Gentlepersons:

The Evening Students, through our representative body, the Evening Law Student Association, would like to draw the SBA's attention to a few points:

(1)   ELSA consists of roughly 20% of the law school's student body.

(2)   ELSA is not just a mere special interest law club - It's a diverse collection of persons working in various fields drawn from unique backgrounds.

(3)   Many - if not most - GW Law events are scheduled at times when evening students cannot attend and often during our classes.

(4)   Evening student tuition dollars fund those educational experiences (and SBA parties) we cannot attend.  We foot the bill for your events.

(5)   The evening program is a big factor in the wide array of night classes available to GW law students.  Evening students indirectly benefit day students' GPAs - we are included in your curve, but come to class already tired after working a full day and have 40 hours a week less to study - and ensure late classes that let you sleep in while we go to work.

ELSA recognizes that many of the hurdles evening law students face are external - work and families - or result from university-wide policies (i.e., CADE) that affect the entire student body.  But we would like to see the SBA start making greater efforts to facilitate our participation in the law school community.  ELSA requests event schedules that permit evening student participation and/or enough funding to host our a few events of our own - that evening students can actually attend - on a scale comparable to those enjoyed regularly by the average day student.  Thank you.

D. Stuart Phelan

President of ELSA