 Hello, all right We're gonna go ahead and get started So I know that the fact that we made the meeting mandatory didn't get you here So I want to thank Sandra for being here and passing out regalia because it's a way to ensure that all third-year students are in the building But first before we start congratulations It's you know the three years goes really fast And I know you guys have a lot to accomplish over this next month exams and rocking Wrapping up clinics and externships, but really congratulations on everything that you've accomplished so far So today's session is to really design to go over a lot of nuts and bolts and really details that you need both for Commencement day as well as Wrapping up things with the law school. So I'm gonna turn it over to Logan Pierce first We're gonna go here from a variety of different departments With just in just different information. The session is being taped for remote students SIP students and other people who couldn't be here So just so you know that Logan I Need clap don't worry about it. Yeah, I'll have to clap Now I'm just here to remind everybody to vote online for the professor Adjunct professor and staff member of the year. We hand out those awards at Glen Manor I'd also like to congratulate all of y'all. I'll be right there along with you So that's really all I have to say if you didn't get the email Let us know and Jill can send you another one. So Good job. Glad to see all of you here And the next person is from financial aid Catherine Hi, everybody, I just have a couple three quick things to share with you first is about Mandatory exit counseling loan exit counseling So anyone who's borrowed a federal loan during their three years here has to By federal law Go through an exit counseling session session, so you'll be getting an email from us with the session date So we're gonna have a few group sessions available as well as some One-on-one sessions that you can have if if that's how you'd prefer and we'll have those You can sign up in our office for those or shoot us an email and we can schedule a one-on-one session The next thing is The pill wrap program So if any of you are going to be doing public interest law And would be interested in loan forgiveness. We have our in-house loan forgiveness program You would be eligible to do that next year as an alum and We'll have information we email all alums and there's information on the website So that's pretty much it Next is Doug Hello Be very brief. I do have some things, but mostly it'll be just to alleviate future headaches from you Balances just make sure you take care of those by May one Most of you probably haven't taken care of already But just if you didn't know parking citations do go on the student account So just make sure if you have any of those to take care of those so there's no future headaches there You could do that through TMS or a payment through our office Degree requirements just check your program eval on your portal making sure mainly the pro bono writing requirement or Any incompletes are taken care of in a timely manner About April 19th for the pro bono is in the announcements today Writing requirement and incompletes by April 25th again, just to be safe and not you don't have to worry about anything When it's you know a week from graduation Bar certifications, we're here to help you in the records of finance office You should probably know the requirements you need to do for your bar by now But if you have any questions, you can come by our office and we can try to help you You may need to have paperwork filled out by us. Make sure you bring that by us in a timely manner, too Any amendments some states require, you know a copy of your application So just make sure you review your application and if there was anything that needs to be amended again all about alleviating your headaches later Take care of that any address changes You know do that with us if you're going to be in a different address after graduation And Lock of keys and all that you've been given some of you've been given your lock keys right now We ask that they are returned by May 10th And if there is if you have any lost locker keys, there would be a $25 charge. So hopefully if there's any Lost locker keys we can try to find them by that time And Just in case if this might be mentioned later, but Diana Dean hassles in this back room here If you have any Phonetic sayings of your name if you want us to make sure we you know obviously say correctly a graduation Just please stop back with her after this is over And That is all I have so Kathy Thompson No, or John Lawson I'll be Kathy today So just to echo something well first congratulations on your impending graduation and then to echo something Doug just said So regardless of where you're taking the bar exam every state requires you to have the law school Certify that you're graduating so you need to meet with the folks over in Student finance and records to let them know where you're taking the bar exam so that they know exactly where they should send that paperwork Okay, in terms of the deadlines for the bar applications Some are quickly approaching most of right New York is April 30th Rhode Island and Connecticut May 1st and Massachusetts is May 12th. So if you have any questions about the applications Please feel free to come talk to me. I'm happy to answer those for you or you can send me an email Over the summer. I'm gonna have some supplementary bar exam materials available for you to Compliment what you're getting in your barbie or your Kaplan or Themis or whatever course you're taking We're also gonna have some workshops over the summer in the past what I've done is I've had Many exams where you've had students have had the ability to take practice multiple choice exams and essay exams After they've had the opportunity to study the subject matter in their in