Dear Students,
We are thinking of you and miss seeing you. We hope that your health—physical, mental, and spiritual—is strong. Please let us know if you are sick or if you are sheltering in place alone. Also, let us know if you hear of fellow students who are sick or who need help. For your own health and for the public good, please be scrupulous about following current requirements for social distancing.
We look forward to the time when we can all inhabit the same physical space and fully interact as a community. Meanwhile, we hope that the first week of online classes has gone well. The anecdotal feedback we have received is: “better than expected.” A big thanks go to the tech support staff for helping with the transition, and to the faculty for making the adjustment, especially those whose technological inclinations still favor the telephone and AOL as their preferred means of communication.
Let’s continue to support each other and find ways to connect. Director Beck has been working with SBA and other student leaders to find creative ways to keep us interacting and functioning as a community. Please look out for announcements from our office and continue to post on Fashion of Maurer, Mascots of Maurer, and our student Facebook pages, participate in the SBA’s #MaurerPower challenges, and tag the Law School and Dean Parrish’s social media accounts with #Excelinisolation. The Law School’s COVID–19 web page contains all relevant information in one convenient place.
You are probably already aware that Chief Justice Rush entered an order yesterday providing that recent or soon-to-be graduates who have not yet sat for the bar exam may practice law under the supervision of a licensed attorney as a graduate legal intern. Next week, we will send out information about graduation and bar exams to the 3L class in a separate email.
SOME INFORMATION ABOUT EXAMS
A number of students have asked what exams will look like. As you know, final grades will be Satisfactory/Fail/Incomplete. Some classes will have final papers; others will have exams, which may be essay, multiple choice, or a combination of both.
For final exams:
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All final exams will be administered through Canvas.
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All exams will be administered on their original day. Exams that had been scheduled for the morning will start at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Exams that had been scheduled for the afternoon will start at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
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If questions arise before or during the exam, please email exam2020@indiana.edu (a dedicated mailbox that folks from the Office of Students Affairs will monitor). This is the place to let us know if you have health or connectivity challenges before the exam or to ask us questions during the exam. No such issues or questions should be raised with your faculty.
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Students will be able to access exam questions and submit their answers using the Canvas site for the course.
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All final exams this semester will be open book, meaning that students are free to consult their books, notes, outlines, and other class materials. Faculty may prohibit students from consulting other sources, including other people. Violating an explicit exam restriction constitutes academic misconduct.
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Your exam number can be found in CareerNet. The spring exam number will be in the 3330s. Please get your number before the exam. Don’t wait until the last minute.
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Blind grading will be preserved using the anonymous grading function on Canvas. Students should be careful to follow instructions on using exam numbers, rather than names, in exam answers and file names.
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For essay questions, students should use their preferred word processing software to type their answers and save them in an electronic format, such as a Word or PDF file.
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Students may petition Dean Orenstein to handwrite their exams. Such petitions, explaining why the student cannot type exams, are due no later than April 17 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Please direct the petition to Dean Orenstein’s email (aorenste@indiana.edu).
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The Law School will not use any special remote proctoring software (such as Examplify or ExamSoft) during final exams.
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Accommodations as to when the exam is taken will be granted to students in time zones outside the United States and students with a certified disability. No one may take an exam early. Please submit such requests to exam2020@indiana.edu. Unless she is unavailable, Alexis Lanham will handle all DSS accommodated students.
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If you are among the very small subset of students who require a letter grade from a sponsor or home institution or because of joint degree requirements, please state the reason and let Alexis Lanham know as soon as possible, no later than April 17. This information should be sent to Alexis (adlanham@indiana.edu) and not shared with your faculty.
Undoubtedly, we will all encounter glitches during exams, but we will show each other kindness and exhibit the grace that has been the hallmark of our community’s response to the pandemic thus far.
Please take care of yourself and your loved ones. We will get through this as a school and as a nation. America will need your knowledge, your skills, and your services when we emerge from this pandemic, and in the years to come.
Sincerely,
Aviva Orenstein
Dean of Students
cc: Faculty and Staff | | |