1Ls, faculty meet each other in new remote learning opportunity

Despite the whirlwind of remote-learning ideas, the college was missing one element — how to engage first-year students so they could meet each other and their faculty from afar. Cassandra Jeter-Bailey, the newest assistant dean for Admission and Financial Aid, had a plan that faculty liked so much that they excitedly took over implementation.

The end product was a free course called “Covid-19 and the Law,” offered for first-year students over the summer and comprising seven individual online classes, each dealing with a hot topic related to Covid-19 — Constitutional Law, Criminal Justice, Contracts, Public Health, Business Law, Property Law and Employment Law. Students selected the classes they wanted and faculty who worked with 1L students taught the classes. Slightly more than half the incoming class signed up.

“Faculty were impressed with the students and their level of engagement,” says Jeter-Bailey, who plans to offer a similar course each summer in the future.