their bar review class So I'll send out updates about that you Michael. How you doing? Yeah. Alright, so send out some material about that Soon if you have any questions though about taking the bar exam If we haven't met throughout the course of the year to talk about kind of your plans If you have any questions about that again, I'm happy to meet with you in the next couple weeks here. So thanks Congratulations everybody. We're very excited. I know that when you got your survey today You saw the employer and location if applicable and some of you wretched at seeing that and that's okay I'm just here to tell you not to panic But it is very important to stay in touch with my office after you graduate That's why we really want to know what your email address is after graduation You do have your Roger Williams email address for life But if there's another one that you're going to be checking more often, please let us know what that is We create listservs based off of these surveys. So if you're going to be in New York I will send you opportunities in New York or events that are going on in New York If you're here in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, I will send you opportunities that come up in Rhode Island in Massachusetts I will not post them in simplicity. I will only send them to you So that gives you a great advantage to get those jobs as they become available you'll also be receiving correspondence from our office as Graduation approaches after graduation after you take the bar because your resume is going to have to change each and every time With respect to your bar status. So if you haven't put a bar status on there yet Once you complete your bar applications put on their bar status will sit for July 2017 Massachusetts bar exam or New York bar exam or Colorado bar exam I Then after you take the bar exam you will say sat for 2017 June July 2017 Colorado bar exam results pending and then after you get your results and you will say Past exam admission pending and then once you're sworn and you will finally be able to say that you are admitted to practice So just keep that in mind that something you're gonna have to do throughout your job search So we'll be sending up heretic reminders about that. I'm your LinkedIn profile If you do not have one I strongly encourage you to create one right now Make sure you do keep that accurate and reflective of your current bar status as well Employers are using that site very very frequently now in the legal market so I want to make sure that you are as competitive as other students out there with LinkedIn profiles and then There are a lot of events that will happen Whether here in Rhode Island or New York DC So if you are in those areas I do encourage you to attend after you graduate so that you can meet other alumni that are Out there and other students that are looking to move to where you are and you'll ultimately become part of that pool So so good luck with the next few weeks please stay in touch when you're when you leave just turn the survey into the basket there and And we'll be in touch soon. See you all at Glen Manor. Thank you Okay, enough with the depressing stuff now. We're gonna talk about the fun day the day that you waited for for three years So my name is Margie Carranze. I am with the clinical program. So I see a lot of my Faces here that I know in love And I just wanted to walk you through what's going to happen on graduation day. So You have to be in your regalia in the field house when we will we will help you put your regalia around But you have to be dressed by 1115 because it's a very tight schedule. My recommendation is that you arrive by no later than 10 30 You're gonna go into the field house. Everybody I assume knows where that is right Is anybody that doesn't know where the field house is right? Okay, everybody knows Okay, so it's the recreation center. So you go out the front door and down the hill. That's the field house and then What's gonna happen is? We're gonna go through a lot of stuff one once we get into the field house the first thing I'm gonna have everybody do is to make sure that you don't bring a lot of stuff into the field house with you because There's no way to carry it when you start to process into the tent So I would recommend that you only take be a minimum of don't take a whole bunch of coats and other stuff with you I would not recommend that you take handbags with you, especially the guys don't take a handbag anyway I would recommend you don't take a lot of stuff with you because you there's just no way to put it And so what's gonna happen is you're gonna come into the field house We will have some drinks and snacks for you. Hopefully it will be a beautiful day. It won't be too hot or too cold and You're gonna take a while to sort of get in there and figure out what you're doing We will have a whole bunch of staff that help you Get into your regalia. So you don't have to worry about any of that. Well, we have bobby pins We have hair pins And we will have everything that you need to make sure the real gal is right what I would ask everybody to do That was make sure I know everyone was picking it up today. Make sure you try it on Every single year. I have somebody who never bothered to try the regalia on and it either looks like Somebody sat on it for three months without ironing it and don't iron it have it professionally pressed but They the come in and they look like it's been in a closet for three years Or they've never tried it on and now they're saying my hat's too big my hat's too small My gown is too long my gown is too short the reason you get them now is so that you can try them on and make sure that They fit so that's really really important. Okay, so on commencement day You'll have a lot of people to assist you to get dressed and then by 1145 we're going to put you all we're gonna Line you all