Loss and anxiety blanketed the announcement of the cut of pre-law services and its only coordinator Mary Tetro after the announcement of the cuts to the Office of Advising Support and Information Services.
Pre-law services, an advising program which assists law school hopefuls in the daunting task of choosing and applying to law school, will be cut at the end of this semester. Students who participate in the program, as well as representatives from law school admissions offices across the state, have been writing letters of petition to Provost Warwick Arden.
Erin Walker, a senior in political science, said she has utilized the pre-law services since she transferred to N.C. State as a junior. She said she could not believe the news when she heard the services were to be cut.
“When I found out [pre-law services] were getting cut, I was pretty shocked about it. They have done so much for me,” Walker said.
Walker said she had no idea what steps to take when she first began to think about entering law school.
“I didn’t know what I needed to do to get ready to go to law school. I was completely lost,” Walker said. “Pre-law services and Mary Tetro have set me up from step one, to now where I have eight acceptances to law schools. Pre-law services has gotten me there.”
Michael States, the assistant dean of admissions to the UNC School of Law, is in the process of writing a letter of petition to Provost Arden on behalf of N.C. State pre-law services and Tetro. Law school admissions officers from across the state and elsewhere are expected to sign the letter.
Melanie Nutt, director of admissions and financial aid at the Wake Forest University School of Law, said she wants her name added to the letter to the Provost. She reinforced the impact of losing Tetro and pre-law services on N.C. State.
“Losing Mary [Tetro] would be a real blow to the students and to the law schools as well,” Nutt said. “[Tetro] has just been a phenomenal resource.”
Walker also sent a hand-written letter to the provost asking him not to cut the program.
Harrison Do, a senior in biology and CALS student senator, said that with so much University focus on technical studies, such as engineering, the University needs programs such as pre-law services to give the school balance.
“At State, we have so much for engineers and scientists. This is not the time to be cutting programs where we have a unique set of students,” Do said.
Do said cutting something in another college would be more efficient, given the fact that pre-law services is such a small program that assists so many people.
“Cutting something in a big college, like engineering, would be more efficient, because they have so many resources,” Do said. “If you cut this small, little thing that helps so many students, that to me isn’t being very efficient.”
Chancellor Woodson charged Arden and Vice Provost for Business and Finance Charles Leffler to suggest University cuts and develop a realignment plan back in January. OASIS will save $357,000 by cutting three administrators, Mary Tetro and pre-law services.
Up until 10 years ago, when Tetro created the N.C. State law fair, there was no inter-institutional law fair in the area. UNC had a law fair, but only UNC students were allowed to attend. The N.C. State law fair has never discriminated students from any university since its inception. UNC made their law fair inter-institutional two years ago as a result of N.C. State’s law fair, according to Tetro.
There are currently no plans to cut this year’s tenth annual N.C. State law fair, which is set to host 90 law schools from across the country. Tetro, along with the pre-law student’s association and pre-law services students have traditionally planned the fair.
Mary Tetro has worked at N.C. State for more than 29 years. In her twelve years in pre-law advising, she did individual advising, group advising and service programming. She advised student athletes and First Year College students prior to her work in pre-law advising.
“I love [pre-law advising]. I have loved doing it for 12 years, and I have been an advisor for 25 years. A Friday hasn’t come where I went ‘where did that week go?'” Tetro said. “It’s going to be difficult to leave.”