South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 5, Ed. 1, March, 2007 Page: 3 of 12
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March 2007
Page 3
Students Express Concerns at Spring Forum
By Lauren Sacra
Staff Writer
This year's spring forum (a.k.a. "town
hall meeting") was held on February 22, 2007
at 4:30 p.m. in the student lounge. STCL
students were invited to submit proposed topics
online or by paper submission. Proposals were
required to include a problem and a suggested
solution. Certain topics were chosen by the
student-faculty organizers for oral presentation
to the panel of STCL faculty and administrators.
The panel members were able to comment on
the oral presentations and get input from other
students in attendance. Current students, as well
as recent December graduates, were allowed to
participate.
Brian Rhodes, SBA president, started
the process by thanking the panel for "putting
their heads on the chopping block." The panel
included Dean Alfini, Gregory Brothers (Senior
VP and CFO), Dean Burnett, Dean Jenkins,
Dean Wheeler, David Cowan (Director of the
Fred Parks Law Library), Dean Pilkenton,
Randy Marak (Director of Information
Systems), and Steve Alderman. Also in
attendance were Dean Morrow, Dean Singleton,
Mary Braxton (Financial Aid Director), Dean
Green (representing the CRC), Professor
Steiner, and other faculty members. Many
members of the SBA were also in attendance.
The first issue, which was that students
need financial aid and scholarship money
sooner, was presented by Gianpaolo Maceróla.
Maceróla stated that students are not able to
pay bills and expenses because fund
disbursements are retained for weeks after
school begins each semester. In addition, the
$500 emergency loan amount is not adequate
to cover expenses in the meantime. Greg
Brothers replied to the issue by explaining that
the funds must be retained temporarily in order
to protect against students receiving money and
then leaving the school. He did, however, offer
a solution: the Spurgeon Bell emergency loan
amount base amount will be raised to $1000.
In addition, students will be able to request a
raise of "incremental amounts," as needed.
Further, there will be an attempt to implement
a system that will reward certain students, for
instance students who show their loyalty to the
school for a certain amount of time. Those
students may be credited at the front end instead
of having to wait like other students. In order
to further remedy the financial strains of
students, the school is speaking with Barnes and
Noble concerning getting reserve textbooks for
every class so that students may use them until
they are able to purchase their own books, once
the loan money is received.
The SBA presented the next several
issues. One concerned issues with Stanley,
specifically complaining of the incompatibility
with Microsoft Oudook and some students'
inability to access STCL email from work.
Randy Marak addressed the issue by saying that
the point of Stanley is to be a "one stop shop,"
so the point is to go to Stanley to access email,
not other systems. If you are being blocked
from Stanley at work, you should go to your IT
department and ask that you be unblocked.
Another connected issue was the STCL website.
Some students feel that the website is not
aesthetically pleasing and it should be updated
and redesigned. The panel assured students that
the website is in the process of being updated
with the help of a recendy hired marketing
consultant. The redesigned website should be
up by next week.
The procedures and performance of
the CRC was also called into question. Dean
Wheeler replied by assuring students that "90%
of students are employed 9 months out." He
voiced the CRC's frustration with students who
will not take jobs outside of Houston. Dean
Green affirmed this statement by saying that in
the past, students have been offered jobs in
places such as Washington D.C., but have turned
such offers down. The CRC is trying to remedy
the situation by offering students nontraditional
opportunities, especially jobs in oil and gas.
Students were also encouraged to spend time
networking to make more connections. The
school is possibly also looking into contacting
other schools similar to ours for advice on how
to improve current operations.
Next, students raised the issue of class
scheduling, specifically that classes are not
offered at good times if students want to try to
take classes only on MWF or only TTH. Dean
Jenkins addressed the issue, first making
students aware of the ABA requirement that
students be in classes five days a week. Dean
Pilkenton followed by saying the scheduling is
"done with the utmost love for faculty and
students." Denyse Ward, 3L, asked about the
scheduling conflict with finals dates. Pilkenton
suggested that the way to remedy that problem
would be to develop the finals schedule after
registration. The class scheduling appears to
be a difficult task that has evolved many times
in the past, which Dean Pilkenton will continue
to try to improve upon. If a student has a
scheduling conflict, he or she should feel free
to contact the registrar's office and Dean
Pilkenton will help you work out the issue.
