2022 - 23 CLS Student Satisfaction Survey 1 F OREWORD Thank you to everyone who participated in this survey! Included in this document are . . . 1. C ONTENTS 1 Background ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 2 2 Highlights ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 2 3 Overall Student Satisfaction ................................ ................................ ................................ ....................... 3 4 Departmental Satisfaction ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................... 4 5 Discrimination at Cornell Law School ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 5 6 Written Responses ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 6 N OTE Stacked bar graphs were used to display data visually as responses are represented as percentages. The p ercentage of respondents who answered affirmatively can be counted starting from the left side of the graph to where the color changes. Furthermore, because the ide al outcome is full student satisfaction, an ideal graph would have a complete ly green bar as follows: 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Student was enrolled at Cornell Law in Spring 2023. % of Respondents Example Percentage Bar Graph Yes No 2 CLSA Student Body Survey Results 1 B ACKGROUND CLSA conducted a survey of the Cornell Law School 2022 - 2023 student body between July 6 and July 14, 2023, and 113 students responded. The survey consisted of 15 questions: 6 questions asking students to agree or disagree with a given statement, 6 question s asking students their level of satisfaction with different departments or facets of CLS, and 3 optional questions where students could provide written feedback. Students were informed that their submissions would be aggregated and released to promote gre ater transparency and accountability at C ornell Law School 2 H IGHLIGHTS Positives ● Most students have enjoyed the overall student experience at Cornell Law school (75.2% ). See Table 1. ● Most students feel supported and valued by other students at CLS (74.33%). See Table 1. ● Most students are satisfied with academics and the classroom experience at Cornell Law School (82.3%). See Table 2. ● Most students are satisfied with library services at Cornell Law (74.33%). See Table 2. Areas of Concern ● Over 1 in 4 respondents say they have faced discrimination at Cornell Law School (25.66%). See Table 3. ● Only 15.9% of respondents believe that the Cornell Law School experience is worth its tuition cost, while 70.8% disagree that the experience is worth the cost. See Table 1. ● 61% of respondents are dissatisfied with the Dean of Students Office, while only 21.24% are satisfied. See Table 2. 3 3 O VERALL S TUDENT S ATISFACTION Figure 1: Percentage Bar Chart Representing Student Satisfaction at Cornell Law School Strongly Agree Agree No Opinion Disagree Strongly Disagree I have enjoyed the overall student experience at CLS. 19.47 55.75 7.08 12.39 5.31 I would recommend CLS to a prospective student. 25.66 38.94 14.16 15.93 5.31 The administration at CLS supports its students 5.31 24.78 14.16 36.28 19.47 The Cornell law experience is worth $77,508.00. 3.54 12.39 13.27 39.82 30.97 I feel supported and valued by my fellow students at CLS. 20.35 53.98 7.96 15.04 2.65 Table 1 : Student Satisfaction at Cornell Law School (Percentages) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 I feel supported and valued by my fellow students at Cornell Law School. The Cornell Law experience is worth $77,508.00 (2023-24 tuition cost). The administration at Cornell Law School supports its students. I would recommend Cornell Law School to a prospective student. I have enjoyed the overall student experience at Cornell Law School. % of Respondents Student Satisfaction at Cornell Law School Strongly Agree Agree No Opinion Disagree Strongly Disagree 4 4 D EPARTMENTAL S ATISFACTION Figure 2 : Percentage Bar Chart Representing Student Satisfaction with Departments at Cornell Law School Highly Satisfied Somewhat Satisfied No Opinion Somewhat Dissatisfied Highly Dissatisfied Classroom Experience & Academics 39.82 42.48 4.42 11.50 1.77 Course Offerings / Variety 19.47 45.13 12.39 16.81 6.19 Dean of Students Office 8.85 12.39 17.70 29.20 31.86 Library Services 46.02 28.32 18.58 7.96 36.28 Career Services 14.16 30.97 7.96 27.43 19.47 Diversity and Inclusion Efforts 7.08 23.01 36.28 30.35 13.27 Table 2 : Student Satisfaction with Cornell Law School Departments (Percentages) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Diversity and Inclusion Efforts Career Services Library Services Dean of Students Office Course Offerings / Variety Classroom Experience / Academics % of Respondents Departmental Satisfaction at Cornell Law School Highly Satisfied Somewhat Satisfied No Opinion Somewhat Dissatisfied Highly Dissatisfied 5 5 D ISCRIMINATION AT C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL Figure 3: Percentage Bar Graph representing the Student Experience of Discrimination Strongly Agree Agree No Opinion Disagree Strongly Disagree I have faced Discrimination at Cornell Law School 3.54 22.12 23.01 30.97 20.35 Table 3: Students Facing Discrimination at Cornell Law School (Percentages) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 I have faced Discrimination at Cornell Law School. % of Respondents Discrimination at Cornell Law School Strongly Agree Agree No Opinion Disagree Strongly Disagree 6 6 W RITTEN R ESPONSES F REQUENTLY M ENTIONED T OPICS 1. W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL D O W ELL ? W HAT ARE THE B EST PARTS OF THE S TUDENT E XPERIENCE AT C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL ? ( P 7 - 9) • Professors and Academics (31 Comments) • Collegial Environment and Student Body (22 comments) • Student Organizations and Events (12 comments) • BigLaw Placement / Career Outcomes (9 comments) • Clinics / Experiential Learning (6 comments) 2. I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? ( P .10 - 17 ) • Dean of Students Office (16 commen ts) • Career Services (14 comments) • Diversity Efforts (14 comments) • Staffing Changes (11 comments) • Communication (10 comments) 3. A DDITIONAL C ONTEXT ( P .18) 7 A LL W RITTEN R ESPONSES 1. W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL D O W ELL ? W HAT ARE THE B EST PARTS OF THE S TUDENT E XPERIENCE AT C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL ? 