'Grim' Emotional Climate Troubles Law Committee

The "grim" emotional climate at the Law School is one of 15 topics that the School's Joint Student-Faculty Committee plans to investigate this year.

In a memorandum circulated to the entire School this week, the Committee's student members proposed a "comprehensive, systematic, and objective" study of the School's emotional environment.

Robert H. Mnookin '64, a third-year law student and committee member, is currently investigating the Harvard Student Study, a ten-year, $1.5 million study of the College environment financed by the National Institute of Mental Health, as a possible model for the Committee's proposal.

The Law School study could be "similar" to the Harvard Study, Mnookin said, although definitely on a smaller scale. "We want to find out just what the Law School does to people," he explained.

The memorandum suggests surveys and questionnaires, medical statistics, psychiatric interviews with volunteers, and summaries of anonymous medical records as possible methods of investigation. Mnookin emphasized that the study is still in a "very preliminary stage."

At its meeting this Monday, the Committee will consider suggestions for changes in the grading system, including the abolition of both ranking and averaging.