Albany Law Dean on adding another NYS law school

[Michigan_Dane]

If I were a betting man I would say 5 - 10 years from now SBU and BU will have law schools driven largely by strong leaders like the Senate Majority leader. UA will not have a law school. The primary reason for that outcome will be that the Capital District already has private Albany Law and they would scream bloody murder with a SUNY Albany Law and there is no leadership or creativity in the Capital District to find a successful path to driving down school loan debt and creating a public option in Albany. Not only will this be bad for UA but the new SBU and BU law schools will add more lawyers to the glut that New York already produces instead of improving the existing public/private mix.

 

I will bet you a million dollars if the governor played hardball with his alma mater by saying to ALS, you find a public option with SUNY Albany that you can live with or I will create a new law school at SUNY Albany there would be a public option tomorrow. ALS does not want a law school at SUNY Albany under any circumstance. I understand Albany Law's motivation that and that's why the Cornell design makes the most sense. Albany Law only wins under this design.

 

I agree though. It will not happen.

[Underpar]

I may be wrong but I think Penn State acquired Dickinson School of Law.

[danefan]

I may be wrong but I think Penn State acquired Dickinson School of Law.

 

They did. Albany Law become the oldest independent private law school when Dickinson folded into Penn State.

 

I like SoCal's idea - leave Albany Law separate but subsidize tuition for UAlbany/Albany Law students to bring it down for in-state students.

[BestDaneSinceHamlet]

Have these been approved? Are they actively launching law schools? Doesn't it make more sense to have one in the Capital (i know i know..rhetorical)

[Michigan_Dane]

There is no news that I know of. This is just wishful thinking on my part.

The Cornell proposal was just a creative solution to solve for the objections I've heard raised about why UAlbany would never get a law school or why UAlbany could never acquire Albany Law. Fine, we don't need either to achieve the stated goal of a public option/manageable debt levels.

This idea is fairly simple, has some similarity to an existing well established model and really has no down side that I can think of. It largely leaves ALS 'as is' structurally and they can maintain their title of oldest law school and provides them with a deeper candidate pool. It provides benefits to UA in the form of a law school or some hybrid model of a law school. New York achieves the goal of turning out well educated lawyers without adding to the existing glut.

 

From a business perspective it's basically UAlbany outsourcing a service in part to ALS. UAlbany hires some of its own law professors and provides some classes onsite at the main campus so UA doesn't completely push off responsibility but in large part its outsourcing. UA takes advantage of Albany Law's infrastructure (law school credentials, law professor base etc). The state picks up the tab for the tuition differential so ALS isn't out of pocket. No need for a new school per se, just a reformulation of the current process. You just need to figure out what the diploma says. University at Albany/Albany Law School?

 

As I said too you don't need to do this for all ALS students either just some segement. Just like not every Cornell student is attending a SUNY college. Maybe you limit it by ability to pay or certain legal disciplines.

 

What does the Cornell diploma say if you attend a SUNY college? Does it list both institutions?

[danefan]

Have these been approved? Are they actively launching law schools? Doesn't it make more sense to have one in the Capital (i know i know..rhetorical)

 

SBU was in line to buy Touro Law school but that fell through in 2008 or 2009.