Student Bar Association Suffolk University Law School Sammy Nabulsi President Cell: (402) 250-3701 ssnabulsi@suffolk.

edu

Dear Members of the Suffolk University Law School Faculty, On behalf of the Student Bar Association (SBA) and the student body of Suffolk University Law School, we respectfully request that the Faculty exercise its authority pursuant to Rule II.E to award summa cum laude honors to any fourth-year evening division student and third-year day student graduating in May 2014 with a cumulative grade point average of 3.67 or greater. On January 26, 2014, the SBA passed Resolution 04, a resolution to petition the Faculty to award summa cum laude honors to graduating fourth-year students with cumulative grade point averages of 3.67 or greater. Since the passage of SR-04, the signatories to this letter learned of the law school administrations hope that the SBA make this request concerning Graduation 2014 Honors with respect to all graduating students out of fairness to all May 2014 graduates. Accordingly, while the SBA only voted to request that the Faculty vote to award summa cum laude honors to evening division graduates, we are supplementing the request articulated in SR-04 to also respectfully request that the Faculty consider awarding the same treatment to day division graduates. Current third-year evening students may desire similar recourse for the same reasons expressed in SR-04; however, the SBA understands that a cut-off is ultimately needed and we defer to the Facultys sound judgment to determine whether any weight should be attributed to those potential concerns. SR-04 was adopted by a majority vote of 16-4 among the SBAs Board of Governors (BOG). During the BOGs discussion of SR-04, there was resounding agreement about the student bodys frustration with the 2013-14 changes to the requirements for summa cum laude honors. Specifically, students have been frustrated that the revised requirements do not only apply prospectively; but rather, to all students who matriculated under the former system. To further clarify, we are not requesting that the Faculty replace the current standard with the former standard when calculating honors for the graduating evening division; rather, we are relying on a specific clause in Section II.E of the Law Schools Rules & Regulations, which provides, "the Faculty may in its discretion also award the graduation honors summa cum laude to additional students. We ask that, after graduation honors have been determined, the Faculty exercise its discretion to further award summa cum laude honors to any fourth-year evening student and thirdyear day student with a GPA of 3.67 or greater but who do not qualify for summa cum laude honors under the new Rules if any such student exists. Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Suffolk University Law School student body, Sammy Nabulsi

SBA President

Samantha Caplan James Kalinoski Megan Weber

7A Section Representative 7B Section Representative Director, Academic Affairs Committee