Faculty Rules: Part II (D-End)
(D) COURSES: ATTENDANCE, WITHDRAWAL, AND FACULTY REQUIREMENTS
1) Attendance and Preparation. Regular attendance is expected of each student. An instructor may exclude from any class a student who is unprepared, and may exclude from the final examination in any course any student whom, for reasons of lack of preparation or lack of attendance, he or she deems unqualified to receive credit in the course.
(a) A student so excluded is required to withdraw from the course and cannot receive credit for it except by retaking the course.
(b) A student's transcript shall reflect the difference between grades for required withdrawal (RW) and permitted withdrawal (PW).
2) Faculty Member's Requirements. The faculty member conducting a course shall have discretion to consider attendance, class work, and written work, as well as the final examination, in determining grades.
3) Announcement of Requirements. With respect to each course that he or she teaches, each professor shall publish written statements of attendance and preparation policies by placing such statements on the bulletin board, posting them on the Web, and/or distributing them in the classroom. The faculty member may reserve the right to change rules regarding attendance and preparation so long as such changes apply prospectively, and are published in accordance with this rule.
4) Classroom Use. No eating or drinking is permitted in the classrooms.
6) Timely Class Dismissal. Faculty members shall dismiss classes promptly, so that students will not be late for immediately succeeding classes.
7) Make-up Classes. Faculty members shall make every effort to avoid scheduling make-up classes during the last two weeks of a semester.
8) Withdrawal from Courses - First Year Students. All students applying for admission to the first year program shall do so with the intention of registering for all courses offered each semester of the first year (see Rule (B) 3) for limited exceptions). A student who has not completed his or her residence requirement for the first year of study shall not be permitted to withdraw from any courses in the School of Law except for reasons of ill health or severe personal hardship. A first year student must obtain the permission of the Associate Dean for Student Affairs before withdrawing from a course. Upon determining that the reason for dropping a course is sufficient, the Associate Dean for Student Affairs shall determine which course (or courses) shall be dropped by the first-year student.
9) Withdrawal from Courses - Upperclass Students. Upperclass students may withdraw from courses during the first eight full weeks of a semester, except:
(a) when a student has completed course requirements constituting, according to the previously announced policy of the instructor, a substantial portion of the work as determined by the instructor;
(b) from an oversubscribed course after the time has passed during which the instructor will permit another student to enroll; or
(c) when an instructor in a limited enrollment course gives notice before the end of the first week that withdrawal from a particular course will be prohibited because the withdrawal of one student would adversely affect other students in the course or people outside the law school community. Special circumstances that might cause withdrawal to have an adverse effect include, but are not limited to, student presentations in class, projects involving student collaboration, and clinical courses entailing commitments to judges, law office personnel, congressional members or staff, or clients.
(d) withdrawal after the eighth week or from any of the courses covered by sub-paragraphs (a), (b), or (c) above may occur only with the special permission of the instructor. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, in the event of ill health or severe personal hardship, the Dean or his or her designate may permit withdrawal from any course.
1) Requirement of Examination. No credit for a course in which an examination is required shall be given to a student unless he or she takes and passes an examination under appropriate conditions.
2) Time of Taking Examination. A student who has not withdrawn from a course is expected to take the examination for that course at the regularly scheduled time. Failure to take the examination will result in a grade of 70.
3) Exceptions to the Requirement of Taking Exam at Regularly Scheduled Time. A student may be excused from taking an examination at the regularly scheduled time, with permission of the office of the Associate Dean for Student Affairs, in the case of a student's serious ill health or serious illness or death in the immediate family, in the case when a student seeks an exception from an examination scheduled for a Saturday for religious or military reasons and in other cases of severe hardship. However, exceptions shall not be granted in the case of a student's illness without supporting documentation, and such documentation shall also be required to the extent feasible when other reasons are involved.
4) Make-up Examinations. No make-up examination shall be given on a date earlier than the scheduled examination. Late examinations in a given course shall be given, to the extent feasible, at the same time.