1) It's a pretty building! And under renovation (this is where our tuition money is going)! 2) Commiserating with fellow students about how awful the experience is 1.) Curriculum for corporate work. 2.) student events (bbq, barristers, bar tabs, etc.) Academics and NYBL placement. Admissions picks great students and the professors are great Amanda Jantzi was a real highlight - I hope administration ensures that her replacement is just as proactive, in touch, and caring as she was. Also, professors are impressively interested in the lives of those students who reach out to them. I have felt nothing but support from my professors. Awesome faculty, s olid classes, good student extracurriculars, great big law pipeline so the degree pays for itself CLSA CLSA rocks! Community is great :) Clubs, clinics, and career events. Also many of the professors and staff here are some of the most supportive people out there. Cornell does a great job fostering a collegial environment. I really feel safe and comfortable being who I am here. I'm one of a few public interest students, but I' ve never felt like that interest is belittled or undervalued. Cornell faculty are great. The small class size really does make the school experience more enjoyable, and professors generally do well at hearing student concerns and explaining material. The law school building is a lot of fun to hang out at, and students are generally respectful. Cornell Law does a good job at fostering a friendly community of students. The professors are also usually very helpful, available, and knowledgeable. The events ar e fun. Cornell Law does a really good job at preparing students for the real world, more so than I think we give it credit for. Cornell Law does well at feeding people into BigLaw, albeit heavily in NYC. I think administration at CLS is generally good at what they do. I do think the community at CLS is relatively friendly, and people can find a place for themselves. I also think CLS does value the free exchange of ideas. Cornell Law School does giving their students the ability to have c areer flexibility and security well. However, it is debatable if that’s Cornell Law School’s doing or just the name that Cornell Law holds. Forming a close community among 1L students. My favorite parts are getting to know my professors and classmates so well and feeling supported by them. Good bringing together of students Good classmates/professors (mostly - there are some evil people) Good professors. Smart people. 8 W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL D O W ELL ? W HAT ARE THE B EST PARTS OF THE S TUDENT E XPERIENCE AT C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL ? ( CONTINUED ) I have been very impressed with the quality of my professors and their willingness to take one - on - one time to meet with students. I liked the mentorship program with 2Ls. I love being on a journal and loved my clinic I love my professors and some/most of the student body. It's full of great people. I love the career prospects and resources. I love the environment and the Many excellent professors! Student body that helps fill gaps with administration. Networking eve nts. Nice library. Nice people. Place into BL, shared misery Sends students to big law firms. Has small class sizes and good professors (although seems to be quite fond of letting the best get away in favor of entrenching power in an administration that doesn't respect the students and isn't liked by either students or professors) Small, strong community. Smaller, collegial environment. Good student events. Great professors (mostly). Some of the professors were really good at their jobs and clearly cared about providing a good experience for their students. Taking classes with these professors was the best part of CLS. Some phenomenal professors. Student Organization activities and support Student organizations are really the crux of this law school. They encourage students to try new things, develop their skills, and meet new people. When the school doesn't support these organizations sufficiently and adequately - and leaves it all for stud ents - it worsens the experience as leaders, and therefore can worsen a participant or underclassman's experience. Cornell needs to do better to uplift the best part of Cornell. Support for disabled students is wonderful. I had a difficult time health wi se this past semester, and the financial, logistical, and emotional support I was given by people like Amanda Jantzi and Dean Miner was fantastic. I felt cared for. CLS also supports its affinity groups. My experience in my affinity group was amazing 1L ye ar. I have yet to experience directly working with the CLS administration, but as a student who attended bootcamp, I thought CLS really showed out and did great. Teaches relevant legal skills and teaches the law very well The academics and the student culture are great, at least in my section. If anything made CLS worth $77K it's the quality of education. The affinity groups have been the GOAT in propping up this school. The Clinical Programs and library services are both incredible, and most of the students at CLS are inquisitive and kind - hearted. Amanda and Ben were both great. So are Jasmine and Samantha and Director Azemi! The rest of CLS, however, is a piece of work. 9 W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL D O W ELL ? W HAT ARE THE B EST PARTS OF THE S TUDENT E XPERIENCE AT C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL ? ( CONTINUED ) The clinics and practicums are absolutely one of the best parts of Cornell law. There is such a great variety, the clinical professors are superb, and it provides real - life experiences. The librari ans and library services and study spaces are great. The clinics are amazing, though not emphasized enough and the faculty not valued enough. That is where I learned how to be a lawyer and what has allowed me to jump directly into a direct services posit ion with confidence. That is also where I found classmates with similar values and felt safest. The faculty is generally competent, enthusiastic, and knowledgable about the subject matter they teach. I have enjoyed most of my classes and professors. The faculty that are genuinely talented instructors (and not just tenure leaches on ego trips, which some most certainly are) are incredible. The library staff is g reat and some of the adjunct and assistant professors are really amazing The only good part about Cornell Law is its ability to get students big law job. Arguably everything else is mediocre. The professors The professors and academics The professors a nd actual courses are, generally speaking, fantastic. The experiential learning opportunities are also incredible and easily accessible. The professors are really great. The professors seem to care about the students (even if admin does not) The student organizations are fantastic. The students The students are definitely the best part of the CLS experience, along with several superstar professors. Getting funding taken care of for student events has been a nightmare. I do appreciate the effort that career services put in to helping me get AJF in terviews though. The students are good. Professors are very accomplished and competent. The students faculty and staff are supported by an inclusive and friendly overall culture The teachers support their students and offer countless opportunities to connect outside of class. My classroom experiences have generally been welcoming to different worldviews. The Law School attracts great speakers from all walks of life. There's lots of interesting classes and the 1L orientation does a goo d job of fostering enough a sense of community for students to find a solid friend group, which is critical in my opinion Usually, the small and selective cohorts are a big plus. Also, the fact that many professors are practicioners is a great asset. The fact that there are courses that have a strong transactional focus is great and prepares students for what they will like ly be doing after law school. 10 2. I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? A cafeteria in the building would be nice. Some place to get food and drinks later at night, because the vending machines are terrible and always broken. Better advising for students for schoolwork and careers. Better immediate availability and actual tailored help per student. Better communication with the student body by DOS and Registrar, registration EARLIER AND ON PEOPLESOFT FOR DUAL DEGREES. Biglaw is the only thing everyone cares about Career services needs to be far more proactive. Many students are fending for themsel ves and are seeking basic guidance from online forums because the school is providing zero direction. This was true both for the 1L summer job search and now during pre - OCI and OCI. Career services focuses too heavily on piecemeal and a la carte assistance : Resume, cover letter, and bidding list reviews. We need more holistic support, especially for first - generation law students who do not know how the recruiting process works. I am fortunate to have found a 2L summer associateship, but many of my classmate s are incredibly worried at their lack of prospects and feel alone. They have shared with me that this is proving to be one of the most vulnerable and distressing periods of their lives. Cornell should be actively reaching out to students, asking them how they are doing with respect to accomplishing their goals, and helping them in the event that they are not having success. CAREER SERVICES! I had a bad experience with one advisor telling me one thing and Dean Akyea telling me something completely differe nt later. I strongly feel this was to my detriment. While I admire Akyea, her and career services have a bad history of not following through. Also, perhaps it was me not looking hard enough, but I do not feel that career resources were made clear enough t o 1Ls. change graduation to sunday Communication -- there is no information shared with students until the last possible moment. I feel completely unaware of what is to come (e.g., we received an email the day pre - registration for clinics started saying it started that day with zero heads up). I tried to call the DOS office beforehand to plan ahead and never received a callback. There is no open communication or information. Cornell Law needs to listen to students. It needs to