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MEMORANDUM FROM YALE LAW SCHOOL

To: Visiting Professors, Adjunct Professors, Visiting Lecturers, Lecturers

From: Ian Ayres, Deputy Dean

Date: January 15, 2021

Subject: Academic Practices

In this memorandum I offer a brief overview of some of our academic policies and practices. You will find this information useful as you plan your courses. In addition, please review the community-wide memorandum, “Our Educational Environment”.

Please call my cell (203) 415-5587 or contact me by e-mail at ian.ayres@yale.edu with any questions you may have about our academic procedures.

Teaching: Getting Started

Academic Calendar: I attach the academic calendar, which also appears in the Yale Law School Bulletin and is available online at https://law.yale.edu/study-law-yale/academic-calendar-resources . It indicates the starting and ending dates for each term, the examination periods, and recesses.

In-Person Teaching: Part-time faculty living in Connecticut may undertake in-person teaching this semester. The University is requiring all part-time faculty who live outside of Connecticut to teach remotely during the Spring ’21 semester. While this news is disappointing, we are optimistic that the University may lift the restriction at some point during the semester as the public health environment improves.

The University will send updates throughout the semester, therefore, please check your Yale email address periodically. In addition, you can find updates at the University’s website, https://covid19.yale.edu/ .

Classroom Assignments: The Registrar, Judith Calvert, (203) 432-1680, makes classroom assignments. Because of the pandemic, we have dramatically curtailed classroom capacity. If you have indicated that you are teaching part or all of your class in person, Judith will be contacting you about what space we are reserving for you. If you have concerns about the space, you should speak with Judith. If an adjustment is possible, she will make it. Whether you are teaching in person or remotely, we recommend that you consider scheduling a dry-run of your teaching environment before January 29th by emailing nicholas.cifarelli@yale.edu or our IT Helpdesk, law.help@yale.edu.

Course Materials: Your syllabus and course materials must be made available to students on Canvas (Canvas @ Yale ), the web-based course management system. Your assistant can introduce you to Canvas and manage the logistics of having materials scanned or posted on the system. You can also reach out to canvas.law@yale.edu for support or call the YLS IT services help desk at (203) 432-0821. In addition, help documentation is available on the web at http://law.yale.edu/canvas-help . You should consult the important information regarding copyright laws and procedures that can be found at http://library.law.yale.edu/copyright-clearance .

Make-up Sessions: If you must miss a class session, you should arrange a make-up class. Your assistant will help you to reserve a classroom for a make-up class. Because classrooms are in short supply at the time you would like to meet, check room availability before telling your students when a make-up class will take place.

Office hours: You should post to Canvas weekly office hours (two hours or so is standard) and announce them to the class and in your syllabus. Because of environmental limitations, faculty will not be able to meet with students in their office (but will be able to reserve indoor or outdoor meeting places for office hours or hold Zoom office hours).

Classroom Technology Support: YLS Media Services offers a variety of instructional, audiovisual, and media-related services. All classrooms have built-in computers, projectors, screens, and cameras, and they can support video conferencing. The seminar rooms require portable equipment. For routine classroom support, please have your assistant submit an AV request using the online form. For further information, contact Dan Griffin via email at daniel.griffin@yale.edu.

Class Attendance, Student Papers, and Grades

Attendance: The Law School requires regular class attendance for a student to receive credit for a course (and synchronous attendance of sessions intended for synchronous consumption). You may have more specific attendance requirements, which you should announce at the beginning of the semester. Because all professors are likely to have at least some remote students, you should announce at the beginning of the semester your policies regarding attendance of class, student videos, and student use of the Zoom chat function. My sense is that a majority of the faculty will be requiring that remote students have their videos on and that student’s only use the chat function to alert the professor to technological problems with the Zoom – unless the professor explicitly exempts particular students from a particular policy.

Student Papers: Each Yale Law student must complete two papers before graduation: a Substantial Paper and a Supervised Analytic Writing (SAW). Visiting Professors may supervise and approve either type of paper. Lecturers and Visiting Lecturers may supervise and approve only Substantial Papers written in connection with their course(s).

A Substantial Paper is “a significant written project” for which at least two units of academic credit are awarded. Substantial Papers often are completed in connection with a seminar or course offered for at least two credits. SAW papers are “closely supervised” by a faculty member and are “designed to increase the student’s proficiency in legal research, analytic reasoning, and writing” (quoted text is from the YLS Bulletin). Three units of academic credit typically are awarded for successful completion of an SAW paper.