5) Late Return of Examinations. Any student who returns an examination after the time it is due shall have his or her examination grade reduced by one point per minute or fraction thereof, with a maximum reduction of five points; provided, however, that this grade reduction shall not deny a student credit for a course.
6) Anonymity of Examination Answers. Examination answers will not contain the names of the students who prepared the answers; examination books will be identified solely by numbers assigned to the students by the Registrar's Office. The Registrar's Office shall use whatever means it believes necessary to insure that no professor will know which numbers are assigned to which student until after the examination has been graded and grades on the examination assigned to the students. Thus, the Registrar's Office may not disclosed to any faculty member the correspondence between a student's name and exam number in any course until the grade has been recorded. A professor may assign to a student a final grade that differs from the grade on the examination; such differences may reflect class participation, attendance, or any other factors that the professor believes relevant. However, if a student's grade on an examination differs from his or her final grade, a permanent record of both grades will be maintained. Many classes now base the final grade on assignments, tests or quizzes other than or in addition to the final examination. The policy of anonymous grading at the law school is important and should apply with equal force to all graded material in a class unless the nature of the assignment makes it impossible. An example of an assignment in which anonymous grading would be impossible is a paper in which the final grade is not given until after the faculty member has had an individual consultation with the student. In any event, if a faculty member's upper-level course will include graded assignments in which anonymous grading will be impossible, that fact should be noted in the course description along with a brief explanation of why anonymous grading is impossible. Descriptions of seminars, clinics and simulation course do not need to include such a notation or explanation since the nature of those courses creates a presumption of non-anonymous grading.
(a) Re-examination papers shall not be segregated from other examination papers in the grading of examinations.
(b) At a student's request, a faculty member, in his or her discretion, may regrade the student's examination paper after the final grade has been recorded. If such a regrading results in a changed grade the student's permanent record shall so indicate.
7) Lost Examination Book. No lost examination book will be considered missing unless each examination book submitted indicates a total number of examination books which the student has written for the examination, and that each examination book further be numbered in the order of its completion. Thus if a student has written three examination books for an examination, the first one should appear as "1 of 3," the second "2 of 3" and the third "3 of 3."
8) Posting of Grades. The Registrar’s Office will make available to each student a report of his or her grades for each semester after all grades for that semester have been reported to the Registrar’s Office. The grade distribution for each course shall also be made available.
9) Deadline for Reporting Grades.
(a) Except for graduates’ grades, which are due as announced by the Registrar’s Office, grades for the spring semester are due 5 weeks after the last day of the exam period, grades for the summer session are due 4 weeks after the last day of the exam period, and grades for the fall semester are due as follows:
i. For faculty members who teach one fall course and faculty members who teach more than one fall course but have fewer than 140 exams and papers to grade, grades are due 4 weeks from the date of the exam for courses with scheduled exams, and 4 weeks from last day of the exam period for all other courses.
ii. For faculty members who teach more than one fall course and have a total of 140 or more essay exams and papers to grade, grades for one of the courses (a 1L course, if any, otherwise, an upper-level scheduled exam course, if any) are due 4 weeks from the date of the exam (if the course had a scheduled exam) or 4 weeks from the last day of the exam period (if the course did not have a scheduled exam); and grades for the other course(s) are due 5 weeks from the date of the exam (if the course had a scheduled exam) or 5 weeks from the last day of the exam period (if the course did not have a scheduled exam).
10) Preservation of Examination Questions. At least two copies of all non-objective examination questions shall be preserved for not more than five years in the Registrar's office.
Professors shall place on reserve in the Library at least two different exams for the same course when the teacher has taught the same course for 3 or more years. The individual teacher determines which two exams are to be on reserve.
11) Preservation of Examination Answers. Faculty members shall retain students' examination booklets for a period of at least one year after the examination is given.
12) Exam Disclosure in Course Descriptions. Faculty members should, to the extent possible, indicate in their course descriptions how they plan to evaluate student performance. Such information should include the form of evaluation (exam vs. other evaluation devices) and, where there is an exam, whether it will be an in-classroom or take-home exam."
