The Legal Eye - Faculty.law.ubc.ca - University of British Columbia

Dean’s town hall
by Oscar Allueva, Law I
On October 19th, about 75 students
attended the “Town Hall Meeting” with
Dean Mary Anne Bobinski. The purpose
of this lunch time meeting was three-fold:
to update students on the goings-on at the
Law School over the past year, to discuss
current and future plans in a number of
areas, and to give students a chance to voice
their concerns and raise issues directly to
the Dean and other faculty in attendance.
While pizza and pop were being consumed,
Dean Bobinski reported on number
of good things that happened over the past
year: the school hired five new faculty,
worked with UBC to better allocate tuition
funds, made some physical improvements
to the building, and increased student financial
aid.
On this last point, Dean Bobinski reported
that she was recently pleased to learn
that the revised UBC policy regarding student
financial aid (Policy 72) will not reduce
available funding for financial aid to
law students. However, there have been
changes to the bursary system in general
as per the broader UBC Policy, which may
affect what individual students receive.
There is now one person at UBC Student
Financial Services dedicated to dealing
specifically with law student applications
for financial aid (Pam Davidson at Brock
Hall).
Dean Bobinski also raised the issue of
jobs. The Faculty is aware of the pressure
and competition that begins on day one of
law school for a limited number of articling
positions. Some figures were promising:
based on last year’s statistics, 90 percent
of students that wanted articling positions
received them. Dean Bobinski acknowledged
that this may be a reduction from
past years and there is work to be done in
this area. But there were other concerns
from students: that too many local articling
positions may be going to students from
out-of-province, and that UBC students
may not be as highly sought after. Dean
Bobinski acknowledged that these views
How many law students get to traipse
off to New York in the middle of the term?
Well, at least Julaine Eberhard (Law II)
had a good reason for doing so. She was
down in NYC on October 7th defending
her Ph.D. dissertation, entitled “Recognizing
Justice: a study of the connections between
human recognition, realization and
restorative justice.” The Legal Eye is happy
to report that Julaine was successful in her
defence and is now the proud owner of a
doctorate in social and political philosophy
from the New School for Social Research
(New School University). Well almost;
it’s not official until January.
Congrats Dr. J.
Law School Briefs
persist, but she suggested that they may be
more perception than fact given the reputation
of the school among firms, the wide
variety of courses offered, and the range
within faculty, which includes over 40 practitioners.
A number of comments were made
regarding the law school curriculum. The
Curriculum Review Committee that started
its review last year has made 15 overall
recommendations for change. The committee
will be moving ahead with the next
stage of the review, which involves a more
thorough analysis. This review has considered
broad questions regarding the role of
the law school and legal education in general,
and will undoubtedly lead to fundamental
changes. The goal of the committee
is to produce a complete package that
must be approved by the UBC Senate before
implementation. Students are represented
on this committee and the report of
the committee is available.
The building is another area of both
current attention and future development.
Improvements are being made as are necessary,
but the building needs to be replaced.
Dean Bobinski gave an update on
this: working with RPG consultants, a
number of meetings have been held to come
up with a building concept that reflects future
needs for the law school. The cost of a
new building is tentatively estimated at $30
million and the process is at a very early
stage.
Lastly, Dean Bobinski spoke on the
rising cost of tuition, saying that this is an
area of great concern for students and faculty.
The process of determining the level
of tuition next year includes consultation
meetings to be held in about three weeks.
There are various issues to be considered,
beyond the obvious level of tuition, such
as whether tuition rates should be
grandparented, and how far in advance tuition
should be set, et cetera. A final decision
needs to be presented to the Board of
Governors in January.
[BTW, we know there were other law
students in New York in early October for
just as “legitimate” reasons, but we’re still
going to give you a hard time.]
On a sad note, The Legal Eye wishes
to acknowledge Dagmar Bonkowski who
passed away September 29 after a short but
brave struggle with cancer. Dagmar was a
long time member of the UBC Library, joining
the 25 Year Club last year. Since 1981,
Dagmar was at the front lines of the Law
Library, working in the circulation department.
She also enjoyed reading travel biographies,
going for walks and painting.
The Legal Eye extends our thoughts to
Dagmar’s family, friends and colleagues.
Corrections
In our October issue, the mistakes began on page 1. In our piece on the SCC docket
this fall, we stated that the Provincial Judges Reference decision was in 1977. Of
course, any self-respecting UBC law student who made it through Legal Institutions
knows that the correct year is 19..... 97. (BTW, why didn’t any of you point out the
error in our ways?) Also in our last issue, we forgot to list the address for the Xwi7xwa
Library, the subject of Myrna McCallum’s page 4 article. Xwi7xwa is located in the
First Nations House of Learning, 1985 West Mall.
The UBC Faculty of Law is part-way through an overhaul of
the publications it uses to communicate with prospective applicants,
alumni and members of the profession. Gloria Casciano,
the Faculty’s communications/events coordinator, spent much of
the past three months working on this project with other faculty
and staff members. The first stage was completed in mid-October
with the release of new brochures for prospective students to
the LL.B. and graduate programs.
The brochures give applicants
a flavour of UBC Law.
The Faculty has also developed
two new “wordmarks:”
see above headline and on the
front page of the brochures.
The Faculty wishes to thank all
those involved for their assistance
as it moves forward with
plans to revitalize UBC Law’s
print and web publications.
: a new look
A lasting tribute to Stephan Salzberg
Pitman Potter shares fond memories of his colleague and friend
Professor Stephan Salzberg. The Japanese Maple tree behind
Prof. Potter was planted in honour of Prof. Salzberg.
photo by Agnes Huang
A crowd gathered in the Inner Courtyard at UBC Law on October 14th to pay respects
to Professor Stephan Salzberg, who passed away in July. Tributes were given by
Professors Keith Farquhar and Pitman Potter, Professor Emeritus Bob Reid, third year
law student Brandon Smith and Don Baker, Director of the Centre for Korean Research.
Joy Lin Salzberg also shared a statement about her husband, read by their son Jonas.
In Professor Salzberg’s honour, a Japanese Maple tree has been planted in the Inner
Courtyard with a dedication plaque. A framed photo, which truly expresses the spirit of
Stephan Salzberg, adorns the wall outside the Dean’s office and another plaque is hung
in the Centre for Asian Legal Studies. An endowment fund has been established to ensure
ongoing expansion of one of Prof. Salzberg’s many initiatives: the Asian legal studies
collection at UBC.
Page 2 The Legal Eye November 2004