recognize that students a re people first then law students, not the other way around. That can be said for administrative/support staff and adjunct faculty as well. There is a reason students are constantly pushing back against administration and staff are fleeing - it’s a lack of respect and lack of care and it’s keenly felt by many members of the Cornell Law community. Dean of Students office has a terrible reputation of being an obstacle rather than a partner to students orgs. I would enable a more productive and fair DoS. 11 I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? ( CONTINUED ) DOS and Career Services are both under - staffed and underfunded, and I have more examples of both than I care to include. Students are responsible for the majority of the law school event calendar, and DOS puts the majority of event - planning disproportiona tely on minorities and students of color. Multiple times DOS has maxed out its P card before key events and asked students to put money on their credit cards, only to wait months for reimbursements while students accrue credit card debt plus interest. Mor eover, DOS and the Registrar are extremely disorganized, such that it can take weeks to get a response from either. Classes have been mislabeled (e.g., saying Winter Trial Ad was eligible for a PR credit) or are offered at conflicting and/inconvenient time s (e.g., Fall 2022 Evidence being at 7PM with a professor that sometimes required class to be on Friday evening, IHR Clinic conflicting with Int’l Law, etc.). Further, Career Services does very little to support students in their job searches. Outside of O CI, students are expected to fend for themselves (e.g., Career Services sending out the Equal Justice Works job openings 1 - 2 days before the application deadline). The Clerkship Director is similarly poor at advising; in at least once instance, he has miss ed important spelling errors in his review or cover letters and resumes (the admin staff supporting him are great though!). In addition to hiring more staff, ensuring institutional memory, increasing transparency, training the current staff well, Cornell s hould also offer more funding to its PI students, reform its LRAP to have a higher income cap (think 100k), and consider compensating students for their work on journals and student orgs. Easier event reimbursement; more organized programming for student s of minority groups Fire and Dean Miner. Most of the administrative offices fail to support students in a meaningful way and I think a lot is attributable to the leadership. As a student, career services has been wholly unhelpful. In the 1L job process t hey failed to give students critical information about judicial internships that negatively affected my summer employment. Then as a 2L, they failed to offer support during the busiest time of OCI. I emailed their office in the height of summer job search and was left without a response for days just to be told that their office was handling orientation. The Office of Student Services is also highly inaccessible. As a club leader, I struggled to get into contact with anyone in the office for months despite countless emails and in person visits. OSS also negatively effects the culture of the law school in so many regards. While not actually offering real support and encouragement, the office is usually patronizing, condescending, dismissive, and outright rude to students. The registrar is also highly unsupportive. They fail to communicate basic information about courses, frequently miss handle accommodations, grades, and other requests. They also are not understanding or respectful to student's concerns ab out course staff or in class room messages. Overall I do not feel supported by any office in the law school and credit my success in this school and in my career to my fellow students, professors, and alumni. Fire Dean Miner. Gut the administration. Get compassionate people who want to see students succeed, not those who hide behind random policies and arbitrary rules. Stop deadnaming folks. Admit more black and brown students, and native students. Why a re there only 9 black incoming students? Be more communicative. Allow students to nominate for more than one graduation prize - we deserve more input. 12 I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S C HOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? ( CONTINUED ) Fire every employee of the Registrar’s Office; complete refresh required to resolve deeply - rooted ineptitude Fire Miner Give credit for law review Having more events to bring the student body together inside the law school. I think Cornell needs to cut tuition - it's ridiculously high compared to peer schools. Additionally, Cornell needs to invest more into its student extracurriculars even when th ey do not immediately result in career outcomes. It's odd to me how much money Corporate Connect and Moot Court get while the other extracurriculars beg for pennies. I would (especially after the recent SCOTUS cases) do more to support women, BIPOC, trans, and LGBT students I would change the accommodations process to make students feel supported. Also would make the process less confusing. I would not have taken accommodations away from students for the JJWC either, especially not after the test had already began. I would consider adjusting staffing in the DoS office. The Dean of Students is rarely a help and almost always an obstacle. DoS takes all requests and recommendations negatively and responds with retaliatory remarks. There is very little transparency from the office about funding matters, and