Students from the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity are taking a creative approach to get out of doing their homework.
Throughout the week of April 8, College of Law students are collecting school supplies that will be donated to Knox County Schools. Law students who make donations are offered tickets in exchange for the supplies. The tickets are invaluable for students because they offer them “immunity” from being called on to answer questions about legal cases in some professors’ classrooms.
“Law school can be very stressful and intense because there’s a lot of reading to keep up with,” event coordinator Emily Carnder said. “So this is a really good incentive to get students to participate and help a worthy cause.”
“Immunity Week” is nothing new for the College of Law. Phi Alpha Delta has conducted the event for several years, Carnder said, with last semester’s event yielding an “SUV full of donations” of clothing, toiletries, and blankets for the YWCA.
Professors individually make decisions about whether or not they will honor the tickets in exchange for immunity in their classrooms, and professors who don’t allow students to dodge questions find other creative ways to honor the tickets, she said.
Ultimately it’s a way to relieve end-of-semester stress while offering assistance to a good cause.
“Our goal is to raise as much as we can,” Carnder said. “We’re not really setting a goal we can’t reach. We just want this to be easy and fun for students and professors.”