University Business - February 2012 - (Page 9)

BEHIND the NEws Law School Litigation What to expect in 2012 Jobs aren’t easy to come by these days. Instead of blaming the economy—or themselves—some students are blaming their alma maters. After graduates from New York Law School and Thomas M. Cooley School of Law (Mich.) accused the schools of misinterpreting graduates’ employment and salary statistics and filed class action suits against them last summer, two firms have warned they are planning to go after other law schools this year. “Really it’s part and parcel of the consumer movement coming to education,” says Robert B. Smith, a higher education attorney with the firm LeClairRyan, who has been following this trend for about six months. Law School Transparency, a Tennessee non-profit dedicated to encouraging and facilitating the transparent flow of consumer information, announced on its website that two law firms, The Law offices of David Anziska and Strauss Law PLLC have stated their intention to jointly file class action lawsuits against 15 law schools in California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. The students stepping forward represent the minority, not the majority, of law students. And the suits don’t reflect dissatisfaction with the learning experience itself—just the outcome. In fact, results from the 2011 Law School Survey of Student Engagement show that 83 percent of law students reported that their experience in law school was good or excellent, and 80 percent definitely or U probably would attend the same school if they got the chance to start over. “There’s really nothing about education that guarantees an outcome for any of us. These schools were not selling outcomes, they were providing an education,” Smith says. “The idea that outcomes are guaranteed is ludicrous.” And, he points out, students shouldn’t have been assuming that employment stats from the year they entered law school—pre-economic downturn—would be the same once they graduated. If at all successful, these lawsuits could have implications for higher ed as a whole. Smith believes for-profits would be the first to be targeted, and that some students or lawyers “will be emboldened to try to apply it to other programs.” “We have to vigorously defend these things, that’s all there is to it,” asserts Smith. “This is an attack on the fundamentals of what education is and what education is all about and they need to be defended very, very seriously.” —Kristen Domonell Developing Latino Leaders With the growing U.S. Latino population, it is no surprise this is also the fastest growing student population. According to a recent report from the College Board on Latino college completion (covered in University Business in the November/December issue), outreach efforts should be specific to this population. An example of this aim in action is Georgia State University. Because of a focus on the Latino population, graduation rates for Latino students have improved from 38 percent in 2000 to 59 percent in 2010, outpacing the national average of 19 percent in 2009. Through support from The Goizueta Foundation, GSU was already providing full scholarships to one or two students every year. An additional gift of nearly $5 million from the foundation has expanded the program to include Latino Leadership Pipeline scholarships, which will provide $10,000 per year, per student to 25 students for four years. The students in the Latino Freshman Learning Communities will receive academic and social support as underclassmen and transition to mentoring and tutoring roles as upperclassmen. “This award will help us accomplish our goal of establishing a national model for undergraduate education where students from all backgrounds achieve academic and career success at high rates,” Georgia State President Mark Becker said in a written statement. To learn more about the program, visit www.gsu.edu/scholarships/goizueta.html. —Ann McClure ‘I SOUND BITE t is a gatekeeper to many of our students enrolling in college because, if they don’t have the money, then they’re not going to go to college. ‘ —Eyra Perez, executive director of the San Antonio Education Partnership, on the FAFSA Source: San Antonio Express-News universitybusiness.com universitybusiness.com February 2012 9 February 2012 ||9 http://www.gsu.edu/scholarships/goizueta.html http://www.gsu.edu/scholarships/goizueta.html http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - February 2012

University Business - February 2012
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Financial Aid
Campus CFO
Education Gateways
5 Things Administrators Must Know About E-commerce Now
There’s an App for That
Internet Technology
End Note

University Business - February 2012