(F) POOR SCHOLARSHIP RULES AND COMPUTATION OF SCHOLASTIC AVERAGES
1) Exclusion for Poor Scholarship. General Rule: A student who fails to achieve 1) a cumulative grade point average of at least 79 at the end of each academic year, or 2) a yearly grade point average of 79 for all courses taken during the second academic year, will be excluded from school for poor scholarship subject to the exceptions in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) below. The academic year begins with the summer school term and ends with the spring semester; therefore, summer school grades are never considered in a determination of whether a first year student will be promoted to second year status.
(a) Probation: Any student 1) whose cumulative grade point average at the end of each academic year, or 2) whose yearly grade point average at the end of the second academic year is between 78.50 and 78.99, inclusively, may continue his or her studies for one additional year on scholastic probation. If at the end of that probationary year his or her 1) cumulative grade point average, or 2) the combined average of the second and third year for the student who had a deficient yearly grade point average at the end of the second academic year is less than 79, he or she will be excluded for poor scholarship; if, on the other hand, these grade point averages are 79 or higher, he or she is removed from scholastic probation.
(b) Beginning Students: This rule shall not apply to a student until he or she has examined in at least 15 hours and has been enrolled in the School of Law for at least two semesters. Courses taken in the School of Law as part of a joint degree program shall not be counted until the student has been enrolled in the School of Law for at least two semesters.
2) Readmission by Re-examination. Any first year student who has been excluded for poor scholarship shall be allowed to re-examine in as many or as few of the courses the student received grades of 78 or below in, at the student's option. Only the re-examination grades shall be calculated into the overall average. Students who by re-examination bring their overall average up to 79 or better will be eligible to continue their studies in the academic year after the year in which they re-examine.
The re-examining student must retake his or her examination(s) during the academic year immediately following the academic year in which he or she failed to achieve an average grade of 78.50 or higher. The re-examining student must take the examination from the same teacher the student had in his or her first year; however, if that teacher is no longer teaching the course or if the number or re-examining students is inordinately large, the Associate Dean of Student Services shall designate which examination is to be taken. The examination given to re-examining students shall be the same examination as that given to students regularly enrolled in the course. The re-examining student must retake the examination at the same time that the regularly enrolled student takes it.
The re-examining student may elect to attend the course(s) in which the student is re-examining. Re-examining students who wish to attend courses in which they are re-examining must notify the Associate Dean for Student Affairs of their intention before the start of classes. The re-examining student who elects to attend classes shall be subject to the classroom rules regarding attendance and preparation as are all other students; however, the attending student shall not participate in classroom discussion unless the teacher, at his or her discretion, permits the student to participate. All re-examining students electing to attend classes shall be permitted to do so unless the Associate Dean for Student Affairs determines that the seating capacity of the classroom to which the class is assigned is inadequate to accommodate both regularly enrolled students and those re-examining students who wish to attend. In such a case the Associate Dean of Student Services shall either reassign re-examining students by lot to other sections of the same course in which space is available or exclude auditors by lot.
A re-examining student may elect not to attend the course(s) in which he or she is re-examining. Students wishing re-examine must notify the Registrar's Office as early as possible, but no later than one week before the start of classes.
3) Computation of Scholastic Averages.
(a) The academic average of a student for work done in the School of Law is computed as a weighted average by multiplying the grade for each course attempted by the number of hours of credit given for the course and dividing the total by the number of hours attempted. Averages are computed at the close of each academic semester. This rule also applies to students registered for less than a full schedule.
(b) Grades received in courses taken at other law schools are not computed in a student's average."
(G) REQUIREMENTS FOR THE J.D. DEGREE
1) Course Requirements. The candidate for the J.D. degree must complete the following required courses:
(a) All first year courses prescribed for the year in which the candidate originally enrolled, and
(b) All other courses the faculty shall require for graduation from time to time; e.g., as of the fall of 2001, students entering in the fall of 2001 and thereafter are required to satisfactorily complete a five hour first year Legal Research and Writing course, various other first year courses, a seminar that satisfies the upperclass seminar writing requirement (see Rule (G) 3) below), and a course from the Ethics Curriculum.
