Strategic Plan

Advance the Success of an Increasingly Diverse Student Body

Offering all sectors of the population an opportunity for a quality legal education remains our core mission. In particular, we commit to further recruit, admit, retain, graduate, and support entry into and success in the legal profession of students who reflect the multicultural, multiracial, and multi-perspective world in which we live.

As MSU College of Law, we now also have the opportunity to create pathways for diverse students from other MSU colleges and schools into legal education and the practice of law. In delivering on our promises to every student, we will bring the lens of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access to all our efforts.

1. Recruit and enroll a student body that is increasingly inclusive of students with diverse backgrounds and experiences

   Potential actions include:

   1. Partner with institutions and programs that connect us with communities underrepresented in legal education and the legal profession.
   2. Increase financial scholarships for students historically underrepresented in the legal profession.
2. Strengthen the student experience in order to retain and graduate students ready to begin the practice of law

   Potential actions include:

   1. Provide exceptional and well-resourced academic and personal support to reduce disparities in retention, learning outcomes, and graduation rates.
   2. Expand student writing opportunities and experiential learning offerings, including increasing the number of externships, simulation courses, and clinical opportunities.
   3. Incorporate transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence into the curricula to better prepare students for the changes that these technologies will bring to the practice of law.
   4. Recruit and retain more diverse faculty and staff reflective of our student body and better prepare all faculty and staff to teach and support students of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
   5. Prepare students on the behaviors, approaches, and tools they can use to support and advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in their legal careers.
   6. Take advantage of the College’s position in a large, R1 university to provide students with greater academic opportunities among MSU’s diverse colleges and programs.
3. Enhance career development programs to better assist students in achieving their professional and employment goals

   Potential actions include:

   1. Increase financial support to students for summer internships in the public sector and attendance at career fairs.
   2. Expand connections with alumni willing to offer guidance on their professional paths and/or serve as mentors to individual students.
   3. Increase post-graduation career support, including guidance and support for students seeking non-traditional law careers.
4. Increase our graduates’ bar-passage rate, working towards a goal of successful passage by all who take the exam

   Potential actions include:

   1. Place preparation for the bar exam at the center of all activities and tasks inside and outside of the classroom, as a crucial step towards ensuring our students are ready for the practice of law.
   2. Invest significant financial and human resources to provide comprehensive bar passage support at no or low cost to students.
   3. Improve teaching methods and methods of assessment to better prepare students for the bar exams.