DoS takes little accountability for its errors. I have heard rumors of a toxic workplace environment, as well, and the turnover of five or more staff members in the office in the last three years seem s to support those allegations. Career Services could offer clearer timelines and guidance overall on how to approach different types of career prospects. I would fire Dean Miner, offer whatever compensation and benefits it would take to get a real reg istrar, and work to address discrimination problems faced by marginalized students with any real amount of enthusiasm. I would make lawyering more credits -- it is the only class where we gain tangible skills that will help us in our careers. I would off er more direct guidance on career paths, ESPECIALLY in the PI sphere. Very little is communicated to students that don't have time for things like Corporate Connect. As somebody who has no other lawyers in my family, I feel that Cornell took for granted th at I knew what "Big Law" even was, or how to apply, or what my resume should look like, or how to network. The situation is even more dire for PI, where students are given almost no guidance. I would provide much more support to public interest students. It’s unacceptable that we haven’t had any admin in charge of public interest for 2 years. Public interest students are almost completely without professional guidance. I would hire not only a director, but a team, so public interest students can get guidan ce and information and events on the scale that big law students do. I would also confront incidents of bigotry among students and staff directly, instead of issuing weak statements trying to appeal to “both sides.” 13 I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? ( CONTINUED ) I would significantly increase funding and resources for public interest students. PILU being forced to run public interest career events that th e administration should be running is absurd. As a public interest student, I largely do not feel valued or supported in my career interests and endeavors by the administration. I would try to find more poor kids. I find that the kids at Cornell are gener ally pretty immature because they lack real life experience. They have been coddled their whole lives and have been taught to believe that because they can score well on tests, they are superior to the rest of humanity. If I became the Dean of Cornell Law School, I would make a wider effort to do more extensive interviews before admitting. I would make a more conscious effort in the method in which Student sections for 1Ls are chosen. I would be willing to change and make adaptations throughout the school year to schedules or learning environments if I am aware that a certain class section or group is struggling or creating a toxic learning environment because that toxic learning environment from one class section can tran sfer into the rest of the law school, creating a toxic law school. I would focus on having more diversity at Cornell Law race wise because some of the best and insightful conversations I’ve had were after a class and a diverse group of students discussed t opics and different perspectives that the professor may not have discussed during class. The stench of privilege and egos that drip from the heads of some of the law students here is nauseating, so I would try to admit more down - to - earth individuals. Such as individuals who have worked at least one day in their life, individuals who have been told “no” at least once in their life, simply put, if I became the Dean I would admit more humble students because I believe those are the individuals who create a wel coming and collaborative work environment which will truly produce a law school that makes lawyers in the best sense rather than continuing to make toxic lawyers to add more fuel to the burning flames of privilege, ego, and out of touch individuals that is the legal field. If I was the Dean of Cornell Law, I would hire a new Dean of Students first and foremost. I would actually do a clean sweep of the office and hire people who actually care about the students. Amanda Jantzi was amazing, but now she's gone . Cornell Law's biggest issues are the administration and retaining quality staff/faculty. Ideally, our administration's various offices would be more robust and filled with competent, innovative staff members. Unfortunately, the turnover rate is high beca use those who do care about the students quickly realize that the administration clearly does not. I'm not sure this is directly in DOS purview, but CLS's relative weakness in non - NYC markets is something that could be worked on. A few years ago, I would have said clerkship placement, but the recent changes made on this front have brought on clear results. 