2) Academic and Residence Credit and Cumulative Average. (amended 11/18/04) Candidates for the J.D. Degree must:
(a) receive credit in at least the requisite number of hours of course work (which since August, 1993 generally has been 85 hours) and
(b) have a cumulative grade point average of at least 79 based upon all courses taken and a yearly grade point average of at least 79 based upon all courses taken in the second academic year, whether or not credit is earned, and "
(c) complete six semesters of residence. In order to obtain one semester's worth of residence credit, a candidate must complete a minimum of twelve hours of work and must obtain a passing grade in minimum of ten hours of work. A candidate who either completes or obtains a passing grade for fewer than the required minimum hours will be given proportionate residence credit, but a student who successfully completes more than the minimum coursework required for full residence credit during one semester earns only one semester of residence credit. Students may earn one-fourteenth of a semester’s residency per credit hour of coursework successfully completed in summer school at Washington University School of Law, but a maximum of five-fourteenths of a semester’s residency can be earned in a single summer school session. No credit toward residence is given in courses in which a student receives a grade of 73 or less. No residence credit is awarded for courses (including summer school courses approved under Rule C(2)(A)) taken at another law school. The residency requirement for the J.D. degree (six semesters) is reduced in three situations:
(i) Upon finding that severe hardship would otherwise result, the Petitions Committee of the Faculty may permit a student to satisfy up to two semesters of the requirement at another law school belonging to the Association of American Law Schools. For the purposes of this rule, “severe hardship” ordinarily has included, but is not limited to, reasons of health emergency of the student or the student’s relative, spouse, partner or significant other, or to relocate to be reunited with a spouse, partner, or significant other. A visit away because of the possibility of greater employment prospects will not ordinarily be considered a “severe hardship” under this rule. To receive residence credit for a particular semester, the student must pay the Washington University School of Law the excess of the tuition charged by the Washington University School of Law for that semester over the tuition charged by the law school the student is attending.
[NOTE: The preceding paragraph of the rules was revised in March 2006. Effective with the class of 2009, the severe hardship exception is as follows.]
(i) Upon finding that severe hardship would otherwise result, the Dean or his or her designate may permit a student to satisfy up to two semesters of the requirement at another law school belonging to the Association of American Law Schools. For the purposes of this rule, "severe hardship" means: (1) a health emergency of the student, someone in the student's immediate family, or someone else of similar importance in the student's life; (2) a need to engage in daily care of someone important in the student's life; (3) extraordinary educational objectives that cannot be achieved on campus; or (4) other compelling circumstances complicated by location or distance that could not have been anticipated at enrollment. The following will not, without more, be considered a "severe hardship" under this rule: (1) living apart from a spouse, partner, significant other, or other important person in the student's life; or (2) a desire to visit away because of the possibility of greater employment prospects. To receive residence credit for a particular semester, the student must pay the Washington University School of Law the excess of the tuition charged by the Washington University School of Law for that semester over the tuition charged by the law school the student is attending. Where the student's petition is premised on extraordinary educational objectives that cannot be achieved on campus, the student's petition shall conform to the guidelines set by the Dean or his or her designate; such petitions will be granted only rarely.
(ii) Students enrolled in a joint degree program must complete either: (a) five semesters of residence at the School of Law, computed by taking into account law school coursework but without granting proportionate residence credit for any semester other than summer school at Washington University School of Law; or (b) eight semesters of residence at Washington University, computed by taking into account both law school coursework and coursework credited toward the non-law degree (however, only seven semesters of total residence is required if the candidate is admitted to the East Asian Studies program with advanced language proficiency, or is admitted to the MSW program with advanced standing).
(iii) Transfer students admitted to advanced standing pursuant to Rule B(2) must in any event complete a minimum of four semesters of residence to earn a Washington University J.D. degree.
