Faculty Council fails to reach quorum but discusses the 2021–22 JD Admissions Report
Dean Jutta Brunnée kicked off the November 16, 2022 Faculty Council meeting welcoming attendees. There were not enough members of the Faculty Council in attendance to reach quorum, so items could not be voted on. The minutes from the previous Faculty Council on October 26, 2022 are available on the e.Legal Faculty Council webpage but remain unapproved. The following items were presented to attendees.
Students’ Law Society (SLS) President Meaza Damte (3L) gave appreciative remarks, thanking the Faculty for allowing the SLS to use Flavelle House for the SLS annual Halloween Party on October 28, 2022 and for facilitating trick-or-treating in the law school on Halloween. SLS President Damte said students greatly appreciate the coffee and tea provided daily in the Atrium and the addition of two new coffee syrups, especially the pumpkin spice creamer which is the “talk of the town.”
Damte reminded the Faculty that in-firm interviews for the 2L recruit took place November 7–9, so many 2Ls did not get much time to rest or do work during the November 7–11 Reading Week. She noted that student attendance in classes is down due to increased cases of the flu and COVID-19. In light of this, she asked professors to be compassionate and understanding. Damte said the SLS hopes to work with the Faculty to make sure the Fall 2022 exam schedule goes smoothly. During the last Fall exam period, the Faculty quickly changed in-person exams to online exams in response to a rise in COVID-19 cases.
SLS President Damte also thanked the Career Development Office (CDO) for the substantive resources they provided for the 2L recruit, the preparatory work they did with students, and for being on-call during key 2L recruit dates. She appreciated that the CDO was also helping students to obtain non-corporate jobs. Damte said that the SLS and CDO are collecting complaints about employer violations of the Law Society of Ontario’s 2L recruitment procedures. She encouraged anyone with complaints to contact the SLS or CDO. Damte flagged that they had already received more complaints from this 2L recruit than in previous recruits.
Professor Mohammed Fadel asked about the nature of students’ recruit complaints. SLS representatives responded that many of the complainants alleged that employers explicitly asked students if they were their “first choice” or that employers reached out to them during the no-contact period on November 9, 2022.
The Graduate Law Students’ Association (GLSA) President Jasween Singh Gujral (GPLLM) gave brief remarks outlining the GLSA’s priorities: (1) filling the vacant GLSA positions, (2) updating the GLSA website to make it more useful and include more existing resources, and (3) holding a GLSA holiday party.
Professor Benjamin Alarie presented the 2021–22 JD Admissions Report for attendees. He began by thanking everyone who contributed to the Report, especially Dean Brunnée and Senior Recruitment, Admissions and Diversity Outreach Officer Jerome Poon-Ting. Professor Alarie noted that descriptive statistics on JD Admissions are generally stable year-over-year and unsurprisingly, 2021–22 JD admissions closely resembled admissions from the previous year. However, Professor Alarie highlighted a few changes and trends.
First, the median LSAT score and median GPA (which is based on a student’s best three full-time years of undergraduate study) of admitted students have slowly been trending up over the years, reaching a median LSAT score of 168 and a median GPA of 3.88 for the current class of 1Ls. Second, the number of Indigenous applicants has been stable at about 30 per year, but as the strength of the Indigenous applicant pool has been increasing, U of T Law has been making more offers to Indigenous applicants. Third, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have increased the number of requested deferrals, JD transfer requests and JD applications—especially in the 2020–21 recruiting cycle.
The next Faculty Council Meeting is scheduled for January 11, 2023. The main substantive item is expected to be a presentation on the University’s budget.
