Kate Murphy

kmurphy@enquirer.com

The University of Cincinnati is pursuing the potential to expand some of its academic facilities downtown to better connect with the city, including its law, business and music programs. Moving the law school is now under active review after roughly four years of discussion. But the possibility of other programs having downtown outposts is new.

“A physical presence in the center of the city enhances involvement from community leaders,” UC President Santa Ono told The Enquirer's editorial board Monday morning.

One of the things urban campuses strive for is to be an integral part of their cities, Ono said. The hope is that expanding the campus downtown would better connect the university to Cincinnati.

Ono and other UC officials have been entertaining different options for the new College of Law, including renovating the existing building on campus and moving to a riverfront site at The Banks.

Earlier this month, the UC Board of Trustees approved a resolution that propelled the potential move forward for an evaluation due in six months.

One of the key components of the resolution was meeting a $25 million fundraising goal for the law school project.

“We don’t have yet in-hand commitments that would satisfy what the resolution said, but we are getting closer every day,” Ono said.

The University Banks Working Group, which Ono heads, is walking through a list of potential donors to nail down for the expansion.

Key donors have a greater interest in investing into a new building downtown than renovating the existing building on campus, Ono said.

“There is more enthusiasm and more want to donate to the Banks,” he said. “There are heavyweight civic leaders who said they will help philanthropically.”

He said the law school building, at the northeast corner of Clifton Avenue and Calhoun Street, needs renovation and moving Downtown is a way to get students and faculty what they “desperately want,” which is a new building.

The College of Law has roughly 41,000 square feet of space. The building was last renovated in 1968, according to the website of UC's Archives and Rare Book Library, when the Marx Library was added to the old Taft Hall.

Taft Hall, built in 1925, still serves as the core of the law school building, although it's effectively hidden by the newer addition. There's a statue of William Howard Taft, the president and chief justice of the United States, on the law school's grounds. Taft was a graduate of a law school that merged into UC's law school; he served as the dean of UC's law school during the merger, leaving in 1900 to become part of the Philippines Commission in a move that started his rise in national Republican politics.

Affordability isn’t the only element to deciding whether to move the law school Downtown.

“There are pros and cons to staying on campus,” Ono said. “It’s important for us to really listen to students and faculty.”

He admitted probably not everyone will be enthusiastic about the decision, whichever way it goes.

The proximity of the proposed building to major law firms, including Dinsmore & Shohl, is one of the biggest benefits to having the College of Law at The Banks.

“Many of those lawyers are adjunct faculty,” Ono said. “And it might make it easier for students to spend time working at law firms.”

The easy access to the courts Downtown would also better the allow judges to stop by the school more often and engage with students.

The law school, founded in 1833, is the fourth oldest continuously operating law school in America.

Ono also mentioned potentially expanding the business and music programs, which would benefit from a downtown presence.

He said the current business school is “bursting at the seams” and has already outgrown the current facility.

The university has plans and hired an architect to build a new home for the Lindner College of Business, which could cost up to $135 million.

"We are definitely building in Clifton, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want a presence downtown," Ono said.

UC’s Lindner MBA program is ranked among the best in the nation and could benefit from the connection to the city’s business headquarters.

Ono also suggested looking to bring some College-Conservatory of Music programs Downtown.

“We don’t have enough space in Clifton for all those students to perform,” Ono said. “They could benefit from having another place to perform and it would be easier to go to concerts.”

Ono didn't mention any specific locations. UC assumed control of Over-the-Rhine's Emery Theater in 1969, but subsequently leased it to the Emery Center Apartment Limited Partnership. The partnership subleased the theater to the Emery Center Corp., which is in a three-year-long legal battle with the Requiem Project over the building. The project also has sued UC in the state Court of Claims, although the state case is on hold while an appeals court hears the local lawsuit.

The 1,700-seat Emery at 1112 Walnut St. was considered one of the three best concert halls in the country when it opened in 1911 inside the former Ohio Mechanics' Institute Building. Much of the institute building has been renovated and subsequently converted into apartments, but the theater has not been touched.

No plans have been made for Downtown outposts of either the music or business schools, but the ideas are floating around among top UC officials.