Vol. 38, No. 18

3-14-2006
By: Susan Wittstock Dalzell

Gateway builds community at law school

Early weekday mornings, it's possible to see clusters of Moritz College of Law students, clutching coffee cups and toting laptops, on the way to class. Last year, they might have been finding their way from parking garages and lots; this year, many are just taking a short stroll from their Gateway apartments to Drinko Hall.

It's a sight Associate Dean Joseph Stulberg enjoys. "My gut instinct is there is a perceptive difference in our culture here," he said. "When you see 60 to 70 students between eight and nine in the morning walking across the street from their apartments with cups of coffee from the neighborhood coffee shop,  it confirms that there are more chances to interact. There is a visible sense of that."

The change became visible in August 2005, when law students began moving into new apartments in Gateway's Building A, just across 11th Avenue from Drinko Hall. The Barrister Club, a dining and conference facility funded through private donations by Moritz College alumni, also opened at Building A.

Third-year student Evan Hirsch decided to move to Gateway last fall, after commuting from Upper Arlington the previous two years. "It seemed like a great opportunity," he said. "I feel lucky I was here when it opened."

Now, Hirsch and the other Building A residents enjoy a five-minute walk to class, as well as nearby restaurants, bars, coffee shops and the Gateway Drexel Theatre. "There is a sense of community here. It is a very convenient place to be," he said. "I'm always seeing people in Panera and in the evenings I see a lot of students at the Ugly Tuna Saloona or Mad Mex."

Students also are seen frequently attending college events at the Barrister Club, which has lounge space and a conference room in addition to a catered dining area. "It has become a spot for a host of alumni events — tailgate parties to faculty and student groups to symposiums and lunches," Stulberg said. "You can sense clearly that the facility is an important part of the law school campus, even in the short period of time it has been open."

A new program, Mentoring and More @ Moritz, was started thanks to the availability of meeting space in the Barrister Club. Although organizers were hoping for maybe 80 students to sign up, nearly 200 of the college's 700 students are participating. The students were assigned to small groups, each with two practicing attorneys as mentors, and they attend luncheons together throughout the year. After a speaker's presentation on some aspect of professionalism, students and their mentors have time for discussions about that day's topic.

"It's a chance to talk about meaningful issues and a great opportunity for students to interact with practicing attorneys," said Laura Landy Carr, director of alumni relations for Moritz College. "All of the informal feedback we've had has been overwhelmingly positive."

First-year law student Chris Trolinger has enjoyed the mentoring program. "I wanted a different perspective. You get a lot of theoretical stuff in class, but I was interested in getting insights from actual practitioners and it helped that it was in the social realm," he said.

Having lunch in a beautiful setting is also a draw. "The Barrister Club is remarkable and beautiful on the inside. It's neat that you can get out of class and walk across the street for a meeting of that level in that kind of facility," he said.

Hirsch also attends the luncheons, but on a couple of occasions has found himself face to face with the invited speakers closer to home. "The apartment building has a unit on the fifth floor for visiting faculty," he said. "Sometimes, I'm waiting down the hall for the elevator and I run into someone like the chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court. It's unique to interact with them on a very informal basis."

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