Who knew? Apparently Portland, Oregon's Concordia University had been planning on opening a new law school in Boise next year, and now it's putting that plan off to a later date. According to this story:
Andrea Bruno, vice president for advancement at Concordia University in Portland, Ore., says school officials want more time to develop the law degree program, secure a location and raise money.
In December, the university had brought in about $1.5 million of the $7 million it needs for the project.
Bruno says the university has since made progress, but she declined to give a specific amount.
In December, the university had brought in about $1.5 million of the $7 million it needs for the project.
Bruno says the university has since made progress, but she declined to give a specific amount.
I wasn't previously aware of this, but Boise is the site of some competitive law school builiding. Last year, Concordia brought former Idaho Supreme Court Justice Cathy Silak aboard to create the new law school. At the same time, the University of Idaho School of Law is looking to expand into the Boise market. While the U ultimately hopes to site a full three year program in the city, the short term goal – still in need of funding – is to create a third year program in Boise.
Image: The historic Boise Train Depot.
I think that the idea of a law school in Boise isn't inherently dumb, but that both of these ideas are bad ones. The most reasonable thing to do would be for BSU to start a law school. (Right now the closest law school to Boise is the University of Utah. The University of Idaho is both further away and harder to get to.) I don't know that Boise _needs_ a law school, but the reasonable thing would be to have it attached to BSU, a school with deep local ties and that has been expanding and improving. (I'm a BSU grad so not disinterested in the fortune of the school, but not personally interested, either.) Concordia has no ties and no record. It likely would never be a very good school, just a money-maker (at best) for the home university. The U of I branch idea would always be a poor step-sister. The very idea was put forward only to keep BSU from developing a law school, not for its own merits. (There is a lot of conflict between the two schools, in part because BSU has made strong advances on U of I in many fields and, amusingly, because BSU now dominates U of I in football. But, of the Idaho legislator members who went to college at all, most of them went to U of I, so it gets lots of support there over BSU.) If a law school starts in Boise at all I hope it will be attached to BSU, as that will be its best bet for not being terrible and having a real future.