Spring 2020 Gavel 268650 SBAND Gavel Magazine_web | Page 24

FACING CHALLENGES TOGETHER:
SBAND AND THE UND SCHOOL OF LAW
MICHAEL S. MCGINNISS
Dean, University of North Dakota
School of Law
The first months of 2020 have been hard and
trying ones. The extraordinary challenges
to the North Dakota legal profession and
the UND School of Law stemming from
the COVID-19 pandemic have tested our
wits, our wisdom, and our wills in ways
that we would never have expected when
the year began. Amidst these struggles,
however, I have also witnessed tremendous
strength of spirit and common cause among
our School of Law students, staff, and
faculty, as well as among our North Dakota
lawyers and judges. I am very pleased to
say SBAND and the School of Law have
been courageously facing these challenges
together, and I am very confident we will
continue to do so in the times ahead.
I would like to take this opportunity to
provide some updates about the School
of Law’s response to the COVID-19
pandemic; how our alumni and friends have
been supporting our students this semester;
and encouragements for how we can work
together to help our students and graduates
this summer and beyond.
I. Mandatory S/U Grading for
Spring 2020

When you review applications from our
UND Law students and graduates and
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THE GAVEL
see their class ranks, GPAs, or transcripts,
it is important for you to know how and
why Spring 2020 will be different than
any other. Because of the unprecedented,
mid-semester disruptions caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic, the School of Law
faculty adopted a special policy for Spring
2020 that all grades are required to be “S”
(Satisfactory) or “U” (Unsatisfactory), rather
than using the standard letter grading scale
of A-F. Under UND academic policies, a
grade of “S” grants credit toward graduation,
but does not affect a student's grade point
average, whereas a grade of “U” does not
grant credit toward graduation nor affect a
student's grade point average. We already
have several courses in our curriculum that
are regularly graded S/U (e.g., Professional
Foundations, Trial Advocacy, Externships,
Law Review, and Moot Court); but this
one-time policy for Spring 2020 covers all
courses and was not optional for students.
In the weeks leading up to our faculty’s
adoption of this grading policy, I created
an ad hoc committee that included
administration, faculty, and our Student
Bar Association president. I charged this
committee to gather information about
approaches other law schools were taking
to grading in light of the COVID-19
pandemic impacts, and to identify and set
out for our faculty the pros and cons of each
approach. The committee also surveyed
our students for their views, with an 88
percent response rate and many thoughtful
arguments in favor of the various available
options. Our faculty considered factors such
as the specific timing of the disruptions,
the mid-semester rapid change to remote
instruction, and the projections and
uncertainty about the developing situation
in North Dakota in the remaining weeks of
the semester. Then, along with a majority
of other law schools in the region (e.g.,
South Dakota and Montana) and across the
country (as of this writing, more than 75
percent), our faculty decided a mandatory
departure from A-F grading this semester
was the best option available to balance the
actual and potential impacts on our students
as a group. Our standard letter grading will
resume in the summer and in the upcoming
2020-2021 academic year.
In my memorandum to our students
explaining the mandatory S/U grading
decision for Spring 2020, I offered them the
following words of advice:
Please do not let these short-term
changes in the extrinsic measurement
of your academic performance lead you
to sacrifice the opportunities our faculty
are working diligently and creatively to
provide to help you learn the material
and develop your skills in the law.
Amid the tremendous disturbances of
this current crisis, I urge you to keep
investing in your long-term future to
the very best of your ability and to
the greatest extent permitted by your
circumstances. In this time of physical
distancing, I am very confident that
our students, staff, and faculty will be
there for each other as a UND Law
community to provide the support and
strengthening we all need to remain
resilient and meet the challenges that
are before us. I am very proud to be your
Dean, and together we will find our way
through these troubled times.

II. UND Law Alumni and Friends
Supporting Our Students This
Semester
This semester, and as always, our UND Law
alumni and friends have been wonderful
allies in our legal education program; but in
Spring 2020, these generous contributions
of time, talent, and attention have taken on
special importance. The example that stands
out most in my mind, is the mentorship
provided by almost 100 lawyers and judges
to our first-year students in Professional
Foundations (a.k.a, “ProfFound”). The