Cheers and applause followed after the state Board of Higher Education voted unanimously to approve plans for a public law school at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.
Southern New England School of Law now becomes the University of Massachusetts Law School at Dartmouth — the state’s first public law school.
Southern New England Law Dean Robert Ward said state officials did the right thing.
“Massachusetts led the nation in public higher education,” Ward said following the decision by the state, “and for us to be one of the last [state’s] to have a public law school was a stain on our progressive record. But we’ve removed that stain.”
The School of Law offered to donate itself to UMass back in October 2009. Since that time, officials at the University have not wavered from their commitment in favor of the motion.
Ward said the admission process has begun, and the first class in the newly acquired public law school will start this fall. Ward has hopes that the law school will receive provisional ABA-accreditation sooner than the two-year timetable allotted.
By Michelle Weyenberg, managing editor of The National Jurist
The proposal to merge
The proposal to merge Southern New England Law School with UMASS-Dartmouth has been on the drawing board for several years. In 2004-2005, State officials voted against the merger based on the testimony of experts. Nothing has changed since then, except that Governor Patrick's appointments to higher education positions favored it. At least four law schools in Massachusetts have opposed the recent merger proposal, and others have opposed the prior merger proposal.
Massachusetts has one of the highest ratios of people to attorneys in the country. The last thing we need is another law school. What we really need is for UMASS to expand the seats for medical personnel, especially nurses and physicians who are desparately needed. It is too bad that the University of Massachusetts has its priorities upside down.