up on the bleachers and take a class picture if you are not there by 1145 You will not be in the class picture And then I have to after that Give you some more instruction get you all lined up, which is a real big task because people keep moving So I need to line you all up and then get you ready to process We're actually gonna start to get ready to go out by 1230 because we have to start to process at 10 of and it takes a while to get everybody Organized and who has to go to the bathroom and who needs one more break and whatever so So it all happens pretty fast, please. Don't be late. Please count on traffic. So now let's talk about what the day is like I have been here for 22 years and I have been in freezing cold where it's Tremendous downpours and Sleep and I have been here when it's a hundred degrees and you feel like you're baking in your regalia So what you really have to do is you have to plan for the weather don't we Guys and girls are like don't wear stilettos to graduation because you're gonna end up sinking into the grass because we graduate in the grass on the field and Spring being what it is a lot of times there's rain And so the grass can be very damp. Sometimes it's been just all mud So you have to plan accordingly. I would not recommend High heels I would recommend at least for the women. I would recommend Wedgies or flats or the guys can do that too if they want but in any case I Really need you to pay attention to the weather the regalia is very warm. So if it's a warm day Yes, you do have to wear something on under it I know a couple of my students said they weren't but I don't want to know that stuff, okay? But you you need to keep in mind You don't want to have if it's a very warm day the regalia is heavy So you want to make sure that you plan ahead of time and that your your dress for that day is appropriate based on the weather I Also recommend that you not Take anybody into the field house with you it gets pretty chaotic when we're trying to get everybody organized and ready If a family member wants to take a picture while you're getting dressed, that's fine But then I basically will try to just have you in that room because it's a lot of work to get everybody ready So keep in mind about the weather keep in mind that that's going to determine what you wear Every single year. There's at least one or two people that not only come in late but that come in with I don't know flip-flops on or something inappropriate and When you start to see how they set up the tent you're going to see that the stage is really high up like 11 feet up and So what happens is I don't want to see like hairy legs with shorts on underneath them with your regalia Walking across the stage with flip-flops leaving one on the top of the stage as you walk or so Or even worse that you fall up or down the stage because you have inappropriate footwear on so 22 years gives me a lot of experience so I can tell you don't do it I guarantee one of you will do it if nothing else just to aggravate me now But in any case it's supposed to be a really really fun day for you we will really try to make it as relaxing and as comfortable as possible and That starting that week with Glen Manor It's your week to finally sort of kick back relax. Enjoy the fruits of three years of hell Which is what I call it and and really start it starts to sink in that. Oh my god. I made it through this so You have to also keep that in mind. I hope everybody's going to Glen Manor I have to tell you when I said it to all my clinic students all the time. It's my favorite favorite event ever It's where you get to spend quality time with all of your classmates that work so hard with you and Really just enjoy the night. Everybody gets dressed up. Everybody has a great time. It's a great event So I hope that all of you if you're not planning on joining us will change your mind because we would love to see you there Other than that there's a two-page mine isn't green But there's a two-page handout that everyone got please read this very carefully when you come into the Parking area you're gonna go to the north lot near the baseball field You there will be security there to help you find a parking spot if you have relatives that are coming that Need a disability spot you should see Chelsea or and make sure that you get the proper paperwork so that they will have a spot to park in and We do have people that help them into the tent if they need that So it's really important that you read all this to make sure that you know what's going on And if you do have any questions, you can always call Chelsea's office Are there any questions with respect to how the day is gonna go anybody have anything that? They really didn't know that they feel like they need to know I Mean will be there all morning The clinical staff works it and all of the staff at the law school also works in the in the field house that day So there'll be a lot of us around to help you Everybody I know everybody's gonna take their phones. That's fine You can certainly have those in the field house But there's nobody to watch any personal belongings while we're in the in the tent So I would not recommend that you take anything with you the other thing. I just want to tell you about is You do not walk alphabetically Everyone is gonna get a card with their name on it. It's the same name that you gave to To Doug Peterson's office When you said what you wanted your diploma to say You did hear John Ralston mentioned that If you have kind of a funky name that you want Dean Hassel to you want to make sure she says it, right? She's gonna be here after and she will do a phonetic spelling on the back of your card for you so that she makes sure that she gets it right and All of that will be done ahead of time, okay, but you really do have to make sure that You're prepared that day that everything's in order and that