Although professors have considerable latitude to interpret the standards for Substantial Papers, most view the Substantial Paper as a more intensive enterprise than a typical seminar paper, and many professors require students to complete at least one preliminary draft. For papers written to satisfy the SAW requirement, most professors require several drafts. The faculty is virtually unanimous in requiring that students submit at least two drafts of papers written to satisfy the SAW requirement. Some colleagues interpret the applicable SAW standard as requiring a paper “of publishable quality.”

The Student Scholarship site on the YLS website contains statements from the permanent faculty concerning their standards for a Substantial Paper and Supervised Analytic Writing. You may find it helpful to have a look at some of those statements here: https://studentscholarship.law.yale.edu/people/faculty. You should announce in class whether you will agree to supervise Substantial Papers or SAWs and, if so, what your criteria and deadlines will be.

Fifth-Term Certification Rule: Every student must complete either a Substantial Paper or an SAW before he or she will be permitted to register for a fifth term (third year) at the Law School. A student who does not meet the fifth-term certification requirement may not register for classes and must take a leave of absence from the Law School to complete the writing requirement. The final grade for an SAW or Substantial Paper written to satisfy the fifth-term certification requirement must be submitted no later than August 1 of the summer before the student’s third year. An instructor must certify whether the grade he or she is submitting is for a paper that satisfies the SAW requirement or the Substantial Paper requirement.

A student is responsible for notifying you that he or she will require a fifth-term certification for a paper being written for you. Students ideally should collaborate with you in advance to establish a timetable that leaves ample time for them to complete their papers and for you to grade them in advance of the August 1 deadline. As a practical matter, however, you should take affirmative steps to find out whether any of your current second-year students are relying on a certification from you. If any of your students is relying on you for certification, please make very clear to the student your expectations about the timing of completion of the paper.

Extensions of Paper Deadlines: Instructors ordinarily have discretion to grant extensions except that students must comply with the August 1st deadline for the fifth-term certification requirement. Yale Law School professors traditionally have been quite liberal in granting extensions beyond the end of the semester. Keep in mind, however, that lengthy extensions of paper deadlines can disserve the students. You should announce in class your deadlines for all papers and your policy on extensions.

Grades: Students should know the basis upon which they will be graded. For example, will class participation be taken into account in arriving at a grade for the course? If your course has several requirements, such as response papers as well as an examination, how will performance on the various undertakings be weighted? In the course syllabus and in a class session early in the term, please make clear the basis for grading in your course.

The Registrar’s Office will supply you with a grade sheet for your course. This form should be completed, signed by you, and returned to the Registrar, Judith Calvert. Grades are due as soon as practicable after the end of the term. For spring term, we require grades for graduating students within a week after the end of term, but no later than May 28, 2021. Spring term grades for other students are due by June 1, 2021. When submitting grades for students’ written work, please be sure to indicate whether a paper qualifies as an SAW or a Substantial Paper.

The fifth-term certification requirement serves as the final deadline for grading Substantial Papers and SAWs submitted to satisfy that requirement. By August 1, 2021, you will be expected to have graded and certified any Substantial Paper or SAW submitted to you by a second-year student during this academic year.

Examination feedback: We take pride in offering our students feedback on their examinations. Some faculty write individualized comments on each examination or prepare an individualized written statement about the student’s performance. Others compare every examination to a checklist and share the checklist with their students. Some professors provide students with “shadow grades” that furnish more detail than our grading system permits; for example, students may be given a raw score and a curve for the class. Other faculty members write a memorandum discussing the examination and describing common strengths and problems; still others make the best examinations available as models for other students to see. Yet others hold individualized meetings with each student about the examination. One of these approaches may suit you, or you may have a different way of providing feedback. But doing so in some form is pedagogically essential.

Contact information beyond the term: Students may need to contact you after the teaching term (for recommendations, to discuss grades or papers, etc.). Please furnish your students and the Registrar with contact information, including address, telephone number, and e-mail address.

Administrative Support

Administrative Assignments: The welcome letter you received contained your assistant’s name and email address. They should be able to answer most questions about routine administrative matters. If you have questions about your administrative assignment, please call Karen Alderman at (203) 432-2767.

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