A Columbia Potpourri: Columbia Talks About Deans and Grades But Provides Little Information

Here’s our best attempt to tie up a few loose ends on the strange saga of Columbia’s Career Services’ Dean, Ellen Wayne.

Many CLS students were, frankly, pissed to hear of Dean Wayne’s departure via ATL. This

was sent to the entire law student body earlier this week:

Dear Students,

As you may know, speculation has circulated the law school and the Internet regarding changes at Career Services. Your student representatives are aware of the situation and have been meeting with administrators throughout the day. In these meetings, we have stressed the importance of providing students with as timely and accurate information as events allow.

We anticipate more information will be provided as soon as practicable. In the meantime, we ask for your patience. Career Services is in full operation; 1L resume reviews will continue and the LL.M. job fair will take place early next year. It is unfortunate that many of us learned of this situation from sources other than the law school administration. Please know that we are aware of the situation, have been strenuously advocating on your behalf, and will strive to provide additional information as appropriate.

Sincerely yours,

The Student Senate

Apparently, “as soon as practicable” turned out to be Friday. But we’re not sure the following message contained the details that most CLS students were looking for:

From: Ed Moroni.

Dean of Career Services Ellen Wayne has resigned from her position after 14 years of dedicated service to the Columbia Law School. During this time the Office of Career Services delivered very high rates of job placement for our students – often 100 percent – in addition to advisement and placement services in support of our alumni. Over her long tenure, Dean

Wayne assisted and counseled literally thousands of students and graduates of the Law School. Among her many accomplishments, she also initiated a full-service program and multi-law-school job fair for LL.M. students, and enhanced and professionalized the EIP recruitment event for J.D. candidates.

We thank her for her service and wish her well in all of her future endeavors.

To ensure a smooth transition while we search for a permanent replacement, former director of career services Natasha Patel has agreed to serve as Acting Dean of Career Services. Natasha will return to Columbia on December 8, 2008. The Career Services Office remains in full operation. Students and others should contact the appropriate person as listed in the

following directory, http://www.law.columbia.edu/careers/career_services/staff, who will

continue to provide services and programming for our students.

— Ed

Edward Moroni

Associate Dean for Administration and Finance

Columbia Law School

So, we still don’t officially know whether Dean Wayne left voluntarily or was asked to leave, or any of the reasons for her departure.

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A tipster puts an interesting spin on the situation after the jump.


Upon receiving this memo, one CLS student put the matter like this:

[S]he obviously left so quickly that they are basically starting the search now for a new head of Career Services. And having to recall a former person on short notice, likely from retirement.

Columbia needs to fire the woman who runs the clerkship office too. All she does is have babies so that she is on maternity leave right during clerkship season. Brilliant job choice for her….

You can almost feel the confidence CLS students have in their career placement officers just oozing through the screen.

Hey, it’s not like career services is particularly important or anything in this market.

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Meanwhile … Columbia is still wrestling with grade reform. Columbia has now established an ad hoc committee of professors to consider a transition to a pass/fail system along the lines of those adopted by Harvard, Stanford etc.

They conducted a meeting recently with select members of the Law Review. It seemed from the meeting that they are strongly considering overhauling the grading system, and are concerned that they will be beaten to the punch sock-filled-sock by NYU. They acknowledged that responses to the proposed system from judges and employers have been negative across-the-board, because it eliminates pretty much any meaningful way of differentiating students.

The response from the Law Review group was overwhelmingly negative as well (though this should not come as a surprise from a group that clearly excelled in the graded system).

Logic suggests that grade reform will not and should not happen. And yet, this pass/fail business is still trickling on down the U.S. News line…

Earlier: Columbia Cashiers Career Services Dean?

NYU Law Grade Reform: Another Law School Loses Its Fastball

Columbia: Are You Ready For Some Grade Reform?