Page 23 - CLT070620

NEWS JULY 6, 2020 ¦ 23

without having to switch online
midway through a class. The
block format also gives the law
school more flexibility should a
professor fall ill during the se-
mester. Moreover, it reduces the
risk of problems during final ex-
ams, Parrish noted.
“Under the traditional ap-
proach, you have all your exams
at the end of the semester,” he
said. “If that was a time when
there was a big spike [in COV-
ID-19 cases], that would create
a lot of challenges. You hedge
the risk with a block schedule. If someone is sick in on campus at any given time as well, said dean An-
the first exam because of the virus, they can make drew Strauss.
that up before the end of the semester.” “In a typical course, one class a week will be asyn-
The bulk of classes for 2Ls and 3Ls will stay online, chronous online for all students,” he said. “For each
Parrish added, due to space constraints on campus. of the other two residential class sessions in a week,
Like many other law schools, Indiana is prioritizing some students will be in the classroom while others
in-person classes for first-year law students on the will participate via Zoom.”
rationale that the 1L year is key to establishing rela- Not everyone is a fan of the hybrid approach that
tionships with classmates and faculty, and getting the most law schools are taking, however. Northwestern
lay of the land. That’s the primary reason the Univer- University law professor Dan Rodriguez—a former
sity of California, Irvine School of Law is hoping to dean of the Chicago school—wrote in a post on
offer its 1Ls one or two in-person classes in the fall, PrawfsBlawg that law schools would do better to
while all upper-division classes will be online. devote the summer to figuring out how to deliver
“It’s not so much about the teaching,” said Irvine a high-quality legal education online rather than
law Dean Song Richardson. “It’s about continuing to overcoming the many hurdles to get small numbers
help them enter our community and feel a part of it. of students on campus, since COVID-19 is likely to
We are hearing our 1Ls expressing a desire to see each force everyone online eventually.
other. If we can accommodate them and help build “My prediction is that the hybrid approaches are
community that way, we’d like to try and do that.” going to be a bust in any event, given circumstanc-
Georgetown University Law Center and the Uni- es beyond our control,” he wrote. “So why not use
versity of Pennsylvania School of Law are among July to create valuable templates and strategies for
a small number of schools that have announced a great, if highly imperfect, educational scheme? So
significant reductions in the size of their 1L class many of us have ideas about how best to do that, as
sections in an effort to allow for in-person classes clearly one size doesn’t fit all.”
while still maintaining social distancing. George- ¦

town’s 1Ls classes will have 40 or fewer students this Karen Sloan is the Legal Education Editor and Se-
fall, down from a typical section size of about 100, it nior Writer at ALM. Contact her at ksloan@alm.
announced in June. At Penn, 1L sections will be no com. On Twitter: @KarenSloanNLJ Sign up for
larger than 45 students, down from about 80. The Ahead of the Curve—her weekly email update on
University of Dayton School of Law is looking for trends and innovation in legal education—here:
creative ways to minimize the number of students https://www.law.com/briefings/ahead-of-the-curve/

CONNECTICUT
Law Tribune