CUNY TO RAISE THE BAR FOR LAW
By CARL CAMPANILE
The New York Post

February 17, 2003 -- The City University's Law School has approved a plan to tighten up its admission and grading policies after a staggering 50 percent of its students flunked the state bar exam last year - by far the worst record in the state, The Post has learned.

Fewer students will be accepted if their scores on the Law School Admissions Test fall below the established 145 cutoff point out of a possible 180.

The current rule allows CUNY Law to allow up to 25 percent of its freshmen class to be students who scored less than 145 on the LSAT by considering high school grade point averages and other factors.

Under the new policy expected to be ratified by the CUNY Board of Trustees next week, only 6 percent of the freshman class could be accepted if they score lower than the 145 cutoff.

That means exempting only 10 students instead of 40 from the testing standard out of 160 first-year students annually admitted.

CUNY Law School Dean Kristein Booth Glen and the faculty also agreed to toughen its grade and retention policies that determine whether students stay or flunk out.

The changes include:

* Tossing out freshmen who fail to maintain a 2.0 (C) grade point average, up from a 1.5 GPA (D+). They would be eligible to reapply the following fall.

* Requiring students after the first semester to maintain a 2.3 GPA each semester to avoid probation. Most law schools - with the exception of Cornell - require a cumulative 2.0 GPA to remain in good academic standing.

* Dismissing students on probation who remain below 2.3 GPA the following semester or fall into a probation a third time. Most law schools do not throw out a student unless they fall below a cumulative 2.0 GPA. In some cases, students will be able to appeal.

"The innovative mission of the law school will be strengthened," a CUNY official said.

CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein last December ordered the law school to strengthen the standards after expressing alarm that the passing rate on the bar exam plummeted to 50 percent last year from 74 percent in 2000. He noted that the other four-year college boosted standards the past several years, and the law school "must do the same."

CUNY officials insisted the tougher standards will not dramatically affect the law school's mission of serving minority populations.

U.S. News and World Report recently ranked CUNY Law as having the most diverse student body in the country and the fourth best clinical training program.

CUNY Law, created in 1983, is one of the few law schools in the country that focuses on training students to become "public service" and non-profit lawyers.