Thursday, December 8, 2016

Following up on my previous posts (links below): Chicago Tribune, Valparaiso University's Law School Might Face Bleak Choices:

Two weeks ago in a nearly unprecedented backhand, the American Bar Association punished two law schools 723 miles apart for similar indiscretions. One was put on probation for two years. The other was censured. ... The ABA said both schools were not doing any of their central jobs well enough during the assessment period to guarantee continued accreditation. Fix it, or else.

The two schools could not be more dissimilar, except for two flaws. The ABA's admissions guards said both were letting too many unprepared students into school and producing too few prepared to pass the bar.

One was a fast-growing, 10-year-old for-profit operation in the Deep South. The other was founded in 1879 inside a respected, church-affiliated, liberal arts university in the Midwest.

One was the Charlotte School of Law. The other was Valparaiso University School of Law.

The two share one other commonality besides their troubles. Jim Conison served as dean at both schools at the time their academic admission policies and graduation levels were called into question.

Conison was leaving Valparaiso in 2013 after 15 years as policy-setting dean just as the ABA's accreditation posse was questioning VU's performance. He then took the Charlotte job where the ABA now has ordered improvements or risk losing accreditation. ...

Barry Currier, the ABA's managing director of accreditation and legal education, told the National Law Journal both schools could be given the death penalty if they don't prove their improvements are working within two years. ...

Every number is pointing down, particularly jobs. While law school applications have slid by nearly 40 percent nationally since 2010, enrollment has dropped by only about 30 percent and full-time faculty members have decreased by less than 15 percent,

VU's applicant pool is also down, which is why the school cut 21 faculty members and expects its law school population to drop by a third within two years.

VU's law school might be facing two unpalatable choices. Admit more unprepared students, which fulfills goals for diversity and inclusion, but damages graduation rates and quality. The school apparently already tried that model without success. By 2014, only 61 percent of its grads passed the bar after 77 percent passed a year earlier.

Or, as the New York Times suggested bleakly, VU could simply face reality and close its law school.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/12/chicago-tribunevalparaiso-law-school-faces-two-bleak-choices-admit-more-unprepared-students-or-face-.html