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Registration, Enrollment, Attendance & Grievances

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Enrollment Course-Load Rules Attendance Grievances

Official Enrollment in Courses

If you wish to sit in on a course you must enroll in that course either for credit or as a hearer. In addition, you must register for any credit-carrying program, including Law Review, Research, Advanced Advocacy Research, Moot Court and Board of Advocate competitions or Clinical Placements. Students taking any of these for credit should register for them only in the semester in which they expect to complete credit requirements.

You must either complete all courses for which you are registered or properly drop the course. This includes courses in which you are registered as a hearer. Please refer to the University refund policy for the dates and percentages of refund you would receive for dropping a course.

Upon completion of registration, you may not enroll in a course without petitioning, or withdraw from a course without either petitioning or formally withdrawing from the University. Petitioning, more commonly referred to as Add/Drop, must be initiated by the student. If you desire to make a change in course selection, changes in status from credit to hearer or vice versa, or changes in number of credit hours for a particular course, you must obtain a Add/Drop form and a Supplemental Course Statement from the Records Office (Room 203), complete the forms, receive approval, and complete the registration process as directed.

The petitioning period to drop a course or to change status within a course is normally through the first six weeks of the fall or winter semester. Adding a course must be accomplished within the first two weeks. Add/Drops in the summer session must be accomplished during the first week of class. Add/Drop petitions after these periods may only be granted by the Associate Dean and only for a good cause shown. The Associate Dean will normally consult with the professor prior to the approval of the Add/Drop petition. The Associate Dean shall also determine if the student is attempting to gain an unfair advantage by the add or drop, and if such a determination is made, shall not grant the petition to add or drop the course. A student may change from credit to hearer status in any elective course prior to the end of the last day of classes. To switch sections of a course, you must obtain consent of the Associate Dean and fill out a section change form obtainable in the Records Office (Room 203).

If you receive and incomplete grade in a course, you have only one year to complete the course.

Effect of Late Grades on Registration

Registration in any semester or summer session is conditional upon the student being eligible for registration when grades for the preceding semester are reported.

Residency and Course-Load Rules

Our residence and course-load rules satisfy the requirements of the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools. The purpose of the residency requirements is to assure that the study of law will be spread evenly over a minimum period of six semesters or the equivalent.

Our rules regarding the size of a student's course load -- the number of hours a student enrolls for in a given semester -- and our residency rules -- are not the same.

1. Residency Rules

   The residency requirement means you may not graduate in less than six semesters or the equivalent. If you plan to attend summer school for two years and graduate a semester before most of the members of your class you should visit with the Associate Dean concerning your summer course loads.

   For residency purposes a minimum load of twelve hours is required for a semester. For purposes of accelerated graduation, minimum residency hours for a summer session are five if combined with another summer session of no less than seven hours. Two summer sessions of six hours each serve the same purpose. If fewer hours are taken in a summer session, they may not be used toward residency for the purpose of accelerated graduation but may be combined with an appropriate number of hours in a regular semester in order to fulfill a twelve hour semester residency requirement.

   Students completing more than twelve hours in a semester may not use surplus hours over twelve toward residency in any other session; hence the three surplus hours from a fifteen hour semester cannot be added to a subsequent nine hour semester to give residency for two semesters. On the other hand, a nine hour semester can be combined with a three hour summer session to give residence for one semester.

   In cases of extreme hardship the Faculty may make a slight variance in the residency requirements, but cannot go below the standards set by the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools.

2. Course-Load Rules

   The maximum number of hours permitted for a semester is seventeen (17), and seven (7) for a summer session, unless the Associate Dean for good cause approves a heavier load. The minimum number of hours permitted for a semester in order to be considered a full-time student is twelve (12). There is no minimum for the summer session.

   Taking more than the normal maximum semester load of seventeen hours, or less than the minimum semester load of twelve hours requires good cause and approval of the Associate Dean, but such approval does not in any way change the residency requirements.

Required Attendance at Class

Law Schools approved by the American Bar Association must require regular and punctual class attendance. The rules below implement this requirement at MU, and were adopted by the faculty on November 19, 1992:

1. Class Attendance
   1. Attendance is expected, in accordance with the ABA policy statement.
   2. Administration of the attendance policy lies with the individual instructor for each course.
   3. The individual instructor determines the number and nature of absences from each course for an excess of which sanctions may be imposed, as well as the sanctions which will be imposed, up to and including dismissal from the course.
   4. If the instructor intends to attach a formal sanction (grade reduction or dismissal from the course) to inadequate attendance, he/she must announce to the class in writing at the beginning of the course what the rules governing attendance in that course will be, with appropriate provision for notice to late enrollers.
   5. A student who is in danger of accumulating excessive absences must be given notice by the instructor in advance of the absence which will give rise to a significant sanction (major grade reduction or dismissal from the class.
   6. If a student's enrollment in a course is recorded on his/her transcript, and the student is dismissed from the class for excessive absence, a notation of "required withdrawal" ("WR" or "RW") will be made for the course on the transcript.
2. Appeals
   • A student who is dropped from a course for excessive absences may meet with the Dean and request reversal of the decision. Such a student may seek the assistance of the Grievance Committee of the Student Bar Association in support of the request. A final decision on the appeal rests in the discretion of the Dean.

Grievances

Students who have a grievance may file it with the Student Bar Association which has a Grievance Committee that meets periodically with the Dean or Associate Dean.