On-Campus With Elie: Night Law School Can No Longer Be Done At Night

Law school administrators don't listen to the concerns of their full-time day students, so I'm sure they look at their night students like dollar signs with moving lips.

Night law school is a pretty good deal. It’s not what you do if you want to make gobs of money while working at Manhattan’s most prestigious law firms. Sure, that happens for some people, just like making a sex tape can make some people famous. But it’s not the preferred method.

But if you like having sex on camera, sex tapes get you there. And if you really just want to get a law degree because you think it will help you take the next step in your career, night law school can get you there. You get to keep your day job and take a shot at something better. That’s why it’s such a good deal: you don’t have to worry about getting a job, while putting yourself in a position to maybe get a better job.

Of course, a law school dean heard that something was basically working out for a group of students and thought very hard about how to screw that up in an effort to bilk them out of more money. Enter Fordham School of Law. The school has the third best evening program in the nation, according to U.S. News. But now the administration is changing the program so that people can’t actually hold down their day jobs while going to school.

Tipsters report that Fordham changed its evening program requirements. Students now have to take 14 units to include something called a Legislation and Regulation course requirement. Unfortunately, actual evening students have said that this new schedule is unworkable for people with full-time jobs or full-time families. Students have met with administration officials to express their inability to comply with the new requirements, and have been rebuffed.

Obviously, making night students take more credits means that Fordham can charge night students (now or in the future) more money for those extra credits. The school can scream about pedagogy until it’s blue in the face, this a cash grab. And it’s a grab that the school will probably get away with, because ultimately, students who really want the degree will adjust. They’ll adjust their work schedules. They’ll neglect their children. They’ll wake up earlier and go to sleep later. In five years, 14-credit night law school will be the Fordham thing and the school will see economic “growth” in its evening program.

The fact that the program is now harder for the actual students to complete and succeed is of no concern to the administration. The fact that more students will fail over the long haul, or that people will have to borrow a little bit more money to make up for hours they can no longer work, won’t rate when the school looks at its bottom line. Who cares if “night school” is no longer fully compatible with “day jobs”? Fordham isn’t in this business to help its students achieve their goals. They’re in it to make money. And throwing in an extra course requirement helps everybody at the school make money. Law school administrators don’t listen to the concerns of their full-time day students, so I’m sure they look at their night students like dollar signs with moving lips.

Instead of making a sex tape in the privacy of their own home, Fordham asked them to strip in public and do a dance. Same thing, right? It’s just a little more humiliating.

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