Dear Students,
I hope this finds you all well. As we conclude classes this week, I want to thank you for the impressive resilience and adaptability you’ve shown in contending with the unprecedented upheaval brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. While we’ve all been affected by this crisis, some have been particularly hard hit by illness, family responsibilities, job losses and other major hardships. While the course and impacts of the pandemic are still unfolding and not yet fully knowable, I wanted to share an update on what we do know concerning several important matters relating to your education and professional plans.
President Fitts previously announced that the University’s 2020 Commencement Exercises, originally scheduled for May 16, must be postponed; the Law School’s Graduation Diploma Ceremony will also be rescheduled to coincide with the University’s Commencement, on a date yet to be determined later this year. Although these events must be delayed by public health concerns (the City of New Orleans’ stay-at-home order currently extends through May 15), degrees will still be conferred on all graduates effective May 16.
Although we deeply regret that we must defer our in-person celebration of our graduates’ accomplishments until later in the year, we are planning several ways we can mark the occasion and pay tribute to the Class of 2020 on that weekend. First, we will conduct our Graduation Awards Ceremony – conferring faculty awards and special recognition for outstanding leadership, service, and academic accomplishment of graduating students – remotely on its originally scheduled day, Friday, May 15. Second, we are planning a special video tribute to all members of the Class of 2020 and to share that video at a special online event for our community on Saturday, May 16. Finally, the University will also hold a celebratory event paying tribute to the Class of 2020 that same day for the entire University community. More details will be announced soon on all three events.
Of course, our Commencement and Graduation exercises will be held on campus just as soon as conditions permit. Given the extraordinary circumstances we’ve all been through, you can be sure those events will be all the more special!
As you surely know, more than a dozen states have already announced a postponement of their July bar examinations and all other states are actively evaluating their plans (for a continually updated list, see http://www.ncbex.org/ncbe-covid-19-updates/july-2020-bar-exam-jurisdiction-information/). Law deans across the country have been actively engaged with bar leaders and state supreme courts, and with one another, in an effort to mitigate the effects of this uncertainty on graduates’ career plans. The American Bar Association (led by President Judy Perry Martinez, a 1982 Tulane Law alumna) recently issued a resolution similarly urging state supreme courts nationwide to adopt emergency measures that would permit new graduates to practice law, at least provisionally, until they have an opportunity to sit for an examination (see https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2020/04/aba-urges-states-that-cancel-bar-exams-due-to-covid-19-to-consid/).
In Louisiana, the Supreme Court has invited the deans of Louisiana’s four law schools and the leadership of the state’s Committee on Bar Admissions to craft recommendations on how best to respond to the current crisis. This group has been coordinating closely with the ultimate goal of ensuring that the Court considers every possible option that would avoid disruption and delay to graduates’ ability to launch their careers. I will, of course, keep you posted on any developments, both in Louisiana and in the broader effort to advance the same goals in other states.
I am deeply aware of the daunting hardships many of you have faced because of this crisis, including for some substantial economic hardships and food insecurity. Our financial aid office has been working with students to adjust their aid packages and to advise on available resources. While the deadline to modify federal loan packages for 2019-2020 academic year has passed, financial aid for continuing students enrolling in summer courses or for graduates for bar-related study and living expenses remains available. In addition, Tulane University created a student emergency aid fund to provide supplemental support to students facing financial hardships, and the Law School has created an additional emergency student aid fund as well.
In addition to this emergency financial assistance, the University continues to offer a host of expanded counseling and healthcare resources for students facing challenges relating to their health and wellbeing. Students facing significant hardships occasioned by the crisis should consult with Dean Gaunt for advice about available support.
The economic fallout from the pandemic has, of course, introduced significant new uncertainty into the hiring plans of legal employers. Some law schools have already announced plans to postpone their on-campus interview programs from this summer to spring 2021, and some (but not all) employers intend to delay their own hiring timelines this fall in order to better assess their hiring capacity. We are in close communication with legal employers who regularly hire from Tulane, both regionally and nationally, about their plans. Of course, our goal is to mitigate the impact on our students and graduates and to position Tulane students to be maximally competitive during next year’s hiring cycle. We are still assessing the optimal timing for Tulane’s OCI, as well as our interview programs in Atlanta, Houston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., and our decisions will be informed by both safety considerations and advice from employers about what will make our students most competitive.
Fortunately, we have not yet seen significant disruption to summer or post-graduate employment plans – while some law firms are retooling or shortening their summer programs, they mostly appear to be honoring their hiring commitments – and we continue to see some new interviewing and hiring taking place for the summer and beyond. Of course, I ask you to continue to keep us apprised of your own situation and let us know how we can help. CDO continues to offer individual counseling and other support, and continues to work with employers to make job opportunities available.
While the pandemic forced the Law School to cancel its overseas programs in Europe this summer, we have substantially expanded the slate of other courses that will be offered to students this summer. In recent years, we have typically offered two courses on campus by Tulane faculty; this summer, we will be offering at least six, including a variety of doctrinal and experiential courses and seminars: Advanced Persuasive Writing (Sackey); Contract Drafting (Boudreaux); Constitutional Criminal Procedure (Hancock); Evidence (Friedman); Legal Profession (Katner); and a seminar, Centuries of Failure, Years of Success: Legal Regimes for Protection of Cultural Property (Larson). We are also investigating the possibility of offering additional courses during the second half of the summer. Because all courses must still be taught remotely this summer, it will be possible for students to enroll in these courses from anywhere they will be living. (These courses will be graded according to our usual grading policies, not the mandatory pass/fail adopted for the Spring 2020 semester.)
As President Fitts announced last week, we continue to anticipate that classes for the 2020-2021 academic year will be held on campus and in person. The University is actively developing plans to ensure that on-campus instruction can resume safely, with whatever measures health experts advise. In that regard, Tulane University is fortunate to have the benefit of guidance from members of its own faculty in the medical and public health schools who are among the country’s leading experts. Of course, while local indicators in New Orleans suggest that transmission of the virus is receding, substantial uncertainty remains about the course of the pandemic nationally and internationally. While we cannot guarantee what conditions will be like at the start of the new academic year, every effort is being made to position Tulane to be able to resume campus life safely. Like all universities, Tulane is also, of course, undertaking contingency planning in the event that public health considerations require a delay to the resumption of in-class instruction or the implementation of more substantial social-distancing measures in connection with on-campus activities. But we remain focused on the goal of resuming on-campus instruction this fall and I will, of course, continue to update you as our plans take shape.
I invite you to join me for a Town Hall meeting tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. (Zoom link previously circulated by Dean Gaunt) and to send any questions you have in advance to Dean Gaunt.
In closing, let me say how much I admire the spirit of community and mutual support you have demonstrated in these past difficult weeks. I have never been prouder to be part of the Tulane community, nor more grateful for your kindness and caring for one another.
Be well,
David Meyer