What I did on my summer vacation
Sell out, or follow your “dreams?”
2Ls desperately try to justify their bad choices and hopeless employment prospects
Andrew Robertson and Pete Smiley debate the merits of selling out
ULTRA VIRES
Opinion, Page 13
Features, Page 6
First Edition
September, 21, 2011 Vol. XIII, no. I ultravires.ca
The Independent Student Newspaper Of The University Of Toronto Faculty Of Law
New Grading 1Ls Excite at Tight N’ Bright Night, Alright Scheme Imminent Faculty to annouce changes in grading policy this month
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By Jessica Lam (2L)
new grading policy is set to be unveiled this month when the proposal for a modified system will be finalized. Although Dean Mayo Moran was mum on the details, the new grading policy is likely to resemble those used by Ivy League law schools in the United States, where courses are graded honours, pass, or fail. Professor Sujit Choudhry, who recently left U of T to join the NYU law faculty, “chaired a comprehensive review of the grading system, which recommended the adoption of an honours/pass/fail system,” as stated on his profile page on the NYU law website. “We thought that it was a good time because top tier institutions have started looking at their grades,” said Moran. The new system will not be implemented this academic year. Rather, there will be a gradual roll out. Although the particulars of the new grading policy are uncertain, Moran said that the modified system is intended to diminish student anxiety, better reflect the excellence of students and create a clearer sense of the class composition. Nevertheless, there is some concern amongst students that if the modified system collapses the B+ and B grades into a single “pass” category, it will unfairly eliminate the distinction between those who score above the curve. Moran said the changes are not intended to be “mass grade inflation,” but to more accurately indicate the composition of the class at U of T. “I find it challenging to explain to employers and to others how good our students are,” she said. The SLS has been informed of these changes but has decided not to broadcast them until the formal announcement. They plan to have a meeting on the issue in coming weeks.
GEORGIA BROWN photo
Toronto American Apparel stores were blind-sided by O-Week’s Wednesday night Tight and Bright event at Crown Night Club
Choudhry Caught by NYU Recruiter Professor’s exit lastest in string of high-profile departures from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law
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By Matt Brown (2L) & Jessica Lam (2L)
he rash of high-profile departures recently have prompted some soul searching at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. When Lorne Sossin departed to take the helm of Osgoode Hall Law School, the Faculty mourned the loss of a respected teacher and productive researcher. Then, over the summer, Sujit Choudhry announced he was accepting an appointment at New York University Law School. Choudhry’s resignation from U of T speaks to some common anxieties at the faculty. He is a preeminent researcher among his other accomplishments he was awarded a Trudeau fellowship in 2010 — and was very active in the administration of the faculty, in particular the first year
program. The faculty lost a leading figure to a law school with far greater resources. Tuition alone at NYU is $46,196. Add the law school’s endowment, which was valued at over $200 million before the financial crisis, and you have an institution with significant financial heft. Losing top faculty to American law schools has always been guiding anxiety at U of T: keeping up with American schools in the race for academic talent was the primary reason former Dean Ronald J. Daniels presided over the large tuition increases that made U of T the most expensive law school in the country. Dean Moran concedeeded that Choudry’s departure is a “huge loss” but also “tribute to how great we are” since faculty “go on to do amazing things.” Moran expects that U of T will always struggle in the competition for talent
against American law schools and that U of T has to be “more creative” about recruiting and maintaining faculty. She points to the high quality of the student body as well as the impressively interdisciplinary faculty members as ways she sells the school to prospective hires. In fact, the faculty has been using those “creative” techniques to hire two new tenure-track professors for this academic year. Moran explained that hiring was put on hold when the financial crisis caused the endowment to collapse but that, this year, the faculty took advantage of the buyers market in the US legal world. She noted that, because of the “brutal” job market in the US, there “were just in-
See New Hires, Page 4