David Cowen addressed several
concerns about the library. First, students would
like the library to be open until 10 p.m. on
Saturday, or even 24 hours. There was much
discussion about the costs of keeping the library
open, including paying librarians, paying
security, etc. The statistics stated by Cowan
show that students do not really stay that late
enough to make the later hours worth the
school's money. In the past semesters, when
the library closes at 7 p.m. on Saturday, there
are usually only about 3-5 people present.
Therefore, students will have to show that they
will actually use the library on Saturday night in
order to make this proposal worthwhile. In
response to the 24/7 issue, the school is willing
to test student need by possibly having Garrett-
Townes Hall open 24/7 during finals. Students
also requested more study areas. Cowan agreed
to open Emilie Slohm during finals for students
to study in groups, contingent upon students
not wrecking the area. However, the faculty
study carrels are necessary and will not be given
up for study areas. Students were also annoyed
by the announcements that concurrently occur
every 15 minutes for an hour before the library
closing. Now, the announcement will only
happen twice: 15 minutes before closing, and
then again at closing time. Finally, some
students questioned student printing policies.
Students get 400 pages per semester and Cowan
stated that according to statistics, that is the
amount most students actually use.
Student parking was another issue
raised; students simply questioned the school's
plans for the future, including whether a parking
garage would be considered. Brothers
commented by first telling the group that every
two-three years a parking consultant is hired to
measure the parking situation within a nine
block radius of the school. In Fall 2004, the
study showed that at 2 p.m., 1/3 of the spaces
in that area were vacant. The next study will be
conducted in Fall 2007 and the situation will be
constantly monitored. In a study concerning
the cost of building a parking garage, it was
determined that it would cost students over
$100/month if the school were to do so. The
bottom line is that the school would rather
spend the millions of dollars it would cost to
build a garage on things directly related to
students' educational experience.
One personal issue that was raised at
the forum was one student's issue with an LRW
professor. That student tried to schedule a
meeting with the professor to discuss his paper
from the previous semester, but the professor
allegedly quoted the handbook, which requires
that a student have received a grade under C in
order to be guaranteed a meeting. The student
wanted to have a policy where professors,
especially of LRW, are required to meet with
students, if requested by the student. The panel
was appalled by the conduct described and
assured the student that most professors will
freely meet with students. The student who
posed the issue was told to speak with Dean
Jenkins concerning the specifics of the situation.
In a similar issue, students feel that it is too
subjective to allow professors to have the power
to deduct students' grades for deficient
performance. Dean Alfini and Dean Pilkenton
assured students that this happens very rarely,
estimating that it happens to less than 1 /2% of
grades posted.
Other topics included creating a joint
public policy program with either the Bush
School or Rice, expanding the newly
implemented student advising system to all
students, Langdell scheduling, itemized tuition
bills, model exam answers, flooded bathrooms,
classroom temperatures, chalkboards v.
whiteboards, and low student GPAs.
Overall, the panel was extremely
receptive to student concerns. Repeatedly they
expressed their understanding of our situations
and their desire to help. Their responses to the
problems presented expressed their desire, as
they offered real solutions to most of the
problems. Basically, if it is possible for
something to be done, the panel is willing to
try it. They keep detailed statistics on everything
from parking to printing and are monitoring
our needs, and we are not even aware of it.
After (almost) three years here at STCL, I was
very surprised and pleased to hear that the
faculty does want to help and is willing to
change. All panel members ask that students
keep them informed of similar issues more
regularly, not just once a year at the spring
forum. So, if you have a problem, instead of
complaining, tell someone, because the faculty
has clearly shown that they are willing to make
the changes that students want.
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Frazer, Jason L. South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 5, Ed. 1, March, 2007, newspaper, March 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144581/m1/3/: accessed May 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.