Friday, September 22, 2006
13 Weeks
It was recently brought to my attention that the State Bar of Michigan (SBM) requires that applicants for admission have attended an institution at which the school year "be at least 30 weeks." In contrast, the American Bar Association requires for accreditation purposes that an institution offer 130 days of instruction (which works out to 26 weeks). A student was concerned with our change last year to a 13 week semester. The Associate Dean has researched the matter and it turns out that for the SBM, the school year includes study days and the final examination period, and by that standard our school year is 32 weeks. Accordingly, there is no issue raised by our 13 week semester. Nonetheless, I have written to the SBM to suggest amending the rule to ensure clarity. Thank you.
