Highlights:
Someone asked who the school perceived as political obstacles to the merger. The Dean pointed the questioner to the San Diego Tribune without directly naming anybody.
-I interpreted this to mean USD as they didn't have exactly positive statements to make about the possibility of a UC law school eclipsing their program. Apparently the merger failed in it's last iteration due to local politics. This is odd considering the second largest city in California does not have a public law school.
I asked when the merger would be complete if everything went smoothly. The answer is late 2010 or 2011.
The person who answered the question had been present for the last attempt at merging and seemed very optimistic about the momentum the schools had towards a merger.
Why am I blogging at 2am? I misread a legal skills assignment and had to do the whole thing over from scratch. fml.
Edit:
I read this article:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/28/ucsd-looking-law-school/
A lot of the comments came from individuals who lack reading comprehension skills. So here is the tl;dr response for critics: 1) there is no increase lawyers created by this merger and 2) California Western is already financially viable so there would be nearly no strain on the state to support the school.
Interesting blog. You seem to have been ahead of the 'curve' in your perceptions of the school and the way it operates.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how the 2nd part of your response, that CWSL is financially viable, seems a lot shakier with the big drop in applicants that came with increased transparency about schools and earning potential.
I'm pretty sure it's still financially viable. The endowment is still doing well (to the best of my knowledge) and they still get receive funding from the alumni network as well as tuition (which is still sky high).
ReplyDeleteOutside of that, I don't know how the drop in applicants has affected CSWL. Maybe they'll cut scholarships or something, but I doubt it will affect the way the law school functions much.
That said, the merger is still a good idea. There's no public law school in San Diego at the moment, CWSL would get the benefit of a new brand and a new mission statement and dragged upward, and the UC system/ UCSD gets an already accredited law school with built in alumni network. Most importantly, it improves an existing law school rather than building a new one from the ground up which does nothing to help with the glut of attorneys looking for limited legal employment.
Anyway, it's sad the faculty senate at UCSD appears to have killed the merger, not necessarily only for CWSL, but also for San Diego and the UC system.