Law Dean Complains That School Is Too Poor To Pay For Caps And Gowns

Law school tries to nickle and dime students, right until the end.

USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW — MESSAGE FROM DEAN ROBERT RASMUSSEN — CAPS AND GOWNS

Dear Members of the JD Class of 2014,

As we approach the culmination of your law school career, I have heard from both your 3L President and SBA President that there have been legitimate questions raised about the change in policy regarding regalia. I have shared the reasons behind the change with both Irene and Dan, and I thought it would be best if I conveyed the substance of those conversations directly with the entire class.

When I arrived at Gould in 2007, the longstanding policy had been that each graduates would pay to rent his or her regalia. This practice conformed with the policy at every other school and college at USC. After working with the student leadership at that time, I decided that the Dean’s Office would pay for the rental of the regalia. Each year, I would assess the budget and ascertain whether it made sense to retain this practice. This year, however, after going over the budget, I concluded that the funds would better serve our students if we redirected them to other uses. One such new use is the revised Graduate Volunteer Grant program, which we rolled out last week. There are a number of ways that we can help our students, and I wish we had the resources to fund each and every one of them. In the end, I have to make tradeoffs on how we spend our funds.

If you have any questions about this, I would be more than happy to answer them. Good luck on your last round of finals!

Best,

Bob Rasmussen

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