3) The Upperclass Seminar Writing Requirement. All students, except those exempted prior to rules changes enacted in April, 1999, are required to receive credit in one seminar that satisfies the upperclass writing requirement.
(a) Minimum Standards for Courses Satisfying the Seminar Writing Requirement. To satisfy the upperclass writing requirement, the following must be met: a central goal of the seminar must be to improve the students’ skills as effective writers (see Rule (G) 3)(d) below for examples); a substantial element of the seminar must be a writing assignment or series of writing assignments, guidelines for which are set forth in Rule (G) 3)(c) below; and students in the seminar must receive "significant feedback from the instructor" as described in Rule (G) 3)(b) below.
(b) Significant Feedback From the Instructor. "Significant feedback from the instructor" means written comments and a requirement of subsequent written work that incorporates those comments. The written comments may provide a detailed critique of students’ writing or may provide the basis for additional verbal comments in individual conferences with the students. The subsequent writing assignment may be either a rewrite of the same assignment (the revision of a draft) or a different assignment that builds on the previous assignment. In either case, the student must have a meaningful opportunity to digest the feedback and apply this learning in subsequent work.
(c) Page Guidelines. For a course that acknowledges the development of writing skills as a core value, there must be enough writing for that pedagogical objective to be met. Each individual faculty member will establish his or her own criteria for paper length to meet this minimum pedagogical objective. This part provides guidelines for expected minimum page length reflecting recent practice and the different methodological approaches that have been used in our upperclass writing courses. Teachers may describe expectations as a range instead of a minimum. Given that effective legal writing requires concise explication and precise use of language, teachers may emphasize or set a maximum page limit. This part is intended to provide a starting point within which these expectations can be set and effectively communicated to students. The page length guidelines, which are based on the assumption that all seminars will have the same maximum enrollment (16 students) and that the number will not vary depending upon the methodology employed, are as follows:
(1) In seminars that include a substantial classroom component, the guideline is for each student to complete 20 pages of text over the course of the semester. A "substantial classroom component" means significant assigned readings and regular class meetings. It does not include class meetings for the purpose of students presenting their papers.
(2) In seminars that do not include a substantial classroom component and instead are run as individualized writing projects, the guideline is 35 pages of written text over the course of the semester.
(3) In seminars that fall somewhere in between the categories described in subsections (1) and (2) above, such as seminars that meet for the purpose of student presentations, the guideline is 25 pages of written text over the course of the semester.
(4) For purposes of these guidelines, a student’s re-writing of a draft does not count toward the prescribed minimum number of pages, except to the extent that the revision contains substantial original material.
(5) These page length specifications are provided as guidelines for instructors, and to inform students of the faculty’s collective judgment. Consequently, these guidelines are not intended to induce students to artificially inflate the length of their written work; "padding" writing assignments with extraneous or redundant material or excess verbiage detracts from the work’s effectiveness and can be taken into account as a negative factor in grading.
(d) Course Description. Course descriptions for seminars satisfying the writing requirement should include the following:
(1) Mechanics. The description should include a detailed account of how the seminar will operate. This information should include the number of writing assignments, the length of the assignments, whether students will be required to rewrite any assignments after receiving significant feedback from the instructor, and whether there will be any individual instructor-student conferences.
(2) Pedagogical Objectives of Writing Assignments. To the extent feasible, the description should include an explanation of the instructor’s pedagogical objectives for the seminar’s writing assignments. In each such seminar, an objective of the writing assignment(s) will be to teach writing skills – logical organization, composing a thesis, and sound writing style, for example. The description should include any additional objectives the instructor seeks to accomplish, such as providing a thorough background in a specific area of substantive law, teaching each student in great detail about a discrete topic, giving students a perspective on law external to the legal system, or teaching students the ability to synthesize and digest broad areas of the law.
(e) Assignment to, Registration for, and Withdrawal from Seminars.
(1) Assignment of Students to Seminars. In the assignment of students to seminars, students are selected at random and assigned to their first choice as long as that section is unfilled; if filled, then the student is assigned to a second choice, etc., with priority given according to seniority and whether a student has already completed a seminar.
