The online education company 2U launched its first online law program in January 2013 in partnership with St. Louis’ Washington University, when Kent Syverud was dean of the law school there.

Now, 39 months later, Syverud is the chancellor of Syracuse University, which hosts six schools and colleges that have partnered with 2U to create online and hybrid degree programs. These programs are for students who want to enroll in programs at SU but don’t have the proximity or accessibility to the campus to attend residential programs, such as professionals with established careers, people with disabilities or active-duty military personnel.

The latest entity at SU to partner with 2U is SU’s College of Law, which announced last week that it would create a hybrid juris doctor program, the first of its kind for 2U. The law school has been in discussion about the program for about two years, said Andrew Hermalyn, executive vice president and regional general manager for 2U.

But some faculty and staff remain skeptical of the program and fear it might diminish the prestige of SU Law. Students especially feel “blindsided” because they don’t necessarily understand the details of the program yet, SU’s Student Bar Association Cody Carbone said. This is because, he said, only faculty were involved in the discussion about creating the program.

The program is expected to be approved by the American Bar Association and New York state by next spring, and the College of Law hopes to launch it in 2018, said Interim Dean William Banks.

Faculty are currently working in coordination with 2U on crafting the courses that will be delivered through the program’s online platform, Hermalyn said. He added that every academic function of the program is the college’s, and not 2U’s.

The two-year process of determining whether this program would happen at the law school entailed a series of discussions with faculty, staff and administrators, Hermalyn said.

Those conversations were largely faculty-focused, he added, and involved discussion about the online education space and educating faculty about what programs are happening at other law schools.

Concern about whether the program will devalue the law school’s residential JD program has also been expressed by some faculty, who “wonder about the wisdom” of going in the hybrid program direction, Banks said. But the hybrid program would ensure the same rigor and acceptance rate that the residential program has, he added, and would enhance the reputation of SU’s residential JD program.

“One can learn about the kind of hybrid programs for example that have been created in the Whitman School or in the Newhouse School here at SU, you see that in no way are they second-rate or substandard in relation to the programs that are offered on campus,” Banks said.

The program is hybrid in that it entails online learning from professors’ pre-filmed lectures and live discussions in combination with a residency component in which students in the program come to the SU campus. Students in the hybrid program will also be required to complete an externship, which is an experimental learning opportunity provided by an educational institution. Students in the residential program at the College of Law also have to do so.

Students in the College of Law, though, are not sure of the quality of the program because they have largely been left out of the conversation about it, said Carbone, the president of SU’s Student Bar Association.

“The students haven’t really been briefed on exactly what the hybrid degree, what the online degree would even look like, so the natural feel right now I think is one of skepticism,” he said.

That skepticism is largely based on students not knowing whether the hybrid program will have the same merit as the residential program, and if it will be viewed by the outside world as having the same merit as the residential program.

There’s also concern among law school students that the hybrid program will reflect poorly upon the College of Law. In the legal field in general, and given the current state of the legal job market, Carbone said the reputation of one’s law school is “a huge deal.” And there is an expectation among alumni especially that the College of Law will continue to rise through the ranks and become more prestigious, he added.

The lack of communication from the law school to its students has students unsure about what the degree would look like, Carbone said, which leads to concern among students about how the law school will be perceived by employers.

“So they’re worried that if Syracuse Law, just the brand name, is offering an online JD, it will make us kind of look not as formal and professional, not as established and kind of almost — I don’t want to say needy, but that’s the kind of view I’ve seen from students is that this almost makes us look needy,” he said.

Only a handful of students, including Carbone, knew about the idea to create the program before it was announced last week. But besides that handful, the majority of students, Carbone said, were “completely blindsided.”

Once Carbone was informed about the program after talks with Banks, the interim dean of the law school, he became receptive to the idea. He said he thinks the program will “actually make us more prestigious.”

But more communication about the program between students and faculty is something the SBA will focus on next year, Carbone said, adding that he thinks students are looking for that communication. Key players in the program, like Banks and law Professor Nina Kohn, who has led the charge on the program, need to speak to students about the program, Carbone said, “and really be as open and transparent as possible” about it.

“I know academics and the faculty and the staff are important, but going to law school and doing anything with a degree affects students the most, so to not have their input would really be I think poor judgment on the decision makers,” he said. “It would be unwise to not have student input.”

Published on April 27, 2016 at 10:51 pm

Contact Alexa: atorrens@syr.edu