Law School Academic Support Programs—A Survey of Available Academic Support Programs for the New Century

William Mitchell Law Review Volume 26 | Issue 1 Article 1 2000 Law School Academic Support Programs—A Survey of Available Academic Support Programs for the New Century Richard Cabrera Stephanie Zeman Follow this and additional works at: http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr Recommended Citation Cabrera, Richard and Zeman, Stephanie (2000) "Law School Academic Support Programs—A Survey of Available Academic Support Programs for the New Century," William Mitchell Law Review: Vol. 26: Iss. 1, Article 1. Available at: http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr/vol26/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at Mitchell Hamline Open Access. It has been accepted for inclusion in William Mitchell Law Review by an authorized administrator of Mitchell Hamline Open Access. For more information, please contact . © Mitchell Hamline School of Law Cabrera and Zeman: Law School Academic Support Programs—A Survey of Available Academ LAW SCHOOL ACADEMIC SUPPORT PROGRAMS-A SURVEY OF AVAILABLE ACADEMIC SUPPORT PROGRAMS FOR THE NEW CENTURY Richard Cabrerat Stephanie Zemantt 205 I. INTRODUCTION ............................................ 206 II. THE SURVEY ................................................... A. Schools with ASP .......................................................... 208 B. Criteria, Compulsion and Components............................. 208 1. Criteria.................................................................. 208 2. Compulsion............................................................ 209 3. Components............................................................ 209 C. Minority Programs........................................................ 210 211 III. WILLIAM MITCHELL COLLEGE OF LAW .............................. 212 IV. CONCLUSION .................................................. I. INTRODUCTION 2 are relatively new pheprograms (ASP)' Academic support • nomena at United States law schools. Academic support programs in law schools began as an attempt to emulate undergraduate programs which began in the early 1960s to assist "high-risk" students t Richard Cabrera, J.D., 1984, University of Minnesota School of Law, is Assistant Dean for Academic Support Programs at William Mitchell College of Law and has been at the College since 1987. J.D. Candidate 2000, William Mitchell College of Law; B.S., 1988, Univertt sity of Wisconsin-River Falls. Ms. Zeman was Dean Cabrera's 1998-99 research assistant. 1. Academic support refers to programs which are intended to improve the academic performance of traditionally at-risk students and to provide "early academic assistance" to those who actually are "at risk" of not succeeding. See Kathy L. Cerminara, Remembering Arthur: Some Suggestions for Law School Academic Support Programs, 21 T. MARSHALL L. REV. 249, 251 (1996); see also Paul T. Wangerin, Law School Academic Support Programs,40 HASTINGS L.J. 771, 772-74(1989). 2. See Wangerin, supra note 1, at 773-77 (describing the history of academic support programs in higher and legal education, many of the latter just coming into existence during the 1980s). Published by Mitchell Hamline Open Access, 2000 1 William Mitchell Law Review, Vol. 26, Iss. 1 [2000], Art. 1 WILLIAM MITCHELL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 26:1 or students on probation.' The initial focus of the law school programs was for admitted students who experienced academic difficulty.4 One primary exception is the long-available summer program offered by the Council for Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) . Academic support programs in law schools often began as part of an affirmative action effort and many of the programs were initially targeted at minority students. However, the past twelve to fifteen years have been a period of great growth in law school ASP.7 This growth has prompted, within the last five years, the formation and full accreditation of an Academic Support Programs Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). II. THE SURVEY This report is the result of a survey that was taken over a two and one-half year period. This Academic Support Programs Survey began with an initial mailing of a questionnaire to all ABAaccredited U.S. law schools in Fall 1996. 9 A second mailing, telephone and electronic mail contacts followed commencing in October 1998. Ultimately, 175 law schools were contacted and 152 responded with study data. 3. See id. 4. See id. 5. See id. at 774-77; see also Cerminara, supra note 1, at 250 n.3, 262-63 (describing CLEO as intended for "economically and educationally disadvantaged" students). 6. See Cerminara, supra note 1, at 252 (stating that a number of programs developed as part of "special minority admissions programs "),see also LAw SCHOOL ADMISSIONS COUNCIL, Summary Report on the LSAC Questionnaireon Special Law School Programsfor Minority Students (1988) [hereinafter LSAC Report] (reporting that 180 LSAC member schools, including Canadian schools, were polled and 128 schools responded; fewer than half offered ASP for minority students); Leslie G. Espinoza, Empowerment and Achievement in Minority Law Student Support Programs: Constructing Affirmative Action, 22J. OF L. REFORM 281, 281-82 nn.4-5 (reporting that, of the 128 schools responding in the LSAC Report, 97 gave school-specific information and only 50 of those had no academic support program for minorities though many more had minority-directed admissions programs). 7. See survey results, infra Part II.A. 8. The new section first met to receive provisional status in January, 1995, at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Full accreditation was obtained in time for the January, 1998, AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. 9. The mailing included 174 schools, in contrast to the 1988 LSAC study of 180 schools. Canadian and Puerto Rican law schools were not polled for our survey. William Mitchell was the 175th school in the study. http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr/vol26/iss1/1 2 Cabrera and Zeman:ACADEMIC Law School Academic Support Programs—A Survey of Available Academ SUPPORT PROGRAMS 20001 There were three purposes for conducting this study. The first simply was to count our AALS ASP Section ranks. The second was to answer frequent questions from faculty and others involved in academic support programs. William Mitchell College of Law faculty and ASP administrators were concerned with how to offer, improve and measure programs in the future. In particular, this involved inquiries into the frequency of mandatory programs and the nature of programs that ASP commonly offered. The third inquiry involved one of the basic purposes for starting ASP at William Mitchell.10 That purpose was to benefit incoming disadvantaged students who then were identified as members of minority groups. We wanted to see if our change in focus to avoid stigma for academic support students generally was reflected in the ASP community. We did not measure (...truncated)