you're ready to go and then now after the after the commencement I Recommend that everybody take as many pitches you want with your regalia You're on with your family and friends and then when all that is over then you go back into the fields house Return your regalia and you'll your diploma will be there waiting for you. Okay, so you don't get your diploma on That day, I mean when you graduate because it's too hard because you're not alphabetical to try to figure out the diploma stuff So you just get a big empty one But it looks good in pitches as long as you don't open it and there's a blank thing in there, right? So it's after that you'll get your big diploma, which you so so deserve But I think that's it as far as that You'll line up however you want we want you to be with your friends that you became close to during graduation We don't think alphabetically is the best way to do that. So you line up however you want We'll be in there to make sure you have a seat We'll walk you in I'll be in back of you pushing your butts in to make sure everybody has a seat behind them And before you know it, it'll be here any questions Yes, yeah, right so the way that we process is There's two there's a double row for each row for the first row the second row the third row I think we'll probably have four rows, but so if you line up and I will have Cards on the floor so everybody will have a card that they're gonna stand on so Every card has a seat that goes with it So what happens is if you are on the left-hand side of the right-hand side of a person that you expect to Process with you're not gonna end up next to them. You're gonna end up on opposite sides So what happens is it's a double line The people on the left-hand side of the line go on the left-hand side of the tent the people on the right-hand side Of the line go on the right-hand side of the tent Which means that anybody that you want to sit with should be in front of or in back of you in the line Okay, very very important and you have to play in that ahead of time because there's only There's only so many seats in each row and for fire code reasons. They're all Ziplined together, so you can't even move them. Yeah, so it's it is what it is It's not you know, I mean, that's how they do it So you really do you if there's a card there there'll be a seat for you So as long as you're standing on a card, then there'll be a seat for you in the fields house anything else. Did I miss anything? Anything else? Yes, Matthew. Oh It's not long It's um You see how happy I am? It's about they usually run about an hour and 20 minutes an hour and 25 minutes depending on if the speakers Stay true to what they their timing Every now and then we'll get like a rogue speaker, but for the most part. That's not the case and it goes by very quickly not no speeches long and Usually no speeches boring so anything else Ken Yeah, I mean the tent is open early in the morning and it's open seating so whoever gets there first gets the best seats Oh Sorry, I'm wrong 22 years and I still don't know apparently and There is plenty of seating because they set it up for the undergrad to for the next day. So there's always No fear that they'll get that your family will get a seat and there's big TV screens so that even if somebody is in front of you that you can't see you're gonna be able to see everything that happens on The stage from those screens. So there's no bad seat in the house in that. Okay, anything else Excellent congratulations guys. Hi, everyone. I'm Megan Hansen director of alumni relations And I just want to say congratulations and also it's great to see all of you here I've worked with many of you over the past few years and now it's The exciting part where you get to celebrate with your classmates and your families and I really love commencement So I'm here today really to offer greetings from the law Alumni Association The current president is Gillian Gillian Jagling who's class of 09 and there is a board of directors And so once you're a year removed from school, you should consider running for a seat They're three-year terms and it's a great group that gets together remotely and in Rhode Island So you could if you're not in Rhode Island, you can call in and be a director And so they're really Set out to further the school's goals. So we help with admissions We help with career development and we also volunteer in different Capacities we have some subcommittees you may be interested in planning events or we have a scholarship golf committee And so there are a lot of ways to be involved if you would like to be and you don't have to be a director to be On those committees and so it's something to just keep in mind as you leave here today Also, the Alumni Office sends out periodic updates and emails with news with evites with different information And so it's important to keep your address up to date So if you have a new address you have a new job or anything has changed, you know, always try to keep us in mind There's a law alumni at RWU account that you can always email or you can certainly reach out to myself or anyone here at the law school We have a few events coming up that you may be interested in this one's early, but I want to mention it So June 15th is our annual breakfast. It's at 7 45 in the morning, which I know is early But it's held in conjunction with the Rhode Island bar Association meeting and we hold it then because a lot of our attorneys then go to the meeting and it's our annual meeting so that's when the new slate of directors is Sworn in and also we invite attorneys and judges and so it's a really great event. That's also a great networking opportunity So if you do find yourself able to attend that morning, I recommend it. It's at the Rhode Island Convention Center And then also something we started last year that we're continuing this year Massachusetts has a good