17 March, 2011
Story by: Jerome Doraisamy
With bright eyes and eager attitudes, UTS:Law’s newest recruits filed into the Law Building in the last week of February to begin the next phase of their academic lives.
The UTS Faculty of Law’s annual Orientation events have traditionally been lively, informative and social, and this year’s event was no different. Over two hundred undergraduates and almost one hundred and fifty postgraduates were hosted over the three day period of Wednesday 23rd to Friday 25th February. From the moment students entered the campus and received their Orientation show bag, to the moment they exited (some with iPads!), the event proved to be a helpful and necessary stepping stone to help ease the transition into the challenging yet rewarding academic experience that is law school.
Each event kicked off with a Welcome Assembly. This included a welcome from the Dean of UTS:Law, Professor Jill McKeough, and Director of Students, Angela Dwyer, who emphasized the need for finding connection and meaning through the long haul of a demanding duration of legal study. Law students ask much of themselves and often “burn the candle at many ends,” observed Dwyer. “Find your balance,” stressed Dwyer, and find your passion.
The UTS:Law Orientation event conveyed a “warm sense of welcome to the law school and student body,” said Professor Paul Redmond, who spoke eloquently on the calling of law and its attendant responsibilities. If health is the underlying purpose of the medical profession, justice is the oxygen of law, observed Professor Redmond. This year marks the launch of the Brennan Justice and Leadership Program, introduced at Orientation, is an initiative aimed at firing student idealism and engraining a sense of justice to the practice of law. The Program, conceived and driven by Professor Redmond, is a joint initiative of UTS:Law and UTS Law Students’ Society.
Following a short break for refreshments, the students reconvened for seminars on Peer Mentoring, exchange and international opportunities, Graduate Attributes, and finally a Legal Competitions Workshop, at which students enjoyed first-hand a demonstration of a Witness Examination competition. Throughout the event, students were encouraged to mingle with their fellow classmates, meet their academics, and network with a number of older students who make up the Law Students’ Society Council.
Designed as an ease-in introduction to the paper chase rigours of studying law, Orientation 2011 has once again proved a resounding success. UTS:Law welcomes its latest ‘recruits’ and wishes them all the best in their studies to come.
