Faculty-Student Committees 2006-07
Prospective representatives should note time commitments below and should plan to regularly update the DBA Vice President about important developments in their respective committees.
Admissions Committee -
Richard Schmalbeck, Chair
Duties
The Admissions Committee has three charges:
1) to advise the Dean and faculty on matters related to admissions,
2) to support the Admissions Office in recruiting students to come to Duke, and
3) to review the files of individual applicants to Duke.
Student Role
Students are fully involved in matters 1 and 2 but are not involved at all in 3. Students are very heavily engaged in recruiting prospective students. The current Chair, as well as past Chairs, has been open to student concerns and willing to put students' issues before the entire Committee.
Meetings and Time Commitments
The Committee meets as needed. There is a significant amount of work in the spring and early in the fall. There is not a lot of student work while the committee is mostly reading files.
Career Services Committee -
Steven Schwarcz, Chair
Duties
This Committee is responsible for overseeing operations of the Office of Career Services. Often, this includes providing feedback to OCS on how the recruiting efforts are going.
Current Projects
During most years, there is at least one policy issue requiring significant study such as the School's appropriate reaction to the Solomon Amendment (and its impact on military recruiting) or LLM participation in the interviewing process.
Meetings and Time Commitments
Meetings once a month.
Curriculum Committee -
Richard Schmalbeck, Chair
Duties
The Curriculum Committee is responsible for approving all new courses, and for general review of issues relating to the course of study for the JD and LLM degrees. To date, the committee has received one specific request for action on a matter involving credit-hour allocations to a particular course; we have not been asked to undertake any general curricular reviews. However, both specific and more general requests do come in from time to time, and are not subject to the committee's control or discretion.
Meetings and Time Commitments
If no general curricular review is to be undertaken this year, the committee burdens will probably be light. However, as noted, the committee does not have the luxury of declining jurisdiction over curricular matters, so no binding promises can be made regarding its workload.
External Relations Committee (formerly Alumni and Special Events Committee)
- Robinson Everett, Chair
Duties
This Committee focuses on the promotion of Duke Law School to our alumni, current students, faculty and friends around the globe. The duties of this committee are to assist the Dean and the Office of External Affairs in the planning of major events held both within and outside the Law School. These events include the Hooding Ceremony, Reunion Weekend, Scholars Dinner, and the Graduating Class Gala (when should events occur, who to invite, what type of reception to host, etc.). The group is also involved in planning special programs such as bringing high-level alumni speakers and panelists to campus.
The Committee is also encouraged to provide advice to the Office of External Relations to better engage our graduates and future alumni.
Meetings and Time Commitments
The Committee generally meets once during Fall semester and once during Spring semester unless there is a special issue needing consideration.
Faculty Appointments Committee-
Larry Zelanak, Chair
Duties
Hiring is based upon national and indeed international searches in areas. Also, the Committee is responsible for review the tenure files for untenured applications. Review for new hires and tenure files requires extensive reading of the candidate's written work as well as perusal of outside reviews.
Student Role
Students are especially involved in considering the applicants teaching abilities.
Meetings and Time Commitments
The Appointments Committee is probably the most active committee and the workload can be very heavy. While in some years, the Law School does little or no hiring, for each of the past couple years and for the next several years, the school has been active.
Library and Web Oversight Committee -
Tom Metzloff, Chair
Duties
This is an active committee that considers a wide range of issues relating to the library as well as student use of technology. In past years, the Committee has considered subjects as diverse as (1) student use of computers on exams (2) mandatory laptop policy for JD students (3) development of a wireless network at the law school.
Student Role
The Committee meets monthly to allow careful consideration of library and computing issues. The meetings are set early for the semester to avoid scheduling conflicts and to provide a regular forum for students and faculty to voice concerns about computing and library issues.
Current Projects
One of our major responsibilities this year will be to continue to discuss use of computers in the classroom amid concerns from some faculty.
Meetings and Time Commitments
Monthly meetings.
Planning Committee -
Tom Metzloff, Chair
Duties
The committee's task is to address issues related to future strategies and operating needs of the Law School.
Current Projects
The Planning Committee will play an important role over the next two years in program development relating to the continued renovation and expansion of the Law School. The Committee reviews architectural drawings and makes comments to the architects about the program of the Law School and how it might impact the proposed designs. This year's focus will largely be on the proposed courtyard renovation
Other strategic issues may be referred to the Committee by the Dean's Office during the course of the year.
Revised 04/09/2006
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