With apologies to the Spice Girls,[1] I am making a plea for all of you to answer the longer AASE surveys that were sent out last week[2]. While the shorter survey asks about the incredibly important issues of salary and status, the longer survey gives us a snapshot of what we do to earn the salary and status (to the degree we do). Seeing what other folks are doing in their schools is also great data for leveraging better salary and status moving forward. It also gives us a sense of “best” practices (not that higher numbers always equal best though).
If there is anything I have learned lately in my long ASP career it is this: being valuable to my institution is a different thing than being valued by them. Help us gather the data we need to make sure we are all valued. We will present the results of the survey at the AASE Conference in May as well as posting the entire survey results on the AASE website afterwards.
Data is the first step in moving towards tenure and other secure employment situations. Our Legal Writing colleagues began here-and so should we. Critical mass starts with information.
Here is the body of last week’s email:
- The Individual Survey asks questions about your work, status, and demographics. All AASE Members / academic support / bar preparation educators should complete this survey, even if you already completed the recent “AASE Status Survey” (circulated via email by AASE leadership on March 7, 2025). To clarify, while the two surveys have some areas of overlap, they are not identical, and both are extremely important in terms of helping us advocate collectively for better pay, career development, and status. Access the Individual Survey here.
- The Institutional Survey asks general questions about your law school, your school's JD program, and the academic support and bar prep programs at your school. Only program directors should complete this survey. Even if you have more than one program director at your school, we ask that you complete just one institutional survey per school. Access the Institutional Survey here.
Please complete the relevant surveys no later than Friday, March 28. As noted, the information gathered from these surveys can help each of us work to improve the status of our programs and our positions. Key results will be shared at the annual AASE Conference in May.
(Liz Stillman)
[1] I also use this song to teach writing point headings, “tell them what you want, what you really, really want.” Ask me about my music for teaching playlist sometime and get such gems as, “Stick to the Status Quo” from High School Musical (tradition based legal arguments) and many more….
[2] Please answer the individual survey and the institutional survey if you are the institutional reporter for your ASP department (or the only person…).
