2 Law Students Suggest Reforms

A series of proposals to de-emphasize grades and stress "non-graded aspects" of the Law School has been submitted to the newly-created joint student-Faculty committee by two second-year students.

The two students, Stephen C. Schlesinger '64 and William C. Samuels, ask for the abolition of the numerical grading system, the discontinuation of public ranking of students, and a massive expansion and liberalization of extra-curricular activities "to give students another channel in which to be rewarded for their abilities."

Schlesinger and Samuels, along with several other second-year students, have been meeting with Faculty members this Fall to sound out sentiment for reform at the law School. Many of their proposals, reportedly, have been well received by some Faculty members.

Concrete Reforms

Their report apparently represents the first case in some time in which students have presented a concrete set of reforms for change to the Law School Faculty. "The Law School is mainly for the education of its students," Schlesinger said yesterday, "and we feel that students have something to offer from their own perspective."

Schlesinger and Samuels have asked that the numerical grading system be abandoned in favor of a less precise letter system, because of the important distinctions drawn between students whose averages may vary as little as one point.

They feel that the emphasis on examinations -- rooted in the weight given to a student's grades -- distorts legal education. first year exam results largely determine student membership in the prestigious honorary extra-curricular ac- tivities -- the Law Review, the Board of Student Advisers, and the Legal Aid Society. And a student's numerical average - down to two decimal points -- is often the major determinant of an employer's decision to hire or reject a Harvard Law graduate.

Their second major suggestion -- to change "the atmosphere and value system" at the Law School -- suggests that "grades should not be the sole determinant of membership in the honoraries." This, they feel, would reduce the importance of the exams and give students a way to be rewarded for abilities necessary in a lawyer, but not tested by the exams.

New Magic

The entire membership of the Board of Student Advisors and Legal Aid Society, and part of the membership of the Law Review should be opened up to competition among all students, the two students suggest. They also propose the establishment of a magazine that would complement the Review. They feel that opportunities for legal writing and participation in "actual" law should be opened in all cases to all the students, since exams aren't always accurate measures of such abilities.

Another plan they endorse would open up more internship programs during the school year "along the lines of the Neighborhood Law Office." This would blend "classwork with actual legal participation."

In this vein, Samuels and Schlesinger request that the Placement Office attempt to get more summer employment for first-year students. But at the same time, they demand the exclusion from Placement Office facilities of any law firm that discriminate in its hiring.

Schlesinger and Samuels' proposals also ask the student-faculty committee, to which their report was submitted be established on a permanent basis. This committee was created by Dean Erwin N. Griswold in mid-November, apparently in response to rising student criticism of the Law School's "atmosphere.