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Cover Story – 120 Years of Innovation
STETSON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW:
BY TOM DANIEL
Just like a person, an institution often has its own personality, a set of character traits that define it. At Stetson University College of Law, this personality is distinct. Stetson Law is dynamic and innovative. For more than 120 years, it has been a pioneer, always looking for new challenges and opportunities, as well as creative ways to address them. Above all, Stetson Law is resilient and compassionate.
Stetson Law Firsts
Stetson Law’s history as an innovator began with its founding. After repeated requests from members of The Florida Bar, the College of Law opened in 1900 in DeLand, becoming Florida’s first law school. Innovation also took shape in terms of inclusivity when in 1908, Mary Stewart Howarth-Hewitt attended Stetson and became the first woman in Florida to attend law school and earn a law degree. In their definitive book, “Florida’s First Law School, History of Stetson University College of Law,” the authors, Michael I. Swygert and W. Gary Vause, write, “… since its inception, Stetson University’s College of Law offered not only substantive, theoretical instruction in the law, it also required students to take an intensive skills course in trial practice. Its program was both comprehensive and innovative, a combination which, at the time, appears to have been unique in American legal education.”
Tenacious Throughout History
From the start, Stetson Law was forward-thinking. However, history often presented the school with unanticipated challenges. During the Great Depression, approximately 1,500 institutions of higher education in the country went bankrupt or were forced to shut down. The Florida state economy was in shambles, yet Stetson Law survived. Dean Lewis H. Tribble kept the school afloat by convincing teachers to remain at Stetson beyond their retirement and work for a lower salary. In the next decade, the school had to cope with a challenge it could not overcome – World War II. Facing economic challenges and a shortage of young men applying for the school because of the lowering of the draft age to 18, Stetson Law was shuttered from 1943 to 1946. At the war’s end, the Stetson Board of Trustees made the decision that it was time to reopen. In his announcement, then-President William Sims Allen said, “We are determined to have a law school of even greater distinction than past years.” Thus began a period of steady growth and achievement. Less than a decade later, in 1954, Stetson Law moved to its current location. University officials realized that to attract more students, present them with the opportunities that other law schools offered, and achieve the status the school desired, Stetson Law needed to move to a metropolitan community. Once word got out, three cities – Jacksonville, St. Petersburg, and Tampa – competed to be chosen as the new home. The winner was St. Petersburg, offering to pay
Photo credit: Emily Preu
The Public Defender Clinic in 1969. Robert E. Jagger, together with Stetson Professor Paul Barnard and 6th Judicial Circuit Senior Judge John Bird, organized the state’s first clinical legal education program at Stetson in 1963.
Stetson University President William Sims Allen and his secretary.
$100,00 of the $200,000 purchase price for the former Rolyat Hotel, which had been in foreclosure. In less than 10 years from the school’s closing during World War II, Stetson Law had rebounded and relocated, ushering in a new era.
Experience Is the Best Teacher
Stetson Law possesses a long-held belief in the value and power of experiential learning. This facet of the Stetson Law experience underwent a boom in the 1980s, when several new programs were added, including an elder law clinic, a joint J.D.-M.B.A. program, a federal judicial internships program, and a pro bono requirement for graduation. In 1986, the Elder Law Clinic opened, presenting students with an opportunity to represent and provide legal services to low-income seniors in the Tampa Bay region. Supervisory attorneys offered guidance to the students. This focus on elder law was taken to the national level with the establishment of the Stetson University College of Law Center for Law and Aging in 1995. When founded in 1988, the Federal Judicial Internship Program was considered a relatively uncommon offering for a law school. Over time, through this program, hundreds of Stetson Law students have benefited from their roles as part-time clerks for federal judges in the Middle District of Florida, which stretches from the Georgia border to Naples, Fla. By the end of the decade, Stetson Law students had seven clinics and centers from which to choose. They each provided an extremely valuable and enriching experience to all who participated. Along with the Elder Law Clinic, they included the Federal Civil Rights Clinic, the Stetson Labor Law Clinic, the Center for LaborManagement Dispute Resolution, the Public Defender Clinic, and the Prosecution Clinic, as well as a new Criminal Appeals Clinic. Of course these continued to evolve and grow during the past 40 years to the college’s current pillars: Center for Excellence in Advocacy; Center for Excellence in Elder Law; Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy; Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication; Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy; Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy; and Veterans Law Institute – all of which have produced groundbreaking legal and academic work through talented faculty and students. Not to mention the more than 300 clinic and externship opportunities, LL.M. and M.J. programs, and international programs Stetson Law now offers.
