From Sunday, March 19 through Wednesday, March 22, 2006 (the week following spring break), a seven-member team of lawyers chosen by the American Bar Association is visiting the Law School as part of a required national law school re-accreditation process.
The Site Team is attending classes and meeting with faculty, administrators, alumni, and student organizations. An open period for students to meet with the Site Team is scheduled for Monday, March 20 at 1:00 p.m. in Lubar Commons. Students are invited to stop in to discuss the Law School’s Re-accreditation.
Since 1952, the American Bar Association (actually the “Council to their Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar”) has been the U.S. Department of Education’s recognized national agency for the accreditation of U. S. law schools. Every seven years, an accredited law school goes through an extensive evaluation in order to be re-accredited.
The March Site Visit will last three days. The team evaluating the Law School consists of law school faculty members, a law librarian, a faculty member with expertise in professional skills instruction, a practitioner, and a university administrator. Nancy Rogers, Dean of Ohio State University- Moritz College of Law, is the chair of the UW Law School site visit. The other members of the team are:
Atty. Judith Reed , U.S. Department of Justice
Professor Bryan Fair, University of Alabama School of Law
Professor Taylor Fitchett , University of Virginia School of Law
Professor Mary Wolf , Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis
Provost Brian Foster, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law
Professor Thomas Gallanis, Washington and Lee University School of Law
The Site Visit marks the end of a long process that began in 1999 when Dean Davis commissioned an assessment of the Law School’s curriculum. Assessment 2000 (http://www.law.wisc.edu/alumni/aboutthelawschool.htm) collected information from recent graduates and employers about the skills and areas of knowledge that graduates need in the early years of their legal careers and about how successful the UW Law School curriculum was in meeting those needs. The Law School surveyed 1,000 recent graduates (classes of 1994, 1996, and 1998, as well as May 1999 graduates) and more than 200 employers nationwide.
The Law School also focused on student satisfaction as part of the process of the self study. It was one of eleven law schools selected to pilot the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE), a survey to evaluate a law school’s environment and effectiveness. Another part of the process was the 2004 Strategic Plan (http://www.law.wisc.edu/alumni/aboutthelawschool.htm), which was designed to set a course for the growth and development of the Law School over five years. The strategic planning process involved many different groups and identified priorities and goals for the school.
The Law School completed an extensive pre-visit required process, answering written questions about how the Law School is meeting the ABA Standards (standards that describe the requirements a law school must meet to obtain and retain ABA approval); completing a detailed Web-based statistical questionnaire similar to the annual one every law school answers each fall; and preparing a self study that culminated in a comprehensive report addressing the current status of the Law School.
During the March Site Visit, the team will meet with Chancellor John Wiley, Dean Davis, and the law school administration. Ideally, one member of the team will also meet individually with every member of the faculty. The team is also visiting classes to make judgments concerning the quality of instruction, meeting with student leaders, and holding an open meeting with students. In addition, the team will meet with members of the bar and judiciary who are familiar with the school.
At the end of the visit (on Wednesday morning), the team will meet with the dean and then the chancellor to give an oral report of the team's findings. Shortly after leaving the school, the team will draft and finalize an extensive written site evaluation report. The report will cover all aspects of the school's operation, including faculty and administration, the academic program, the student body and their success on the bar examination and in placement, student services, library and information resources, financial resources, and physical facilities and technological capacities.
The site evaluation team will not decide whether the school complies with the Standards, but will provide a factual report that will be the basis for the Accreditation Committee and the Council’s judgments.
The completed site evaluation report will be sent to the ABA Accreditation Committee, which will review the site report. If the Committee finds that the Law School does not comply with all of the standards, the Committee will send an action letter specifying the standard or standards with which the school does not comply and asking the school to indicate the steps the school is taking to bring itself into compliance.
We look forward to the visit and appreciate input and involvement from members of the UW Law School community as we show the Site Team around the Law School. For more information about the re-accreditation process, please see www.abanet.org/legaled/accreditation/acinfo.html or contact Assistant Dean Carolyn Lazar Butler (clbutler2@wisc.edu).
Submitted by on March 7, 2006
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