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1935 - Ignoring the Results?
The Law Society’s Committee on Legal Education recommends that there be no expansion of the academic program and expresses regret that a university degree appears to be of more value than practical experience. Classroom hours are reduced, the second morning lecture is moved to late afternoon to accommodate office schedules and bencher authority over course content and teaching methods in the law school is reaffirmed.
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1937 - Fighting Back
The Phillips Stewart Library is expanded. Osgoode Hall students decide to form their own committee and report back on their concerns regarding legal education.
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1938 - Shiny and New
The Benchers agree to provide new lecture rooms, library space and an exam hall. Finally, robing facilities are created for both men and women. There are numerous renovations to Convocation Hall that turn it into a lecture theatre that is also available as a “great hall” and gathering place. A kitchen and pantry are added to permit the opening of an adjacent dining hall.
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1939 - Worst Exams Ever
The Law Society Committee on Legal Education institutes an elaborate test of how effectively students are learning from their articling experience. With practising lawyers acting as volunteer oral examiners, all graduating students are grilled in a single weekend on their mastery of details of actual practice. The Legal and Literary Society in 1938 or 1939.
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1942 - Long-Distance Education
The Law Society of Upper Canada forms the Special Committee on Wartime Educational Services. As a result, Osgoode Hall becomes one of the sponsors of an informal Commonwealth law school in overseas prison camps. Captain J.R. Turnbull (first-year student), from Windsor, and W.L. McGregor (second-year student), write their law exams as a prisoner-of-war, proving that barring death, no one can escape finals.
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1943 - Come On, Canada!
At home, Osgoode students continue to support their classmates despite their reduced numbers. The Obiter Dicta publishes lists of individuals serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, messages of encouragement from Dean Falconbridge, tongue-in-cheek editorials about ‘What to Do in an Air Raid,’ and ads for Victory Bonds.
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1943 - Playing Catch-Up
Similar to the First World War, Osgoode Hall formed its own contingent of the Canadian Officer’s Training Corps. Here they are at Niagara Camp, 1940. The Law School agrees that unlike what was offered to returning World War I veterans, there will be no short-cut summer courses for returning students. Instead, plans are laid for refresher courses to help lawyers return to practice.
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1945 - Small Class Sizes
Enrolment in the Law School dips to 450 students. Sidney Smith, a former law school lecturer and friend of Caesar Wright, returns to Ontario as the President of the University of Toronto. He tells a University of Toronto committee on legal education that he intends for “…the law school at Osgoode Hall should be absorbed.” The first-year law class 1944.
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