Graduates who walked in the December 2020 ceremonies adhered to safety guidelines, including wearing masks.
KEY INITIATIVES TO ADDRESS COVID-19 PANDEMIC
• Launching the Safer Stetson website with up-to-date information, resources, and FAQs • Launching the Everbridge mobile app for daily
COVID-19 screening • Creation of designated Wellness Stations as main access points during busy business hours and class times where students, employees, and visitors are required to stop for health screening • The installation of physical barriers in classrooms and offices where there is an increased potential for close contact with others • Improving air quality via HVAC systems • Investment to outfit classrooms with the necessary technology for dual-delivery classes, as well as giving both the Great Hall and Mann Lounge major technology upgrades so those large spaces can be utilized as classrooms • Partnership with iSelectMD that provides Stetson
Law students 24/7 access to real-time virtual medical consultations with physicians for COVID-19 concerns • Extensive new cleaning regimens using Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) approved cleaning solutions and tools, including electrostatic sprayers • Color-coded Stetson branded lanyards to help distinguish among students, employees, and visitors • Periodic testing of students and employees • Stetson Law purchased face coverings for all students and employees and implemented a strict Face
Covering Policy • Vaccinations available on campus
The 1996 Chester Bedell Mock Trial Competition winning team. Stetson Law has now won the competition 25 times in 38 years.
A Thorough and Thoughtful Response
Stetson Law’s most recent example of innovation and resilience has come during the COVID-19 pandemic. To assure students safety, many policies, procedures, and physical adjustments were made to comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mandates. Students were able to choose between attending classes in person, remotely, or a combination of both for this academic year. Approximately 75 percent of the incoming first-year class opted to pursue in-person instruction for most of their classes.
Dean Michèle Alexandre said, “This academic year is going to be unlike any other … we are confident our students will still experience the same rigorous legal education whether their classes are remote or in person.”
Continuing to Evolve
In spite of the pandemic, Stetson Law continues to evolve. The school now offers a concentration in Business Law that is designed to hone skills and knowledge for those interested in pursuing careers in business law, including a strong focus on corporate and commercial law, tax law, and related fields. True to Stetson Law’s history and reputation, this concentration offers an intense experiential curriculum. To help students develop real-world skills, this includes opportunities in bankruptcy, intellectual property, and documents of the deal, to name a few. Students receive close mentoring from members of the faculty and can utilize the College’s partnerships with various financial, cybersecurity and other companies to further sharpen proficiencies and build relationships.
Diversity and Inclusion Taken to the Next Level
Beyond education, Stetson Law has taken great strides to become an even more inviting and compassionate institution, one with a constant eye on maintaining and promoting human dignity. Three recent examples illustrate Stetson Law’s commitment. Stetson University College of Law received the 2020 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversityfocused publication in higher education. Stetson Law was one of only two law schools to receive the national award in 2020. In a natural progression of the efforts that led to the HEED award, in October 2020, Stetson Law faculty voted to approve an Antiracism Resolution, declaring their commitment to “dismantling all forms of oppressive power dynamics and challenging any assumptions that diminish human dignity, including those that rely on racist assumptions.” The resolution grew out of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s and faculty’s concern about the national unrest that unfolded throughout the summer of 2020. At the state level, Stetson Law joined the 11 other law schools in Florida to respond to long-standing and recent acts of racist violence. The deans formed the Florida Law Schools’ Consortium for Racial Justice (FLSCRJ). This collective will leverage the strengths and educational roles of every law school in the state to assist community organizations fighting for racial justice and policy reform throughout Florida.
Consistently Moving Forward
Stetson University College of Law has never been one to rest on past achievements. The school is on a constant path forward. From its humble beginnings in DeLand, Stetson Law has survived the Great Depression and World War II, and now continues to thrive and grow during a worldwide pandemic. Through it all, the school has carried on its commitment to its students. Stetson Law will continue to build on and enhance its reputation as an innovator. After all, that is ingrained in the school’s personality.
