Judged by objective standards, our graduates do very well. For the past eight years, SIUC School of Law graduates have secured employment at a rate which exceeds the national average. This conclusion is based on information collected b the National Association of Law Placement and reported to the American Bar Association. The median starting salary of our 1994 graduates was $32,000, substantially above the $23,000 cited in your commentary.

Also, in seventeen of the nineteen years that SIUC law graduates have been eligible to sit for the Illinois Bar Examination, they have equaled or exceeded the statewide passage rate. Many of our graduates are now judges, elected public officials, distinguished practitioners, presidents of corporations and leaders in many communities.

SIU School of Law students’ performances in moot court competitions is the envy of most other law schools. In three of the past five years, SIUC has clinched the All Illinois Competition. In the past decade, SIUC law students have won at least three national championships, two in the American Bar Association Competition and one in the National Environmental Law Competition.

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Contrary to your editorial, there is strong evidence that the SIUC School of Law has attained and continues to maintain the highest standards of quality and performance. To draw conclusions based on mis-information contained in the U.S. News and World Report survey is a disservice to our University, our Law School and its students.

SIUC School of Law