Law Students Demand More Office Hours

Law professors are inaccessible, and the Law School should establish mandatory faculty-office hours.

That was the general sentiment of students gathered yesterday at a wide-ranging but sparsely attended open forum held by the school's Committee on Legal Education

Students characterized professors as aloof and unapproachable and demanded measures to increase student-faculty contact.

"There's a tradition at Harvard of not having office hours. Maybe there's a tradition of not having contact with students," said third year student Helen D. Irvin, a member of the committee. Irwin a added that she would propose an office hours requirement at the committee's next meeing.

But Dean of the Law School James Vorenburg '49 disagreed, saying, "If indeed there is a tradition, I think it's the other way." Vorenberg asked the committee to consider the student's complaint as past of a broader problem of negative student perceptions.

Nincy two percent of students who responded to a recent Law School Council poll stated that professors should be required to set aside at least two official hours per week, said Council Chairman Kent R. Murkus.

Markus also noted that the council's Student Faculty Affairs Committee recommended at its last meeting that the faculty dinning hall he closed to increase the faculty presence in the student commons.

Secretary of the Law School Stephen M. Bernardi '52 said that he favors faculty members holding office hours, but he asked that fixed office hours could discourage students from seeking out professors during the rest of the week.

"It would be unfortunate if the institution of office hours led to the perception by professors that "That's my only obligation to students," added Jacqueline Berrier, a third-year student.

Professor of Law Hal S. Scott, chairman of the legal education committee, opposed the office hours proposal, favoring a more flexible policy.

Law School Vice-Dean David N. Smith said that student-faculty relations could be improved through informal contact outside the Law School, citing the past success of a spring pool party.

Nothing breaks down student-faculty barriers more than, for example, seeing [Goldstein Professor of Law] Detlev Vagts in a bathing suit," he explained.

Students complained that the forum--which about 20 students attended--was inadequately publicized.

Last year an overflow crowd turned out at the Committee on Legal Education forum to protest a faculty proposal that students be graded for their classroom participation.

The committee has since labled that proposal indefinitely, Scott said