number of you sitting for the bar So after the last day we have a post bar reception right across from the facility And so I hope that you'll come over and join us We have alumni Dean Yelnowski and other folks that join us and so it's just sort of a celebration to say You know now you can kind of kick back and relax. We promise we won't talk about the bar exam you can just come by and You know take a breather and Also something coming up that we do traditionally every year is law Alumni weekend and the golf tournament I had mentioned and so in August September We try to hold those two activities. Sometimes they're together this year They may actually be separated out just due to some of the dates So just keep an eye out for those dates because you're welcome to join us come back I know a lot of times folks feel like well, I just left a few months ago I'm not really you know an alum, but that's not true. So as soon as you leave You're automatically in the alumni association and it's open to all of our alums It's free and really what it gives you is just these updates these invitations and really gives you a network of alumni to fall back on so Veronica has a lot of connections with Employments that alums come through to tell her about we also have conversations with our board of directors and other alums that sometimes just pass word along and so it's just a great idea to keep connected because you'll remain within that network and The group of alums that you're joining are Successful alums that are great. They get involved. They come back and I know that they're proud to call themselves RW law alumni and I know that you'll be no exception So I just wanted to say congratulations again And you can always reach out to me at any time if you have questions regarding anything. Thank you So as as was mentioned, I'll be the one who's reading your name on the stage as you come and get your Diploma, so if you have any reason to think I might mess that up, please I'll be hanging out here for a while But if you can't come right now, I'm gonna keep a tape recorder down It's not a tape anymore a digital recorder down in my office for the next couple of weeks So if anybody wants to come by and make sure I know how to say, you know, Mary Smith, I'm happy to I'm happy to see you I'd like to congratulate all of you It really makes my job a lot When I But at the same token, I'm glad that you are going to finally go out and do what you've been wanting to do. So congratulations These gowns We're going to give you until the 28th To let me know if something's ripped if something doesn't fit right, whatever The length should be anywhere below your ankle to your Below your knee to your ankle But if you're not happy with it, you got that time frame to come and talk to me about it So the 20th would be ex I need some time to be able to your reorder and get them in here and get them back to you They come out when they come out of the back. They're wrinkled usually We do not like you to iron them They cannot be ironed, but they can be steam-cleaned or you can even hang them in your bathroom when you're taking a shower Sometimes that'll help and that's about it So we're going to show you how to put them on. Although Marjorie's going to help That day, right Marjorie? Yeah, so yeah, we'll be there and we'll do your hoods for you too. Yeah, so Okay Hey Marjorie, I got a short one this time. Oh good. That's good. It will not really show up. Nothing's short for me You take the hood and what you're trying to do is you're trying to find this little thing Once you find that, you know, this is the front now What happens with this is if you don't have anything to take the tension off you end up choking yourself all day All day long you're like pulling on it And it does get heavy believe me so what we're trying to do is we try to get the tension off you So a good way of doing that is when you put it on Right around the zipper so it doesn't get infeared with the zipper. You can put a little safety pin So we'll do this for you on commencement day We will pin them to make sure that it's not choking you. We'll check them to make sure that even after we pin it It's not choking you and it should sit so that If you really it shouldn't be up here. It should be down there But we'll take care of all that for you. Yeah, no worries And so that everyone will know the purple is the degree of law so that's why it's purple and The school colors a lot of people will say to me. Oh, well, I don't really like purple. Well You know, you should you should become something else. I mean, I don't know what to tell you but yeah, suck it up And as far as the cap tams go, they're very easy There's a little seam in the back. So all you do is put the seam towards the back now We don't want to see it like this. We don't want to see it like this We don't want anybody throwing them up in the air. You have to realize that this is not undergrad not I don't have 4,000 students coming at me at the bookstore, but you know, this is this is You know a law degree and let's be a little bit professional like from the stock So, you know, we're not gonna have anything written on it or you know, bells hanging off or anything like that And that's about it And we'll have Bobby pins. Yeah, you have to use Bobby pins to keep them on yet. We'll take care of you We'll get you back. Is there any questions? Okay. The day of commencement The bookstore is open. I like to let parents know that because some parents, you know I would like to come in so we're usually open from like ten in the morning till three in the afternoon If you guys need anything any questions you come to the bookstore I try to keep myself after doing it for 13 years. I got myself pretty until all the Questions and answers. I know how you know help you guys if you need to you know, you know, you can come Thank you and congratulations again