Arizona Law will continue to deliver high quality instruction across a range of courses, clinics, and externships. This Plan’s goal is to maintain the highest standards for teaching and learning while mitigating the risk of COVID-19. Arizona Law will promote flexible teaching and learning modalities to accomplish this goal. The Plan integrates the strong foundation Arizona Law has built for remote learning opportunities over the past several years with the rich on-campus learning environment that is core to Arizona Law. In doing so, this Plan seeks to respect the significant challenges students and faculty face in returning to campus.
This Plan adopts UArizona Guidance from two different sources: 1) COVID-19 Adjusted Teaching Models (aka Teaching & Learning Guidelines (6/15/2020) (Appendix C); and 2) and UArizona Four Class Formats.
Arizona Law currently offers over 250 courses in Spring 2021. (See Appendix D for Spring 2021 course schedule and current enrollment data.) 132 of these courses are in the JD curriculum. The remaining courses are part of the BA in Law and Masters in Law curriculums.
The JD curriculum is standardized in the 1L year. In the Spring semester, every 1L student takes Property; Criminal Procedure; Constitutional Law I; Legal Research, Analysis, and Communication; Preparing to Practice; and one elective.
Second- and third-year JD students have significant flexibility in their schedules. Upper-level courses include large doctrinal courses, smaller specialty courses, simulation and skills-based courses (e.g., Basic Trial Advocacy and Advanced Legal Writing), clinics, and externships.
There are approximately 125 upper-level JD courses being offered during Spring 2020. The majority of these courses have enrollments of 20 students or fewer. Only four upper-level courses have an enrollment of 40 or more: Business Organizations (55 students), Freedom of Speech and Expression (53 students), Immigration Law (49 students), and Secured Transactions (45 students).
Assuming a full reopening of campus in Spring 2021, Arizona Law shall:
MILESTONE: By July 15, 2020, and after consultation with faculty members (see section 5.2), the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs will provide the Registrar a list of classes that will be taught fully remotely, for purposes of room and course scheduling.
JD classrooms are located in three different Arizona Law buildings: the Law Commons building, the outer building (Rooms 160, 164, and 168), and Rountree Hall. A full list of the classrooms and seating capacity is provided in Appendix E. Arizona Law floor plans are provided in Appendix F.
The main Arizona Law Commons building has 10 classrooms, including several classrooms within the library.
The outer building contains three large classrooms, two with a capacity of 104 and a third with a capacity of 208, prior to the pandemic. These three classrooms are accessible directly from Arizona Law courtyard.
Rountree Hall has four classrooms, two reserved primarily for clinics and two reserved primarily for the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program.
Finally, a small number of additional rooms can function as classrooms, including the faculty lounge, the Sullivan Conference room, and even sections of the lobby area in the main Arizona Law building.
Assuming a full reopening of campus in Spring 2021, Arizona Law shall:
To facilitate the access restriction, daily screening, and physical distancing measures discussed earlier, this Plan establishes the following rules governing the flow of traffic on the Arizona Law campus:
Arizona Law hosts 13 in-house clinics. Each clinic incorporates both a classroom component and clinical casework. The Clinics will continue to maintain high-quality, client-centered representation, while also minimizing transmission and ensuring the health and safety of Arizona Law community and clinic clients.
Where applicable, Arizona Law follows UArizona Guidance for Experiential Learning (set of three documents, 6/21/2020) (Appendix G).
To foster these goals, this Plan establishes the following rules for the daily operations of Arizona Law clinics:
In addition to in-house clinics, Arizona Law offers clinical and experiential learning opportunities through community partners.
Three offsite clinics provide students an immersive experience at the Attorney General’s Office, the Pima County Public Defender’s Office, and/or the Pima County Attorney’s Office. Arizona Law’s Externship program allows students to partner with outside attorneys and organizations, creating tailored experiential learning opportunities. Arizona Law’s Judicial Clerking program places students with local judges for academic term clerkships.
Students participating in clinical and experiential learning opportunities outside of Arizona Law should follow the policies and guidelines of the host organization as well as the UArizona Guidance for Experiential Learning (6/21/2020)(Appendix G).
The Bachelor of Arts in Law degree provides a core legal education at the undergraduate level. It includes a fully online degree path and an in-person degree path. For the 2020-2021 academic year, there are approximately 900 students enrolled in the BA Law program, with 200 participating in the fully online program.
In general, BA in Law students take Arizona Law courses during their Junior and Senior years. They frequently take one or two courses which are scheduled in the evening and taught by Arizona Law faculty. Some utilize the law library to study before and/or after their classes at Arizona Law.
Many BA classes and activities are held outside of the Arizona Law campus and will be subject to the rules governing the relevant facilities. To the extent that BA in Law students attend classes, participate in clinics, or have job responsibilities on the Arizona Law campus, they must conform with these rules and the access provisions contained in section 4.2