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
Chair
Dorianne Coleman
Student Role
1) Discuss revisions to the Law School's Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)
2) Discuss financial issues, including those involved in financing law school and repaying loans
3) Encourage lower-paying public interest work and the equitable disbursement of available funds
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.
Current Student Representatives
Jenny Zimbrofff, Jess Neiterman, Courtney Mitchell
Committee on Student Career and Professional Development
Chair
Jim Coleman
Duties
This committee has responsibility for overseeing the operations of the Career & Professional Development Center. This includes reviewing important school policies, ensuring that existing programming and other efforts are running smoothly, and incorporating feedback from students. In addition, students elected to this Committee become members of the Career Center's Student Advisory Board.
Current Projects
Developing and facilitating programming with a focus on professional development and leadership as a lawyer.
Meetings and Time Commitments
Faculty Committee: Once per semester, or more frequently if needed.
Student Advisory Board: Twice per semester, with assignments and projects arising periodically.
Current Student Representatives
Nathan Good, Michael Schobel, Adam Sanders
Curriculum Committee
Chair
N/A
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.
Current Student Representatives
Kish Vinayagamoorthy, Jeffrey David, John Gouchnour
Alumni & Development Committee (formerly External Relations Committee)
Chair
Robinson Everett
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
Chair
Lateral Appointments Committee Chair: Sara Sun Beale
Entry Level Appointments Committee Chair: Deborah DeMott
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.
Current Student Representatives
Lateral Appointments Committee: Reed Watson, Sofia Hernandez, Lindsay Andrews
Entry Level Appointments Committee: Catherine Gibson, Jonathan Williams, Michelle Spiegel
Library and Technology Committee
Chair
Tom Metzloff
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.
Current Student Representatives
Matthew Hurst, Daniel Allender, Augustus Howard
Planning Committee
Chair
Richard Danner
Duties
The committee's task is to address issues related to future strategies and operating needs of the Law School.
Current Projects
This year, the Planning Committee is primarily working on the upcoming ABA accreditation visit.
Current Student Representatives
Jeff Adams, Britt Sellers, Jon Porter
Building Committee
Chair
Tom Metzloff
Duties
The committee's task is to address issues related to the building expansion, renovation, or us of the facilities of the Law School.
Current Projects
The Planning Committee will play an important role over the next year 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. The Committee will consider, for example, how to repurpose some areas of the Law School once the Commons and Library renovation projects are complete.
Current Student Representatives
Eric Lashner, Kate Hilton, Troy Stock