The Tennessee Higher Education Commission voted 8 to 5 Monday to reject a plan to relocate a private law school from Indiana to Middle Tennessee State University. Valparaiso University announced last year that it would stop admitting new students and would seek to relocate its law school from its location in northwest Indiana, where it faced competition from many Chicago-area law schools. Eventually, the university agreed to give its law school to Middle Tennessee State.

But the Tennessee Higher Education Commission must approve all new academic programs, even if given to the state for free. Nashville Public Radio reported that some questioned whether the state needed another law school. It already has public law schools in Memphis and Knoxville, and three private law schools in Nashville.