Valparaiso Law School is Closing its Doors
“We really need to spend time with the accreditors, spend time with the students to talk about our options with how to proceed”
They tried to transfer the school into another university, but things didn’t work out.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Another Law School Will Close
Valparaiso University announced Tuesday that Valparaiso Law School will close following an unsuccessful attempt to transfer the law school to Middle Tennessee State University.
The law school is working with the Higher Learning Commission and the American Bar Association to develop a teach-out plan that will ensure the remaining 100 second- and third-year students finish their degrees.
That plan could take a number of forms, according to Mark Heckler, president of Valparaiso University in northwestern Indiana. Once approved, the plan will dictate the timeline for the school’s closure.
“We really need to spend time with the accreditors, spend time with the students to talk about our options with how to proceed,” he said.
In 2017, Valparaiso Law School announced that it would no longer admit new students. Remaining students have the option to transfer out of the law school, and current faculty and staff have signed an agreement with the university to stay until the end of this academic year, which included an “incentive for them to stay,” Heckler said.
One potential teach-out arrangement would be to retain a group of faculty members to teach the level-three curriculum that remaining students will need to graduate after this year. Valparaiso is one of six law schools in the greater Chicago area, and another option would be to have students complete their coursework at one of the nearby law schools and transfer the credits back so that Valparaiso can confer their degrees.
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Comments
One down, many to go. Unfortunately, all the growth in law school numbers and admissions have been at the lower end to the mediocre. There just is not demand in a highly academic profession like law for a lot more mediocrity.
The US probably only needs 70-80 law schools.
Hypothetically, if every law school ceased first year admissions for a period of 6 years, and then only the 70-80 resumed first year admissions at the end of the 6 year period, then there would likely still be too many law graduates 6 years after that.
Were it possible for senior citizens to go to law school for free, there might be some interest. Some things ought to be done just for the fun of it.
This is a loss to the students, but is it a loss to the public?
“In 2016, the ABA censured Valparaiso School of Law for admitting applicants who did not appear capable of satisfactorily completing the school’s program of legal education and being admitted to the bar.”
https://www.valpo.edu/law/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ABA-Appendix-A_FINAL.pdf