14 I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? ( CONTINUED ) Law school tends to implicitly encourage and reward selfish and cruel behavior by pitting students against each other through the curve. Cold calling adds to this by creating unnecessarily tense situations in class. Law school is also very similar to high school since the same group of people tend to be in the same classes. For some people, this brings out a desire to create cliques and drama for entertainment. In addition, because many law school classes don't provide good learning m aterial, students need to find their own outlines. This essentially creates a game where students are encouraged to form alliances to obtain the best outlines and ostracize socially weak students so that the curve is easier. To counteract some of these u nfortunate realities of law school, I would make a point to teach students not to bully their classmates. Most adults know this already so I understand why the Dean wouldn't think this is necessary. Unfortunately, it is necessary at Cornell. Lawyering w eek should be right after Orientation Week. Many of the skills we "learned" during Lawyering week were things that we had to learn for ourselves during the first semester in order to complete our assignments. Less big law. More environmental law, more fo cus on Justice. Listen to what the students want rather than what you think the students want, increase transactional law course offerings, allocate more money towards administration to enable the school to hire competent people (e.g., registrar), take accountability when you mess up (e.g., contracts exams being sent out Fall 2020, sending the wrong grades to PR students) Lower tuition, buy out some of the tenured professors because they seem to have no interest in teaching or being sup portive of students, focus less on metrics when selecting students, make a genuine effort to create a class of students diverse across as many dimensions as possible (race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status) that also prioritizes collaborative and wa rm personalities (think Michigan Law), and create more concrete support for building careers outside of biglaw (think Yale Law). Lower tuition, pay more money to local taxes and indigenous persons, protest Cornell University supporting Israel through pro gramming, listen to LGBTQ students concerns regarding discrimination and forced outing. Work to improve racial and ethnic diversity in the student body. More clarity to the students about changes. More diverse faculty and student body, increased support for affinity groups, lower tuition or more scholarships, more support of clinical programs, more support of PI students More diversity, stop raising tuition with no changes to anything, PAKRING PARKING PARKING PARKING No one ever answers their phone in administration. This starts from the very beginning where the admitted students phone number/email is completely unreachable. There should be at least s part time student worker who can answer phone calls and answer simpl e questions for admitted students. It is a bad look. This continues on with the registrar/Dean of students not being on time/competent at times with different documents and things. A lot of information is disseminated last minute which is also frustrating and unnecessary (class schedules, course sign up, etc) 15 I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? ( CONTINUED ) Promote more diversity of thought and a robust free marketplace of ideas instead of politically correct ideological conformity on campus — especially when that comes from faculty instead of students Ranked metrics need to be elevated to match the high quality of students (LSAT, GPA) in our class, as this t ier of student - body exceeds our #13 ranking. Recruiting stuff. Make it more PI and clerkship friendly. Respect the students and treat them like adults. Transparency in student org finances. Actually giving student organizations their dedicated funding, or funding provided to them by external sources. Maintaining some level of ownership over mistakes instead of allowing the registrar to (1) continually fail the students and (2) taking no responsibility for those failures or sympathizing with or helping students with legitimate grievances. Pretending to care for a single second about the students in your schoo l goes a long way towards mutual respect. Select a more diverse LL.M. group It is embarassing that half of the cohort is from one country while only one person from the whole African continent attends. 2. Hire a bankruptcy professor. 3. Allow Externships for LL.M. students. 4. Give final grades and GPAs to LL.M.s. 5. Set up a better orientati on week program for LL.M.s. 6. Organize Law School Mixers every week - like for real, even Emory can get different law firms to sponsor one every week. The business school has it too. 7. Make the career service adapt to market downturns. If the candidat es have to work harder to get a job, so should the career service. Business as usual in an environment where hardly any LL.M. gets job offers is not fair. Some professors/exams have been wildly different in quality. Definitely felt like there was some ra ndomness to grades as a result. Maybe this is normal to law school in general. Considering the expense (total cost of living >$100K per year), allocating more funds to more free perks would be nice. The ones the school currently has (Wednesday coffee, m ixers) are really nice and boost morale. Paying extra money for events like the fall ball, etc. might not seem like much, but isn't a great feeling for students already paying for tuition through loans. Someone more compassionate and relatable to the stud ents should head the DOS office in bringing the school and students together. More community town hall meetings should be held. Stop making it so damn expensive for what it is. I'd make Cornell Law School a non - profit in fact and not just in name. Student and Career Services should be more accessible and responsive to students. Student hunger, student org inactivity, and the scarcity of benefits or me aningful supports for mental/ whole health is disappointing. In a profession known for its mental health issues, it's appalling how little CLS offers to make its students days a little easier. Supporting student groups should be more of a priority as well as getting a broader range of classes. 