Class Preparation



Access to Classrooms/Lounge

You will need to pick up various keys from Accounting in room 306. Adjunct faculty will need a key to the adjunct offices and the key to the faculty/staff lounge. Adjunct faculty mailboxes do not have locks.

Seating Charts

These will be provided by your faculty secretary. They will be placed in your mailbox approximately a week before classes begin.

Office Hours

Most of our adjunct faculty are full-time practicing attorneys. For those of you in this situation, we ask you to ensure that you are accessible to your students either by arriving before class or staying after class to meet with students as needed, and that you are available to them by phone and email. The Accounting Office can provide you with a key to the adjunct offices, where you can hold regular office hours if you choose.

Some of our adjunct faculty are full-time employees at the Law College. For those of you in this situation, we ask you to comply with the office hours policy applicable to full-time faculty (one office hour per credit taught, held at a time generally convenient to most students), as long as this is acceptable to your supervisor.

Syllabus

Instructors shall be responsible for distributing a course syllabus (either in print or electronic form) at the beginning of the semester. The syllabus shall minimally include:

  • instructional objectives;
  • instructor contact information and office hours;
  • grading criteria and methods used to determine final course grades;
  • date of the final examination (and midterm, if you are having one) and tentative dates of required assignments, quizzes, and tests, if applicable;
  • attendance policy;
  • required and recommended course materials to be purchased, including textbooks and supplies.

See sample syllabi below:

Professor Kristi Bowman – Education Law (PDF). This is a small, discussion-intensive seminar in which students write a final paper.

Professor Jennifer Carter-Johnson – Patent Law (PDF). This is a mid-sized course in which students take an exam.

Professor Michael Sant’Ambrogio – Administrative Law (PDF). This is a large, primarily lecture, course in which students take an exam.

Please send a copy of your course syllabus to Marie Gordon at least two weeks prior to the start of the semester.

University Code of Teaching Responsibility

Please read the University Code of Teaching Responsibility, which outlines MSU's expectations of all instructional staff.

Course Materials (Textbooks and Coursepacks)

If you will need desk copies of a textbook to review, please contact your faculty secretary.

When you have selected your text please send the title, author, publisher, edition and ISBN for each text to Marie Gordon. They will post the information to the MSU registrar’s website so that students can see the name and price of required texts before registration. The information is also posted to the MSU Law College first assignment page

The Law College uses the MSU Libraries to create coursepacks. They have quick turn around and have a direct link to the Copyright Clearance Center. Please contact coursematerials@lib.msu.edu or call 517-884-6468 if you need their services. Marie Gordon can assist you with this.

First Assignment

First assignments are typically due to Marie Gordon at least 30 days before the beginning of the semester. They will then be posted to the MSU Law College first assignment page

Your secretary can provide you with enrollment information for your classes. You can also access this information yourself through the Instructor Systems page at MSU by using your MSU Net ID and password.

LLM students

If you have LLM students enrolled in your class, your secretary can provide you with a class list that identifies which students are LLMs and which are JDs.

Overrides when Enrollment Limit is reached

A professor may grant an override in writing to the Registrar, provided the classroom’s maximum capacity is not exceeded.

Student Evaluations

Students fill out online course evaluations during the last two weeks of the semester. Please allow class time for this activity and leave the classroom while students are completing the evaluation (15 minutes should be enough). The evaluations will be available to your students at www.law.msu.edu/students/services.

All evaluations will be closed to the students before exams begin, and you will receive an emailed copy of your completed evaluations after grades have been submitted to the Registrar.

It is important that you remind your students to complete the online course evaluations. The form allows students to provide significant narrative feedback about their experience. The feedback can be very helpful to you as you revise your course for the future; the feedback is also helpful to us to better understand the differing pedagogies that each professor uses so that we can share that information with students. Please note, though, that we do NOT share the evaluations' content with students.

Class Visits/Evaluation by Full-time Faculty

Full-time faculty members are assigned to visit classes of adjunct faculty and evaluate course content and teaching.

