South Carolina announced yesterday that Walter F. “Jack” Pratt, Jr. has decided not to seek reappointment at the end of his five-year term in 2011. A South Carolina blog links the news to the law school's descent into the 3rd Tier in the 2011 U.S. News Rankings:

USC’s law school has been dropping like a rock in the national rankings.  As recently as the early 2000s, USC’s law school was ranked in the high 70s or low 80s according to U.S. News and World Report, but it has now dropped out of the Top 100 altogether and into dreaded "Tier 3" status.

Update: The State, USC Law School Dean Stepping Down:

[T]uition has skyrocketed and the school’s position in national rankings has sunk.

U.S. News & World Report — a magazine whose university rankings are coveted by some, scorned by others and ignored by none in higher education — dropped USC’s law school from No. 87 last year to a “third tier” position this year below No. 100. …

Low rankings and escalating tuition at USC’s law school got the attention of state Sen. Shane Massey, an Edgefield County Republican who has written legislation that would form a committee to look into the governance of the law school. Massey’s legislation, an amendment to the state budget, has passed the Senate but has not yet been taken up in the House of Representatives.

“There’s clearly a problem there, and we need to find out what it is,” said Massey, who got his law degree from USC in 2000.

J. Philip Land Jr., president of the Student Bar Association at the law school, said he cares deeply about the law school and wants it to thrive. But he said he is concerned that university officials have not taken the low rankings seriously enough.

“The U.S. News rankings should not be underestimated,” said Land, a third-year student. “Up until now, the administration has criticized these rankings because of their superficial nature, instead of working to improve them.”

Pratt said the law school’s chief need is money. Facilities are part of the ranking system, and Pratt said a new building for USC’s law school would cost about $90 million. The university has about $30 million of that total, $10 million of which has come from the state.

(Hat Tip: Dan Filler.)