Inside Higher Ed, Law Partners:
It may not seem like the best time for public universities to go shopping for private law schools, but at prices like these — “free” to taxpayers — who can resist?
Such was the argument this week from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, which accepted the unaccredited Southern New England School of Law as a “gift.” Negotiations between the University of California at San Diego and California Western School of Law have a similar feel, as officials on both sides say a merger won’t cost cash-strapped Californians a penny.
If these deals sound too good to be true, some critics suggest that’s because they are. But supporters of the mergers say there’s no better time to act, and in Massachusetts that argument has won the day. The state’s Board of Higher Education approved a plan Tuesday that allowed for Dartmouth to acquire Southern New England, thereby creating the state’s only public law school. …
The merger of private law schools into public institutions isn’t without precedent. In making their cases, Dartmouth and San Diego officials have both cited Pennsylvania State University’s partnership with Dickinson School of Law as one example of just such a happy marriage, and Michigan State College of Law is also the product of a private-public partnership.
Talk of a merger also continues between the University of New Hampshire and Franklin Pierce Law Center. The New Hampshire discussions have been underway for some time, and the road to Tuesday’s approval in Massachusetts was long as well. …
Dartmouth is not only swearing off state funds, but also planning to charge in-state students about $23,500 – about $16,000 below the median tuition and fee rate for existing law schools in Massachusetts. Only Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, which like Southern New Hampshire lacks ABA accreditation, has lower tuition than Dartmouth has proposed.
For an institution that has yet to undergo the costly process of accreditation from the ABA — a prerequisite for its graduates to take the bar exam in most other states, but not necessary with approval in Massachusetts — it will be impossible for Dartmouth to provide a sound education to students at such reduced rates, critics charge.
“This is supposedly about access for students who can’t afford to pay more money, so it’s either going to be that they’re going to have to charge more money or the state is going to have to subsidize it,” said John F. O’Brien, dean of New England Law.
“You’re essentially claiming that you can do something that nobody else has been able to do — put together an ABA-(accredited) law school at $23,000 tuition with no state subsidy and provide (quality),” he added. …
Tuition and Required Fees for Massachusetts Law Schools
Harvard $45,026 Boston College $39,856 Northeastern $39,750 Boston University $39,658 Suffolk $39,550 New England $38,500 Western New England $35,612 University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth $23,565 Massachusetts School of Law at Andover $14,490
