News and Announcements

UWLA’S School of Law Continued Response to COVID-19

Final Examinations - Spring 2020

April 2, 2020

UWLA’S School of Law Continued Response to COVID-19 (Final Examinations- Spring 2020)

I hope this letter finds each of you in our extended UWLA family as well as can be expected under these anxious and uncertain times. I would like to reiterate what I communicated in my last letter to you: we will get through this together. You are not alone. You are part of the UWLA family, and we are here to help you.

This letter is to publicly notify our stakeholders of changes in UWLA’s School of Law’s policy for the administration and grading of the upcoming Spring 2020 semester. This was not an easy decision, and even this decision is imperfect, but it is our belief that it is the best decision possible for our community as it is in alignment with our values and commitment to being student-centered in the process of fulfilling our mission to “contribute to the democratization of the legal community.”

Resolution

To create a grading and examination format that is compassionate to our UWLA family, yet still maintains academic integrity. UWLA for the Spring 2020 semester will adopt the following policies:

  1.  Law Students may elect on a per course basis to receive a Pass/Fail grade for the Spring 2020 semester, however that election must be made no later than five (5) business days after official grades are released for the Spring 2020 semester.
  2. All final examinations for the Spring 2020 semester will be take home, open book, and open notes.
  3. Final examinations will be distributed by email through a Microsoft Word document or PDF format, and must be returned by email through a Microsoft Word document or PDF format within a twenty-four (24) hour period per course. (i.e one course in twenty-four (24) hours, two courses in forty-eight (48) hours, and so on)
  4. To earn a Pass, if the law student elects to receive a Pass/Fail, the student must earn at least a graded “C-“ within that course.
  5. All law students sitting for final examinations during the 2020 semester must sign and return by email an admonishment that any collaboration with any other individual, student, help desk, or otherwise would be dealt with as an honor code violation which will be reported to the California Committee of Bar Examiners on a zero-tolerance basis.
We have discussed and surveyed these policy changes with our internal stakeholders. In fact our surveys returned a combined response rate of 65% of all UWLA Law School Faculty, Performance Participants, and Students. The feedback received was instrumental in this decision. We have heard you, both for and against the above policies. In addition, these policies are in alignment with both our accreditors’ mandates, as well as approaches to this crisis by other law schools.

I wish you the best in health and success during this time.

Sincerely,

Jay Frykberg