Dear Dean Mulligan and Dean Lang,
The members of the 1L class are incredibly concerned that our first semester grades were graded on a curve that was never brought to the attention to a single student. According to the previous curve, as published on BLS Connect under "Grading System and Current Policy," professors have to give a B or above to a minimum of 70% of their students (with a maximum cap at 80%). This is consistent with the grading curve as applied in previous years. However, this curve is inconsistent with the curve published in the Student Handbook, which pulls down the average GPA significantly. This is the grade that was applied to our 1L class.
While we recognize that the administration can change our curve, this is something that impacts every single student. This is something that should be communicated to our student body, and not something that should lay silently until it is too late. We came to Brooklyn Law School under the impression that students are graded according to a certain curve—a much softer curve that would have put many 1Ls in a dramatically different position than they sit in now. That curve was a selling point of our school, and was pressed by faculty as a generous curve that sets our school apart from the rest. It is shocking that this policy was changed upon our arrival to BLS and no student was notified.
This new curve is also problematic to our overall rankings. According to the Student Handbook, we are ranked with every student who graduates with us, including 2-year and 4-year students. This means we are being ranked against 4-year students who took the same classes as us but on the previous and more generous curve, which puts us at a disadvantage.
One of the first things we learn in law school is Due Process under the 5th & 14th Amendment. The importance of this fundamental right was repeatedly stressed throughout many of our fall courses. Changing the curve without notice ultimately deprives of our right to due process & notice.
Because this curve was never brought to the attention of our student body, and because BLS Connect presents all students with conflicting and dramatically different grading curves, we ask that our grades be reapportioned according to the previous curve.
