Columbia Law School Offers Exam Delays In Wake Of Garner, Brown Grand Jury Decisions
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Students at Columbia Law School will be allowed to delay final exams, and it's all due to the grand jury decisions in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
Columbia Law School, where some say the signature statue represents man's struggle over unreason, is now grappling with how some students are dealing with the Garner and Brown cases.
As CBS2's Steve Langford reported, the dean of the law school is allowing students to postpone this month's final exams if they're upset by the decisions in Staten Island and Ferguson, Missouri.
"The grand juries' determinations to return non-indictments in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases have shaken the faith of some in the integrity of the grand jury system and in the law more generally," the dean wrote.
Only a few at Columbia were willing to talk about it.
"I think it honestly hurts the reputation of the school. I think it makes the administration look a little bit weak," Daniel Samovici said.
"I think it's the administration showing some sensitivity to the children's needs, and I'm in support of it," Brian Hogg said.
Only a few students have asked for and received postponements, according to the school.
"If you can get out of bed then you're supposed to go on and do what you have to do in the law school," David Rudenstine said, a professor at Cardozo School of Law.
Rudenstine said he went to law school in the late 60s, when nobody postponed final exams after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr or Robert F. Kennedy.
"Times have changed. Law schools are more sensitive to psychological stresses of law students than they were I think 45 years ago," he said.
The law school's dean said a trauma specialist has been brought in should anyone at the school want to talk.
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