Zittrain agrees that the HLS education is top quality, but that there is room for improvement. “The fundamentals are pretty good,” he says. “I can see lots of experimentation within the first year curriculum without disrupting the central features of the Socratic method,” Zittrain says. Zittrain says he hopes the strategic plan, which cuts first year class size by half, could foster increased student-faculty interaction.
He says he also hopes that students will have more opportunity—with the 40 hours of free legal work that will be required by the plan—for clinical pursuits.
But in order for these changes to work, the faculty will have to make sacrifices. Cutting first year class size in half means that more classes will have to be taught, and many professors will accept a heavier teaching schedule next year. Stuntz says he is impressed by what he calls the “selflessness” of the HLS faculty.
“I was really impressed by the conversations and suggestions among the faculty about how to make life better for students rather than for themselves,” Stuntz says. Based on his experiences at other law schools, Stuntz says this is rare. “That’s not something to be taken for granted,” he says. Such devotion to students, according to third-year HLS student Rayan R. Joshi, is a refreshing change at a law school that at times seemed large and impersonal. “It’s good that the law school is actually showing signs that it cares about student dissatisfaction,” Joshi says. “In years past, that probably hasn’t been the case.”
Both outside and within HLS there seems to be a consensus that the new strategic plan is aimed not at enhancing HLS’ reputation, but at improving student life. Leebrand says HLS’ reputation is already excellent; its only weakness, he says, is student discontent. While he doesn’t think that the plan is a novel idea, he calls it a “sensible and creative” way to improve the student experience. If the plan succeeds, 2001 will have to be added to 1871 as another landmark year in HLS history.
—Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu.