Dear University of Auckland,

In LAW 458, Zoe Lawton - the course coordinator - failed to provide students with substantive feedback on any writing assignment prior to sitting their examination.

Only one assignment, worth 30%, contained any substantive writing of lengths/similarities reasonably comparable to the exam. Marks for this assignment were not released until today - 20/6/2023 - despite the assignment being due on 15/5/2023.

Assessment (Coursework, Tests and Examinations) Policy provides:
- 28: Feedback just be provided in a timely manner and no less than three weeks after the day the assessment was submitted, or sooner when the feedback is required to prepare for subsequent assessments.
- 29: where a coursework task or test result is relevant to the students' preparation for the final examination, it must be marked and available to students by the end of the last teaching week of semester...

Please provide any documentation held by the University of Auckland relevant to the marking of the Legal Ethics course in 2023.

Please provide any correspondence between Zoe Lawton, Bronwyn Davies, and any other relevant staff members, related to the marking of assignments and delivery of substantive feedback prior to the exam.

Yours faithfully

B Lievable

Dear Landon Watt,

Thank you for taking the time to respond and for the opportunity to clarify my request.

To answer you queries in turn:

1) I am not seeking documents limited to the delays in marking for the LAW 458 course. I seek all documents related to the marking of assignment/assessment two (this was the only substantive assignment with writing reasonably comparable to the exam, and for which the marking was substantially delayed). This request would capture both documents related to the delays themselves, as well as marking guidelines. I would also like to request information related to complaints pertaining to the marking of that assignment and correspondence within the University surrounding those complaints.

2) Yes, I limit my request to 2023 Semester One LAW 458 Course.

Since I initially made my request, the course coordinator, Zoë Lawton, made a Canvas announcement to all students on 26/6/2023. This read as follows:

"Dear students,

I have received feedback from the class representative and individual students about assessment two. I will address this feedback in a subsequent announcement but for now, I would like to address your conduct towards me as your lecturer.

Throughout the semester I have been subjected to a prolonged campaign of complaints. These complaints continued despite the Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning sending an announcement to all of you confirming that I have complied with all relevant course policies.

Some of you have been very vocal in your criticism of me and this has subsequently emboldened others to follow suit. Particularly over the past week, some of you have left a very clear digital footprint of criticism on social media, public websites and email which has come to my attention.

As your lecturer I have made it clear that I welcome constructive feedback from you and I take this on board. I have always had an open-door policy and gave you time during the last lecture to fill out your anonymous SET evaluation of me. You are of course also able to constructively discuss the course among yourselves in social media groups, including the LAW458 Facebook group. However, let me make it very clear that I will not tolerate unjustified and defamatory online abuse from any of you.

Some food for thought for those of you who need to hear it.

To the vast majority of you, thank you for being such wonderful students this semester and I have really enjoyed teaching you. I would also particularly like to thank students who have approached me in person or via email to express support for me. It means a lot.

I look forward to teaching legal ethics again in semester two using the same teaching method I used this semester.

Zoë"

I would like to make an additional request in relation to the above announcement: Please provide all documentation and correspondence held by the University of Auckland in relation to the Canvas post made by Ms Lawton.

This new request would capture (but not be restricted to) all correspondence sent and received by Ms Lawton in relation to the post, any correspondence by other law school members (including the Dean, Deputy Dean and Associate Dean Teaching and Learning), any minutes of meetings where the canvas announcement has been discussed explicitly or implicitly, and any meetings where the events the Canvas Announcement refers to have been discussed.

Yours sincerely,

Requester

Dear Landon Watt,

I refer to my correspondence earlier this evening.

In error, I incorrectly recorded the date of Ms Lawton's Canvas announcement as 26/6/2023. The correct date of the announcement was 23/6/2023. I make the same request in relation to the announcement on 23/6/2023.