16 I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? ( CONTINUED ) The administration needs a dramatic overhaul. Every single faculty member that was loved by the student body quit and it is directly because of certain administrators, namely Dean Miner. I have been asked if I would go to Cornell Law School again, and I tell prospective students that I would not if I had admission to comparable schools. The school does not actually care about the students, so why should the students care about the school. I will be donating money to my previous academic institutions because it was apparent that they put effort into improving the st udent experience. Cornell Law School is the assembly line factory version of a T14 law school and has done nothing to make me feel as though it has been worth my money. I emailed Beth Lyons, clinical director, on five separate occasions over the course of two months with the same question. She did not respond to me or my clinic professor until my clinic professor left multiple voicemails. I still never received a response. Instances of blatant unprofessionalism like this are all too common, and I have no po sitive feelings towards the administration at this point. The career service office is essentially useless. AJF has literally become meaningless now that most students get job offers beforehand, and the career services office’s refusal to modify job searc h resources harms students. Talking about pre - OCI on one slide at an optional info session does NOT qualify as addressing the issue. Instead of directing money and time towards AJF, we should have mandatory resume edit sessions, counsellors should HELP stu dents with pre OCI, we should be given resources to know which firms to apply to pre OCI, have software to help streamline PRE OCI applications. We should mot have needed a student organization google sheets spreadsheet, created by 3Ls in their own time, t o show us where to apply. The Dean of Students office let down [REDACTED], a student from [REDACTED] if it were not for her being forced to drop out. She [was injured] which affected her academic performance. From my understanding, the Dean of Students office offered [REDACTED] lit tle to no accommodations and did not permit her to defer her enrollment. She was a bright student who may have otherwise been able to recover and continue her studies this year. As Dean of Cornell, I would focus more efforts on accommodating students deali ng with similar crises. The significantly skewed national origin of the students does not allow for interactions among students from diverse backgrounds. In addition, the fact that many students have no work experience also makes the return of practical p erspectives from different jurisdictions scarce. I believe that diversity is an area that needs to be improved as soon as possible. In addition, the administrative office and employment support team are so poor that it must be said that this is a point of frustration for students. Pro bono opportunities are also very few and feel inferior compared to other law schools. The staff needs to be improved, the finaid services, the career services, and the academic services. They are disorganized and do not provi de what is needed to the students. 17 I F YOU BECAME THE D EAN OF C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL , WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE ? W HAT DOES C ORNELL L AW S CHOOL NEED TO IMPROVE ON ? ( CONTINUED ) The way Cornell Law manages its money is a scandal. The tradition of awarding $10,000 to any student that sits on the front row on Admitted Students Day is a spit in the face to every J.D. student. Does the financial aid office have any idea of all the sac rifices it takes to attend Cornell Law? In all my interactions with them, I have only been treated with contempt and disrespect. Not to mention the law school's useless expenses... But worst of all is the lack of transparency regarding the allocation of our funds. The law school has taken thousands of dollars from CLSA without any justification. And the increase in tuition fees is simply unacceptable. It's hilarious that attending Cornell Law costs more than attending Harvard Law. There needs to be a greater response from admin when discriminatory incidents happen on and off campus. It is not normal that we've had multiple anti - semitic incidents, a claimed Nazi on the listserv, a white supremacist spewing hate speech (whom the admin istration allegedly helped transfer to a higher ranked school), anti - LGBT actions, and I could go on. There is also not enough support for student organizations. A majority of students work incredibly hard on journals, for example, and receive no credit or compensation in any form (despite credit being the norm in almost every other law school). Student affinity groups are forced to run their own career bootcamps, spending countless hours to create opportunities for other students, without much support from administration. I and many other students are frustrated with the lack of backbone by the administration and the fact that staff leaves like a revolving door. Try to make (career) feedback more individualized. I know this is a hard thing to do so can no t fault Cornell too much. Tuition costs, DEI initiatives (esp. structural DEI work), career services for PI folks (more resources, accessibility), 18 3. Y OU MAY USE THIS BOX TO PROVIDE ANY ADDITIONAL CONTEXT TO YOUR ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 1 - 13 IF YOU ' D LIKE I F THERE IS ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO PROVIDE AS COMMENTARY , SUGGESTION , OR CRITICISM , Y