope and boundaries of collaborative work and its interplay with requirements for independent work product and the academic integrity policy. If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. Please let me know immediately if you suspect violations of academic integrity.
Cancelled Classes
In the rare instance where you have to cancel class, please notify your support staff person as well as our office immediately by email or by telephone at 718 340-4370. The next time you meet with your class, please discuss with students the options to make up your cancelled class. Depending on your students’ schedules, you may choose to extend your regular class by an hour or more for one or more days, or you may decide to meet another day that is convenient for your students, or to assign asynchronous work. Please note there are minimum periods of instruction that must be met to allow us to certify that our students may graduate. The calendar is set so that each class has enough scheduled classes, but most cancelled classes will need to be made up. If you have any questions, please contact my office and we will work with you to make sure your class meets all accreditation requirements.
Class Attendance
It is the policy of both the ABA and the Law School that class attendance is required. Please communicate this clearly to your students, establishing the clear expectation that students should attend each class, arrive on time, and stay for the entire class session. Please include your attendance policy in your syllabus. For financial aid purposes, CUNY requires that you verify individual attendance through CUNYFirst. However, if at any time you notice that a student is absent for more than two classes in a row, please let me know so I can begin to follow up with that student’s other teachers and the Student Affairs Office. Absences are an early warning sign that a student may be in distress and is in need of additional support.
As required by Law School policy, I will be visiting each of your classes periodically. Although my observations (and the student evaluations of your course at the end of the semester) inform our evaluation of your performance, the visits also provide a good opportunity for me to observe the performance of our students and to gain an understanding of our overall curriculum.
Sick Leave
The Human Resources Department requests that Academic Affairs assist them in tracking sick days. Please send our office an email right away if you need to miss a class.
I hope that you enjoy the semester and know that we will get through these trying times. I look forward to seeing you all over the next few weeks.
Please don’t forget to send a copy of your syllabus to Vicki Hickey.