One of the most comprehensive legal education Academic Support Programs (ASP) in the country is administered by the Southern University Law Center. The Academic Support Program's Pre-Law, Academic-Year, and Academic Counseling components facilitate the learning experience of students so they can adjust, succeed, and excel in law school. ASP supports diversity in the Law School by taking an active role in improving student retention and performance.

The Academic Counseling component was established for the purpose of addressing principal causes of academic difficulties. Students are encouraged to discuss with the dean any problems impeding academic success.

The Academic Support Program is designed to assist students who have not been in an academic setting for a number of years, and for those making the transition from undergraduate education to professional legal education and for students who have learning or physical disabilities. The program provides opportunities to analyze and synthesize precedent, interpret statutes, construct policy arguments and train students to write and speak with clarity and precision.

The office is staffed by the dean and academic counselor, a counselor, an administrative assistant and 39 second and third-year law students who work as teaching assistants (TAs) for the first-year subjects. The program offers a series of first-year weekly academic sessions during the fall and spring semester. A schedule for these sessions is posted on the TWEN site, plasma and bulletin board. In addition, teaching assistants post study materials throughout the semester and have regularly scheduled office hours.

The dean, three tenured professors, a judge, the director of legal writing, two legal writing instructors, and six teaching assistants teach in the summer pre-law program. Twenty-two tenured and tenure track professors and thirty-nine teaching assistants teach in the Academic Year Program. The dean of academic support provides program oversight, supervision and training.

Academic Support starts building the foundation of knowledge and understanding of the structure and content of the legal system, law school pedagogy, and learning theory through its four-week Summer Pre-Law Program. Through instruction in three substantive courses, students are introduced to the Socratic method and are introduced to legal skills, emphasizing legal writing and legal analysis through a skills orientation component of the program. Participation is selective. Because most students welcome any assistance offered to help them succeed in law, students do not object to being invited to attend the summer program.

The Academic Year Program, mandatory for all students enrolled in first-year courses, helps students understand doctrines and develop or refine their study and analytical skills. The program consists of weekly sessions of two-hours each during the semester where emphasis is placed in study techniques, analytical skills and exam writing. Each session or seminar is designed to help students become independent learners. The substantive law is used as a tool for teaching students how to read and analyze cases, how to brief cases, how to organize their notes and briefs, how to outline, how to prepare for exams, how to analyze exam questions, how to organize exam answers, and finally how to write exam answers.

The required legal writing courses for first and second year students emphasize clarity, organization, legal analysis and exposition. Individual and small group instruction in communication skills is also provided.

Through the Office of Academic Support Programs, the Law Center provides reasonable and appropriate testing accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The specific objectives of the Academic Support Program are:

• To assist participants in developing the legal study skills and habits that will enable them to perform to their potential;

• To develop the participants' exam-writing and analytical skills;

• To provide positive reinforcement to the participants that they can excel; and,

• To provide a means of identifying those students who are having problems, and refer them to the right resources for assistance, such as the professor teaching the substantive course, the legal writing instructors for writing assistance, and the counseling and medical centers where appropriate.

Berryl Gordon-Thompson, Esq.
Dean and Academic Counselor
Office of Academic Support Programs
Email: bthompson@sulc.edu
Telephone: (225) 771-4913
Fax: (225) 771-5895
 
Eric W. Claville, J.D.
Academic Counselor
Email: eclaville@sulc.edu
 
Pamela Thomas-Anderson
Administrative Assistant IV
Email: panderson@sulc.edu
 
Mailing address:
Southern University Law Center
Office of Academic Support Programs & Academic Counseling
Post Office Box 9294
Baton Rouge, LA 70813
 
Physical address:
Southern University Law Center
Office of Academic Support Programs & Academic Counseling
2 Roosevelt Steptoe Drive, Suite 220
Baton Rouge, LA 70813

Contact Information
Office: (225) 771-4913
Fax: (225) 771-5895