“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.” – Maya Angelou
I have just one request before I give your email inbox a winter break! I’m asking you to liberate your soul! The Monday Morning Message will resume the week of January 9, 2023, the first week of spring semester classes.
Year-end appeals for support always focus on successes, and we have many to boast about. With our 40% increase in enrollment since 2016, our #1 ranking as the top public law school in Northern Ohio, our #1 ranking as the top part-time program in Ohio, and our 12 nationally ranked specialty law programs – we are a law school that keeps raising the bar. See Raising the Bar for 125 Years
But I want to focus on something different this morning. It is an area in which we can- and must - do better, and I am asking for your help in achieving that goal.
While I’m very proud of our consistently strong bar passage rate and our many graduates who pass the exam, we will never be satisfied until every graduate passes the Bar Exam. Each year some of our graduates do not. Despite years of relentless hard work and graduation from law school, if they do not pass the bar exam, they cannot practice law. It’s the legal profession’s rite of passage.
We share in their disappointment. We also share in the responsibility.
There are many reasons why a student may not pass the bar exam. Increasingly, our students face unforeseen emergency expenses and financial burdens that prevent them from devoting the time and resources needed to prepare for this all or nothing exam. No student should be forced to choose between eating, paying rent, or studying. These financial barriers are especially difficult to overcome for our students from disadvantaged or underserved communities.
So I’m asking you to support The Gary Williams/Mary Jane McGinty Bar Passage Assistance Fund. This fund allows us to provide extra layers of support that enhance our students’ success during law school and on the bar exam. Please Give Here.
Gary Williams ’84 was the first Director of Bar Preparation and the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Minority Recruitment. Gary was recently inducted in our 2022 CSU|LAW Hall of Fame. Mary Jane McGinty ‘83 served the College for over 30 years, including as Director of Bar Preparation for many years, and she recently retired. The Fund was originally named in honor of Gary after he retired, and when Mary Jane McGinty recently retired, we wanted to bestow the same honor on her. So rather than create and promote a separate fund for the exact same purpose which would overshadow Gary’s groundbreaking work, we decided to rename the fund in honor of both of these two retired staff members’ outstanding dedication and commitment to the successful bar passage of CSU College of Law students and graduates.
Please make your gift to The Gary Williams/Mary Jane McGinty Bar Passage Assistance Fund and support our students’ dreams. No gift is too small.
Please Give Here by December 31, 2022.
Thank you for your ongoing commitment to the success of our law students.
Because when our students succeed, our law school succeeds.
Have a Happy, Safe, and Healthy Holiday and New Year!
The views and opinions expressed in my Monday Morning Message are solely my own and do not reflect the views and opinions of the law school or the university.
My best,
Lee
Lee Fisher
Dean, Cleveland State University College of Law | Cleveland State University
Joseph C. Hostetler-BakerHostetler Chair in Law
For copies of past messages, please go to this link: Monday Morning Messages.