Contacts:

Erin D. Doelling, Registrar (Room 309C, 517-432-6820)

Sarah E. Haigh, Enrollment Services Assistant, Registrar’s Office (Room 309, 517-432-6823)

Each semester, the Registrar will send you Instruction Sheets providing information about the final assessment (exam, paper, etc.) you have chosen for your course; these are to be filled out and returned before the final examination period. Instruction sheets (PDF) »

If you plan to give a midterm exam, please advise the Registrar at the beginning of the semester. All exam policies apply to midterms.

Dates for the final exam period may be found in the Academic Calendar.

Preparation - Faculty secretaries will assist with word processing and copying; however, if you are doing your own final copy it should be emailed to your faculty secretary as a Microsoft Word document at least five business days prior to the scheduled exam. The document should include page numbers and a place to write the exam permit number in the upper right hand corner of each page.

Collecting exams - Exams should be picked up in person at the Registrar’s Office if you are local to the Lansing area. If you live at a distance, your exams will be sent to your mailing address upon request.

Faculty members do not need to be present during the examinations, but the Registrar’s Office should have a contact number so that they can contact the faculty member during the exam if any questions arise.

Exam policies set forth in the Student Handbook.

  1. Format - In exam classes, exam grades are typically anonymous by exam permit number (which is assigned by the Registrar’s Office). Once exam grades have been submitted, the RO will return the grade form with names included for any adjustments or award designations. For paper classes, grading is done by name.  
  2. Grading scale - A to F including pluses and minuses. I (incomplete) is permitted only under extenuating circumstances and with permission of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
  3. Submission of grades - There is no flexibility in the deadline for submission of grades permitted. Due dates are announced via emailed memo from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs about a month before the end of the semester. Grades must be submitted by email from the account that MSU Law has on file for you. Please send them to: regist@law.msu.edu
  4. Course grade target averages (means) - Each course is graded based on a target average (mean), which is determined by the size and type of class (1L or upper-level). A list of all courses and their corresponding averages will be announced via memo from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs about a month before the end of the semester.
  5. LLM students. If you are teaching a class with LLM students, you create separate curves for the LLM and JD students. Your faculty secretary can provide a list of students in your section that identifies the students in each program.
  6. Grade changes - Only approved by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs when there is demonstrable evidence of a mathematical error in calculation of a grade or when there has been an egregious error in grading, such as the failure to read and take into account an entire blue book or a significant portion of one.
  7. Retention of Exams and Papers. Exams and papers must be retained for one year. You may have them retained at the law college or in your possession. If you elect to retain them, please return them to the Law College for disposal at the end of the year.

Student Achievement Award

Criteria for awarding a Jurisprudence Achievement Award »

Experiential Learning

The ABA Standards for Experiential Learning allow for an experiential designation for simulation courses. If you think your course might meet the criteria for a designation (below), please contact the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Standard 304(a): Simulation Courses

(a)  A simulation course provides substantial experience not involving an actual client, that (1) is reasonably similar to the experience of a lawyer advising or representing a client or engaging in other lawyering tasks in a set of facts and circumstances devised or adopted by a faculty member, and (2) includes the following:

(i) direct supervision of the student’s performance by the faculty member;

(ii) opportunities for performance, feedback from a faculty member, and self-evaluation; and

(iii) a classroom instructional component.

The Technology Services Helpdesk (517-432-9292, helpdesk@law.msu.edu) is the first contact for all computing services. 

The Technology office is open 8:00am to 6:00pm Monday – Thursday and 8:00am to 5:00pm on Friday.

Chief contact – Amanda Olivier, Technology Support Manager (Room 208, 517-432-6995).

Amanda and Matt will instruct you in the use of electronic media for the classroom as needed for your course. Contact Technology Services (517-432-9292) to schedule an instructional session, or if you need assistance before or during a class.

Connecting to lawguest Wi-Fi if you have a PC:

  1. Network Name: lawguest.  Security Type: no authentication
  2. Click Connect
  3. Lawguest should now appear as a network in WiFi options, join the network.

 Connecting to lawguest Wi-Fi if you have a MAC:

  1. Network Name: lawguest. Security: none
  2. Join lawguest.