… to absorb into itself a law school not far removed from a diploma mill continues.
Some people in the Massachusetts government, and at the University of Massachusetts, want to expand the university to include the Southern New England School of Law, an unaccredited institution whose pass rate on the bar — around 43% — is unconscionable. No school with that low a pass rate should be in business; it’s simply stealing money from students.
Two University of Massachusetts trustees say what needs to be said in a Boston Globe opinion piece. They’re not diplomatic.
When someone offers to “donate’’ a fourth-rate, unaccredited law school to a great state university, taxpayers should guard their wallets. [Donates is in quotation marks because although backers of the idea claim it won’t cost the state anything, it will of course cost a shitload. Not merely in money; in reputation.] …[A]bsorption of Southern New England School of Law would pose significant financial challenges and prove to be an academic embarrassment to the university.
… Upgrading facilities and services to achieve American Bar Association accreditation will cost tens of millions of dollars. Even accreditation won’t guarantee quality worthy of the UMass name. The law school does not have a single distinguished faculty member. Indeed, the quality of the education is so poor that in a recent administration of the Massachusetts Bar Exam,only 6 percent of Southern New England Law School grads passed.
… It is difficult to see how we can salvage this mess and create a law school to rival Boston’s excellent private law schools… Our economy does not need more ambulance chasers educated at taxpayer expense…
November 10th, 2009 at 11:37PM
Yay, UD mentions my university – UMass-Dartmouth. I tend to agree with you here, but it’s not all that clearcut. Merging with UMass could allow the school to get accredited (the accreditors demand a large endowment, for example), which in turn will likely lead to higher quality students, faculty etc.
The Chancellor and top administrators here are politicians not academics, so the real reason for the law school is to shovel jobs to connected ex-politicians as payback for favors rendered.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:57PM
Hi Chris: Yes – I should have mentioned the cynical politics behind the effort. Thanks.
As to the transformation of the law school toward respectability once it’s part of U Mass – I wouldn’t hold my breath. It will be run by and for the same hacks you mention. They care about their sinecures, and have no inkling what academic respectability means.