DIRECTED RESEARCH APPICATION PROCESS

Students interested in registering for Directed Research in either the summer or fall terms must complete a statement of interest indicating why they would like to pursue a particular project.  The statement must be written or typed on the Directed Research Application form.  The directed research application is also located on the Academic Services page of the TLS Intranet under the Course Documents heading.  No student may apply to more than one professor in the same semester for a directed research project.  Students should consult with their proposed supervising professor before completing and submitting the Directed Research Application form.   The Directed Research Application form must be turned in to Academic Services by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 13th.  The faculty member will select the students who will be allowed to register for a directed research project.  Only students whose names appear on the list for directed research will be registered.  Those who are not selected are encouraged to either register for a relevant course or to reapply in the following semester. 

SEMINAR APPLICATION PROCESS

Students wishing to apply for a Fall 2020 seminar course should submit the seminar application form to Academic Services by 5:00 pm on Monday, April 13^th The seminar application form is also located on the Academic Services page of the TLS Intranet under the Course Documents heading.  The selections for the seminar courses will be posted by April 21st.  Please note that students may apply for only one seminar which could meet the writing requirement, but may register for more seminar courses should there be openings available after the application process has been completed. 

SIMULATION COURSE SELECTION

Students who wish to enroll in a simulation course should submit their ranked preferences on the Simulation Course Preferences Application by 5:00 pm on Monday, April 13^th.  The Simulation Course Preferences Form can be accessed at https://law.tulane.edu/academics/simulation-application

The Office of Academic Services will post a list of students who will be pre-registered for each simulation course. In allocating courses, we will give priority among other considerations to those students who require additional experiential credits to graduate or for bar eligibility. Students who are not placed in their first choice of simulation course will be added to the waitlist for that course. A student who does not want to take a course for which the student is pre-registered or waitlisted should drop it through Gibson promptly and notify Academic Services. Any remaining seats in a simulation course may be taken by other upper-class or graduate students on a first-come, first-served basis through Gibson.  Likewise, if students pre-registered for a simulation course drop the course, students may register for open seats in that course on a first-come, first-served basis through Gibson.

The registration materials for the Fall (including Summer) 2020 semester are posted on the Academic Services page of the TLS Intranet under the COURSE DOCUMENTS heading.     

A message regarding instructions for seminar and directed research applications as well as the simulation course preference process will follow shortly.    The deadline to submit these applications (directed research, seminar and simulation course preferences) will be Monday, April 13, 2020. 

Updates Surrounding Financial Aid and COVID-19

-The deadline for fall 2019/spring 2020 federal loan increases has been extended to April 20^th, 2020. Please send requests via email to finaid@law.tulane.edu

-The Financial Aid Office is working remotely, so faxes are not being accepted. Please contact us via email for any inquiries or to forward any documents to us. We do have access to Zoom and Teams so would be glad to meet with you using those modes as well.

-Summer Addendum (application) and other summer details are forthcoming. Due to COVID-19, certain details on a variety of university-wide procedures are currently being hammered out. We will notify students here as updates become available.

-As of 03/20/2020, the U.S. Department of Education is not ready to receive applications for Federal Graduate PLUS Loans for the upcoming 2020-2021 academic year.  Applications for such a loan at this time for the 2020-2021 academic year will be erroneously tied to the current 2019-2020 academic year.  Therefore, we wish to counsel all those seeking to apply for these loans for the 2020-2021 academic year to hold off and wait until we update this notification to confirm that the Department of Education is ready to accept such 2020-2021 loan applications.  We apologize for the inconvenience, yet wish to avoid having you erroneously apply for the wrong academic year. 

Please refer to the attached document for answers to frequently asked questions regarding the transition to remote instruction and other matters related to the Law School's plan tor the COVID-19 reponse.  

Move to Online Instruction

As you know, the Law School had already been making contingency plans for this possibility.  As directed by the University, there will be no class meetings next week (March 16-20), and we will use that week to complete preparation to move all classes online beginning Monday, March 23.  Separate training sessions for moving class instruction to zoom were held earlier today for students, staff, and faculty.  Additional training sessions for students will be offered tomorrow (Thursday, March 12) from 11:30-12:30 in Room 110 and from 4:00-4:30 in Room 157.  In light of the University’s directive, the training session previously announced for Monday, March 16, is cancelled.  The Law School’s IT staff is ready to provide assistance to anyone having difficulty accessing or using the technology, which most of you know is quite intuitive and effective.

Classes This Week Continue as Scheduled

Classes will be held in the classroom as normally scheduled tomorrow and Friday.  This Friday will be the last day of in-person instruction for the semester.

Exams

We anticipate that final exams may need to be administered remotely.  We will follow up with more details on plans for that in due course.

Student Activities and Events

In addition to suspending in-person classes, the University has also directed the cancellation or postponement of events with more than 50 persons.  This does not apply to the Tulane Admiralty Law Institute, which is already in progress, but will require the cancellation of endowed lectures, academic conferences, and other larger events scheduled for later this semester.

Campus Remains Open

Students are free to leave campus and finish the remainder of the semester from elsewhere.  For students who elect to remain in town, the campus and the Law School will remain open.  Students may continue to access the Law Library and student organization offices, though we should all be mindful to practice social distancing and follow other recommendations of health experts.

We will be following up with more detailed information on all of these matters in the days ahead.  I recognize that this response will cause significant disruption and inconvenience for all members of our community.  We will be working tirelessly to minimize any hardships or headaches and I thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.  Our community has weathered other significant storms before and I have no doubt we will all pull together again to navigate this challenge as well!

Best,

David Meyer