“I think making the section sizes smaller has definitely changed the experience a lot,” Alperowicz says. “It has really made for greater contact between faculty and students.”

Even students who do not actively seek out professors are getting to know their professors better, Alperowicz says.

And the smaller classes have made for more closely knit sections and “a greater feel of community” she says.

Alperowicz says that she’s only heard positive comments from other students about the section size changes.

According to Dean of the J.D. Program Todd D. Rakoff ’67, the desirability of cutting class sizes was obvious to the faculty who planned this year’s changes.

There was considerable discussion, however, over how much to reduce section size, he says.

On the one hand were practical limitations.

It was relatively easy to increase the number of sections by three Meltzer says, by reassigning professors who usually teach upper-level classes.

But any further decreases in section size would demand greater resources, Rakoff says.

On the other hand, there were also pedagogical issues.

“A lot of people thought that the ideal class size was not the smallest we could afford,” Rakoff said.

According to a survey conducted in the fall by the Law School Council, first-years felt that a size of 80 students seemed ideal.

Alperowicz and others echo the faculty’s reasoning—that a size of 80 is small enough that it’s not too impersonal, but big enough to avoid hearing from the same two students all of the time.

David E. Altschuler, another first-year representative on the Law School Council, adds an additional concern.

“From some students’ perspective being called on all of the time wouldn’t be the most desirable thing,” he says. “There’s some safety in numbers.”