Yours sincerely,

Requester

Dear Landon Watt,

Apologies once again. It appears I forgot a paragraph from Ms Lawton's post in which she references the Dean, Deputy Dean and Associate Dean Teaching and Learning, as well as the New Zealand Law Society. It is this post to which my new request from 28/6/2023 relates.

For completeness, the post Ms Lawton made on 23/6/2023 read as follows:

"Dear students,

I have received feedback from the class representative and individual students about assessment two. I will address this feedback in a subsequent announcement but for now, I would like to address your conduct towards me as your lecturer.

Throughout the semester I have been subjected to a prolonged campaign of complaints. These complaints continued despite the Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning sending an announcement to all of you confirming that I have complied with all relevant course policies.

Some of you have been very vocal in your criticism of me and this has subsequently emboldened others to follow suit. Particularly over the past week, some of you have left a very clear digital footprint of criticism on social media, public websites and email which has come to my attention.

As your lecturer I have made it clear that I welcome constructive feedback from you and I take this on board. I have always had an open-door policy and gave you time during the last lecture to fill out your anonymous SET evaluation of me. You are of course also able to constructively discuss the course among yourselves in social media groups, including the LAW458 Facebook group. However, let me make it very clear that I will not tolerate unjustified and defamatory online abuse from any of you.

I have informed the Dean, the Deputy Dean and the Associate Dean Teaching and Learning of my concerns. I would also like to remind you that when University of Auckland graduates apply for admission to the bar, the NZ Law Society alerts the Law School. A list of names are then provided to me and I am invited by the NZ Law Society to inform them of any concerns regarding character. I will not hesitate to express concerns about those of you who have subjected me to unjustified and defamatory abuse. As you can imagine, directing unjustified and defamatory abuse at your ethics lecturer will not reflect well on you.

Some food for thought for those of you who need to hear it.

To the vast majority of you, thank you for being such wonderful students this semester and I have really enjoyed teaching you. I would also particularly like to thank students who have approached me in person or via email to express support for me. It means a lot.

I look forward to teaching legal ethics again in semester two using the same teaching method I used this semester.

Zoë"

Yours sincerely,

Requester

Dear Landon Watt,

Thank you for your email.

The requests themselves is very narrow, relating to a single paper over a single semester.

However, given your request and in the interests of making things easier for you, I limit my requests as follows:

Request 1:
Please provide any documentation held by the University of Auckland relevant to the re-marking of the assignment 2 (LAW458 Semester 1, 2023) and complaints about marks from students, and please provide any correspondence/written correspondence of meetings concerning the delay in the release of marks for assignment 2 (in apparent contravention of (28) and (29) of the Assessment (Coursework, Tests and Examinations) Policy referenced in my initial request.
You will note that this is far more limited in scope than my initial request, which required documentation relevant to the marking of the LAW 458 course as a whole.

2:
Please provide any correspondence between Zoe Lawton, Bronwyn Davies, and any other relevant staff members, related to the marking of assignments and delivery of substantive feedback on assignment 2 between the period 7/6/2023 and 20/6/2023.
You will note that I have limited correspondence requested to only the marking of a single assignment taught within the semester and over a period of just 24 days.

Request 3:
Please provide all documentation and correspondence held by the University of Auckland in relation to the Canvas post made by Zoë Lawton between the dates of 14/6/2023 and 28/6/2023. This request would capture (but not be restricted to) all correspondence sent and received by Zoe Lawton in relation to the post, any correspondence by other law school members (including the Dean, Deputy Dean and Associate Dean Teaching and Learning), any minutes of meetings where the canvas announcement has been discussed explicitly or implicitly, and any meetings where the events the Canvas Announcement refers to have been discussed.
You will note this is only a two week period for a very limited subset of information.

I trust that with these clarifications, you will be able to action these requests in accordance with the law.

Given these are not new requests, but rather more limited versions of my requests (the responses for which would be covered by my initial requests) I trust that there should be no further delay in providing this information.

Yours sincerely,

B Lievable