A. General Expectations and Technical Standards
As a professional school, our students must demonstrate competence across a range of knowledge and skills. Further, the American Bar Association and state bar associations require that students and graduates meet certain eligibility requirements for admission to the legal profession.
To achieve these standards, competencies and expectations, students at Mitchell Hamline School of Law must comply with various obligations, either with or without reasonable accommodation consistent with applicable law. Students must demonstrate these competencies and expectations throughout law school. These competencies, and expectations, known as Technical Standards, are listed and described in the Policy Repository and incorporated by reference herein.
B. Attendance Policy
The program of instruction at the School of Law is based on an active and informed exchange between instructor and student and between student and student. Regular, prepared class attendance helps develop skills essential to the competent practice of law. Regular and punctual class attendance and adequate preparation are required.
Requirement: Regular and punctual class attendance is required. Students are expected to attend in-person classes (including preparation sessions and capstone weeks) in person. Students are responsible for attending all remote synchronous classes at the scheduled class meeting time. Attendance for students attending class remotely and synchronously may be measured in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to: polling, hand raising, class discussions, or use of video function in Zoom. Missing more than 2 regularly-scheduled in-person classroom hours per credit hour (e.g., missing more than 6 classroom hours of a 3-credit course); failing to log into an online or blended course for more than one week; and missing any time during in-person preparation sessions or capstone weeks are all considered presumptively excessive absences. Faculty are authorized to impose more stringent attendance policies provided that when a faculty member imposes an attendance policy that differs from this policy, the faculty member shall publish their attendance policy in their syllabus for the course and shall make the policy available to the Vice Dean, Academics and the Dean of Students.
Record-keeping and reporting: Upon report(s) from the instructor, the Vice Dean, Academics has authority to involuntarily withdraw students whose absences are excessive. Faculty must keep a record of each student’s attendance, and must report to the Dean of Students, or their delegate, any student whose absences are presumptively excessive. A student’s absences are considered presumptively excessive if the student has missed more than two regularly-scheduled in-person classroom hours per credit hour; failed to log into an online or blended course for more than one week; or missed any time during in-person preparation sessions or capstone weeks, unless the student has made appropriate arrangements with the professor, the Dean of Students, and/or the Assistant Dean, Academic Affairs. It is a violation of the Student Code of Conduct to falsely sign an attendance sheet for a student not present in class. It is a Student Code of Conduct violation to sign in for a class that was not attended in substantial part.
C. First Class Assignments
Most instructors assign course work for the first day of classes. Instructors shall post first assignments on the learning management system used for the course (Canvas). In all cases, instructors will announce the first assignment for a class to the students in the class no later than one week before the first class session.
D. Class Make-Up Policy
Instructors may schedule make-up classes in advance of a canceled class. Instructors are expected to announce the time and date to make up canceled classes as soon as possible after the cancellation. Instructors do not schedule makeup class(es) during the last two weeks of a semester unless it is impossible to make up the canceled class(es) at any other time. Instructors may arrange for video or audio recordings of makeup classes to be posted in the Panopto Recordings section of their Canvas course pages.
E. Plagiarism Evaluation Software
In all classes at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, students are responsible for ensuring that their work complies with assignment requirements, academic integrity, and other conduct detailed in the Student Code of Conduct. Some courses may use a plagiarism prevention software tool to confirm that students are using sources accurately in their written work and that their written work is their own. In any course where this tool is used, students will be required to check a box on Canvas confirming that their work is their own when submitting assignments using this tool. Faculty members using this tool may request to see reports comparing submitted assignment to other assignments in that course and other classes.
F. Course Evaluations
Each semester, all students complete an evaluation for each course they take. The completed evaluation forms are reviewed by the Vice Dean, Academics and the ratings on the forms are tabulated. The evaluations are returned to the instructor after grades for each course are submitted. The evaluations provide useful feedback to the instructor. The evaluations also are available to the Tenure Committee. The Tenure Committee is responsible for assisting beginning instructors and evaluating the quality of teaching. Committee members also visit classes to obtain direct information. The evaluations are used in the same manner by the administration in making decisions on course assignments, salary, promotion, tenure of tenure-track instructors, and retention of adjunct instructors.