(2) A student who registers for a seminar in the fall semester and later drops that seminar of his or her own accord is not permitted to register for another seminar second semester. This rule shall be applied even if it prevents the student in question from completing the requirements for graduation in a timely fashion.
(3) Compelled Withdrawal from a Seminar. A faculty member may require a student to withdraw from a seminar if the work is inadequate. This rule shall be applied even if it prevents the student in question from completing the requirements for graduation in a timely fashion.
(4)The median grade in each seminar must fall within one half point of the average GPA of the enrolled JD students, and no more than one-third of enrolled JD students may receive a grade of 94 or above. A student shall not receive credit for more than one seminar in a semester.
4) Special Rules Governing Academic Credit for Law Review, Journal of Law and Policy, Global Studies Law Review, Moot Court, and Trial Advocacy Competition. Credit shall be awarded to upperclass students for approved work in connection with law school publications or lawyering skills competitions in the following way:
(a) Students who successfully complete their first year of work on either Law Review,Journal of Law and Policy, or Global Studies Law Review earn two units of credit to be awarded at the end of that year; and an additional credit for each semester of successful participation thereafter; provided, however, that the total number of such credits shall not exceed four.
(b) Students who participate in the Environmental Moot Court Program or the Wiley Rutledge Moot Court Program shall receive one unit of credit for each semester in which they write a brief and present at least one oral argument, both of which are found to be satisfactory by the Moot Court faculty advisor; students who win the intramural competition and compete in a regional or national competition can receive one additional credit; and senior students may earn a maximum of one credit fulfilling administrative responsibilities while a member of a Competition Board; provided, however, that the total number of such credits, taken together with any credits for Supervised Moot Court (see Rule (G) 7) below), shall not exceed four. No writing credit is awarded for Moot Court.
(c) Students who become members of a team selected, after tryouts, for regional or national competitions (e.g., Trial Advocacy Competition, International Moot Court, or Intellectual Property Moot Court) and who complete the competition and the practice sessions shall receive one or two credits, as determined by the Faculty in approving the competition. No more than six students (or 12, in the case of the Trial Advocacy Competition) may receive such credit for each competition. No writing credit is awarded for these competitions.
(d) Students may not receive credit toward their degree for more than one competition activity described in Rule (G) 4)(b) and (c) above (including receiving credit for serving on the board overseeing a competition activity) or Supervised Moot Court (see Rule (G) 7) below) during any one semester.
5) Supervised Research. Students may enroll in Supervised Research under the direct supervision of a member of the faculty with the consent of the faculty member. The exact nature of the project shall be determined by the individual faculty member. A student may earn from one to three credits for Supervised Research depending upon the scope of the project, the precise number of credits to be determined by the supervising faculty member after completion of the project. The commitments expected from both the student and the faculty member in a three-credit Supervised Research project should be substantially equal in quality, scope, and time to the requirements of a course satisfying the upperclass seminar writing requirement (see Rule (G) 3) above); for a one- or two-credit project the expectations may be discounted commensurately. A student may draw upon work done in a practice setting as the basis for a Supervised Research project, but only the writing component of that work may count towards Supervised Research credit, as evaluated according to the above criteria. If credit for other components of that working experience is desired, the requirements for Supervised Practicum apply. In order to earn the credit(s) for Supervised Research, the project must be completed and a grade recorded by the end of the semester for which the student registers for the course. Failure to complete the course by the end of the semester will result in withdrawal. A student must register for and begin work on a supervised research project no later than the end of the second week of classes of the semester in which the credit is to attach. No student may receive more than three credits in a single semester for Supervised Research. No student may receive academic credit for more than two Supervised Research experiences. Supervised Research is not available for credit during the summer term. Supervised Research is graded on a pass/fail basis.
