Message from Dean Jackson

Hello, Washburn Law Alumni and Community,

I'm very excited to write this month's letter. As we approach the end of the semester, the students who graduated in December have given us some wonderful news. For the first time in the history of the law school, our graduates recorded a 100% pass rate on their various states' bar exams. We have been working diligently over the past year to improve our bar pass rate following a slump in scores, but a 100% pass rate exceeded even our hopes! Congratulations to the students on their hard work and justly earned success.

After being named Interim Dean last year, my top priority was finding a solution to the declining pass rate on the bar exam. If you recall from a previous newsletter, we implemented a new program that would provide BARBRI exam preparation for each student moving forward, and our December class was the first class to benefit from the BARBRI partnership. The students bought in to the program and worked hard to get these great results. I am incredibly proud of them.

I'm also very grateful to the University Administration here at Washburn. Figuring out a way to provide bar prep for our students was not a cheap endeavor and could not have happened without the support that the university provided. They placed a bet on our students, and I'm happy that we were able to deliver these results.

I'm also very excited about the future path for Washburn. While the national higher education landscape is in a state of disruption and turmoil, the new president of the university, Dr. JuliAnn Mazachek, is bringing innovative ideas to move Washburn forward. I am confident that, under her leadership, the future of the university, and especially the future of our beloved School of Law, will be bright.

As always, I will continue to keep you updated on any changes happening at the law school. In the meantime, if you have questions, please reach out to me. I stand by my statement, this is your law school. I am always happy to hear from you. (And if you see one of our recent December grads, don't forget to tell them how proud you are of the job they did on the Bar Exam!)

Sincerely,

Jeff

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