After a feasibility study and an external evaluation, Binghamton University is one step closer to having a law school affiliated with the institution.
“We are waiting for a written report from the external evaluators,” said Mary Ann Swain, provost and vice president for academic affairs at BU. “Both the State University of New York system administration and State Department of Education require this external evaluation.”
According to Swain, once this written report is received, it will be included with a formal proposal and sent to the system administration and Department of Education.
“Reviewers have not given us an exact date [for when the written report will be complete], but we are hoping for later this month,” she said.
According to Gail Glover, spokeswoman for BU, in their exit interview, the evaluators indicated they support BU’s efforts in creating a law school.
There are many steps for approval that the law school must go through before it can become a part of the University.
“The law school was a big plan [since before 2000],” said James Van Voorst, vice president for administration at BU. “It’s not like somebody woke up one morning and went, ‘Hey, lets have a law school.’ We’ve had consultants in, we’ve looked at the need, we’ve looked at the program and budget from all different angles, and that’s the way we’ve worked it.”
Last year, the planning started as a campus-based initiative and was approved by the provost’s office and the campus administrators.
Once a formal proposal is submitted, it must await approval from SUNY administration, the State Department of Education and the Board of Regents. The last step for the law school is approval by the governor.
“There are no time lines that those bodies have to meet, it is not like they have 60 days to respond [to the proposal]. It is open-ended and very hard to tell,” Swain said.
According to David Henahan, spokesman for SUNY, the SUNY administration is looking forward to receiving the formal proposal from campus.
Administration at BU is still in the planning stages in terms of where they will place a law school if the proposal is approved by the appropriate bodies.
“We will look at what is best for the campus and surrounding area,” Van Voorst said. “We have some space on campus we could put another building or two, also the Downtown Center and the areas close to that. Downtown has a lot of things going for it and there is a lot of push to bring it [the law school] there.”
According to John Appelbaum, the pre-law adviser for Harpur, BU sends numerous students to in-state law schools and other top law schools across the country.
Based on statistics from 2007-08, out of all the then-seniors that applied to attend law schools across the country, 76 percent were accepted to one or more American Bar Association-accredited law schools after graduation. Of those applicants who were seniors at BU, 86 percent have been accepted to one or more law schools.
“We are 10 percent above the national rate,” Appelbaum said. “Binghamton does a wonderful job in preparing students for law school. I think it would do equally well in providing a legal education.”
Based on BU’s overall reputation and the nature of law school curriculum planned, Swain speculated that the University would have a large number of applicants if the law school were approved and developed.