Eric Hall '18
(he/him/his)
Managing Editor
Last Tuesday, October 24th, the Student Bar Association voted unanimously to endorse an open letter to Dean Dugas and the Student Records Office. The letter, printed in its entirety below, strikes a cooperative tone in asking the SRO to make changes that would make class registration easier and more organized. Although the suggestions are modest, many of the letter’s signers expressed general frustration with the SRO, and are hopeful that it will open the door to more accommodating academic and class registration policies.
The letter’s primary sponsor, 3L Pheobe Willis, has offered the letter in her mailbox for students to sign until Thursday evening. So far 170 students, and the SBA have endorsed it. The letter reads as follows:
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ech8vm@virginia.edu
Dear Student Records Office,
In the spirit of cooperation, and with sincere acknowledgement of the hard work and effort of the UVA Law Student Records Officer (SRO), we write with the goal of collaborating on the ideas below designed to improve the course registration process. This letter is the result of a productive conversation among a group of 3Ls reflecting on shared experiences with the current course registration process. We have gathered signatures from a broad and diverse group of students to show support, not only for these ideas, but also for the hope that the SRO’s proven commitment to UVA Law students will encourage its support for and the implementation of these ideas.
We thank you in advance for your consideration of our suggestions and welcome your feedback. You can count on us to follow-up on these ideas and work towards their implementation.
We ask that course registration be left open over one weekend in the summer in addition to a few days during the week. Many students work during the week and do not feel comfortable conducting, or are unable to conduct, personal business on work computers.
We ask that 3L class sign-up not be scheduled over fall break. This is a time when many 3L students travel to see family and it seems counterintuitive to make students sign up for classes when they are supposed to be on a break. The tentative academic calendar on the law school website has the 2018 fall break dates as October 8-10th and we ask that 3L registration not take place on these dates.
We ask that the SRO send out calendar invites to students for registration deadlines that students can accept and place on their personal calendars. This would alleviate the influx of emails the SRO receives from students trying to find the dates, serve as a built-in reminder for students and make this information easier for all to access. Currently, Darden utilizes such a process, which provides a helpful roadmap to implementing a calendar invite-based system.
The UVA Law Students below have thoughtfully considered the suggestions above and sign their name in full support of each idea’s implementation.
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paw2vg@virginia.edu