Students may receive credit only once for research and a paper on a single topic. Students cannot receive supervised research credit for work that substantially duplicates work previously performed for credit in a seminar paper, a note or comment for one of the publications, a memo prepared for the Judicial Clerkship Program, another supervised research project, or any other written research project for which credit was earned. A student who has been withdrawn from Supervised Research for failure to complete a project on time may not use that same project to receive credit for another Supervised Research course, either with the same or another teacher. Early in each semester, each faculty member engaged in Supervised Research with one or more students shall submit to the Registrar the name(s) of the student(s) and the name(s) or description(s) of the topics to be explored. The Registrar will compile the information and then distribute a list of all names and topics to all faculty members. The Registrar shall maintain this list for at least three years.
No faculty member will supervise more than a total of six students in an academic year through Supervised Research, Supervised Practicum (see Rule (G) 6) below), Supervised Moot Court (see Rule (G) 7) below), or any combination of the three. If a faculty member offers a collective comparative research project through the study abroad program, the number of students that count against the supervising faculty member's annual limit of six Supervised Research students is calculated as follows: The total number of credits being awarded to all the students participating in the comparative research project under that faculty member divided by three and rounded to the nearest whole number. Thus, for example, if a faculty member supervises such a project with seven students who each receive one Supervised Research credit, that would count as two students against the faculty member's annual limit of six students (7 divided by 3 = 2 1/3, which rounds to 2 students). No writing credit is awarded for Supervised Research.
6) Supervised Practicum. One to three units of academic credit may be earned in Supervised Practicum by working on a clinical project under the direct supervision of a member of the faculty. The exact nature of the Supervised Practicum experience shall be determined by the individual faculty member. The precise number of credits earned for the Practicum, which depends upon the scope of the project, shall be determined by the supervising faculty member after completion of the clinical project. Supervised Practicum is graded on a pass/fail basis.
The supervised practicum must include regular contact between the student and a full-time faculty member. Bi-weekly meetings would be the norm. The participating full-time faculty member must have expertise in the field, and the student must submit a work product that the faculty member can review. Examples include several short written documents, a longer paper, and the like, with the precise format to be determined by the faculty member. In submitting to the Vice Dean the request for approval of a supervised practicum, the student must explain how the particular placement fits into his or her education program and why a comparable opportunity is not available in the established curriculum. The student seeking approval of such placement must submit his or her complete proposal, which must identify the participating full-time faculty member as well as the direct supervisor at the placement site, no later than the end of the second week of classes of the semester during which the student seeks credit. Approval of both the Vice Dean and the Director of Clinical Education must follow. The attorney acting as direct supervisor at the placement site must make a commitment to meet regularly with the student and to provide feedback on the student's work to both the student and the faculty member. The faculty member must determine the appropriate form and scope of such reports.
The Supervised Practicum is a clinical practicum course for purposes of Rule (C) 2)(c) above. A student may enroll in only one supervised practicum during his/her law school career. Faculty members may supervise no more than a total of six students in an academic year through Supervised Research, Supervised Practicum, Supervised Moot Court, or any combination of the three. No writing credit is awarded for Supervised Practicum.
7) Supervised Moot Court. A student may receive one credit for participation in an external moot court competition through Supervised Moot Court. In order to receive credit, a student would need to secure a full-time faculty member as an adviser, prepare an appellate brief of passing quality (minimum 10 pages per student), present a minimum of two oral arguments of passing quality, and attend two mandatory seminar sessions on appellate brief writing and appellate argument.
Supervised Moot Court is graded on a pass/fail basis. The full-time faculty member who reviews the brief and critiques the preparation for oral argument is limited to supervising no more than six students per year in Supervised Research, Supervised Practicum, or Supervised Moot Court, or any combination of the three. No writing credit is awarded for Supervised Moot Court.
(H) REQUIREMENTS FOR THE GRADUATE DEGREES
1) Requirements for the J.S.D. Degree. Eligibility to receive the LL.M. degree in the Research Graduate Degree Program will be earned by satisfactory completion of 24 credit hours of study in residence, which shall include a thesis of publishable quality. The thesis must be completed and accepted within the period of residence. A student may take a maximum of 12 credit hours of organized courses, which may include courses in other departments of the university when approved in advance by his or her Thesis Committee. Part-time work will not be permitted in this program. The residence requirement is one academic year, consisting of two consecutive semesters. Eligibility to receive the J.S.D. degree will be earned by receipt of the LL.M. degree in this program plus a thesis constituting a major, original contribution to jurisprudential science. The J.S.D. thesis must be completed and accepted within five years of receipt of the LL.M. degree.
2) Requirements for the Professional LL.M. Degrees.
(a) A student will be required to complete satisfactorily 24 credit hours of study in residence to earn the LL.M. in Taxation, Intellectual Property and Technology Law, or Urban Studies. Of the total 24 credit hours, the student shall take not less than 15 hours of organized courses, which may include courses in other departments of the University. All course selections, whether within or without the School of Law, must be approved in advance by the program director.
(b) The professional LL.M. degree may be pursued by students on a part-time basis, but all requirements must be completed within four years.
(c) The writing of a thesis is optional in the professional LL.M. programs. If, however, more than three hours of credit is to be given for a thesis, the thesis shall be approved by a thesis committee, consisting of three faculty members appointed by the Chairman of the Graduate Committee.
3) Requirements for the LL.M. in U.S. Law
(a) This degree will be awarded to those students who successfully complete two semesters of study at the School of Law, earning 20 hours of academic credit.
(b) Grades of "High Pass," "Pass," or "No Creditl" are awarded. Degree candidates receive credit only for courses in which they receive passing marks.
(c) All students are expected to complete the program during one academic year, unless the School of Law grants special permission for an extension.
(d) All students in this program must complete a two-semester legal writing course for LL.M. in U.S. Law students. Students are also encouraged to take one basic course offered to all first-year students at the School of Law.
(I) REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MASTER'S DEGREE IN JURIDICAL STUDIES
The School of Law shall award the M.J.S. (Master of Juridical Studies) Degree to those candidates who successfully complete thirty hours of work. Twenty-four of those hours shall be in regular course work, and six of them shall be awarded for the preparation of a thesis of publishable quality, based upon independent research. Of the twenty-four hours of course work, at least four shall be required in first year courses.
(J) DISCLOSURE OF STUDENT RECORDS
The records of the Registrar include records showing the name and address of the student, dates of enrollment here, courses taken in each semester, all grades received (including grades in a first year which is repeated or courses for which a re-examination has occurred), and degrees granted by Washington University. Such records also show whether and when the student has been on academic probation, disciplinary probation, and whether or for what period he or she was suspended or expelled from the University. When appropriate there may also be notations indicating that the student, at some particular time, owed the University for tuition or fees.
All records or documents that contain information directly related to a particular student and are maintained by or for the School of Law or Washington University are "education records" within the meaning of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The law school will not disclose student education records except in accordance with FERPA (see http://aisweb.wustl.edu/studentrecords/home.nsf/pages/ferpa).
1) Faculty members shall not discriminate against students on grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicap or disability, age, or sexual orientation.
2) Faculty members shall not engage in sexual relationships with students whenever the faculty member has a professional responsibility for the student in such matters as teaching a course or in otherwise evaluating, supervising or advising a student as part of a school program. Even when the faculty member has no professional responsibility for a student, the faculty member should be sensitive to the perceptions of other students that a student who has a sexual relationship with a faculty member may receive preferential treatment from the faculty member or faculty member's colleagues. All Deans and other members of the Administration should be sensitive to analogous concerns.
3) Washington University School of Law is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all students and graduates. The Career Services facilities of this school shall not be available to those employers who discriminate on grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicap or disability, age, or sexual orientation. Before using any of the Career Services interviewing facilities of this school, an employer shall be required to submit a signed statement certifying that its practices conform to this policy.
For purposes of this rule, the posting of employment notices on any bulletin boards designated for official School of Law business, or the posting or distribution of such notices by the School of Law administration elsewhere in the School of Law building, shall be considered making career services facilities available.
See Faculty Rules - Table of Contents ¦ Parts A to C ¦ Parts D to END.
This page last updated January 03, 2007
