Penn State president recommends university’s 2 independent law schools ‘reunite’ as 1
Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi is recommending the university reunite its two separately accredited law schools — Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle and Penn State Law at University Park — into a single law school, which is how the two operated before 2014.
It’s not yet known exactly how the reunification would look, if it would be similar to pre-2014, as Bendapudi plans to convene a panel comprised of faculty, staff, students and alumni to come up with a plan centered on that reunification by spring’s end. The implementation timetable for such a move remains largely unknown.
The united school would be called Penn State Dickinson Law, and its primary location would be in Carlisle. The school would be led by current Dickinson Law Dean Danielle M. Conway, who will also serve as the chair of the aforementioned panel.
“What I’m going to recommend is that we don’t have the two-law school model, where we have separate administrative structures for everything and, instead, reunite them in the hope that concentrating our resources will allow us to build a much stronger law school and offer our students a much more robust experience,” Bendapudi told the CDT, adding such a move would also lead to “significant” savings.
Although the board of trustees would need to approve the reunification — a vote Bendapudi hopes will occur around summer/fall — the American Bar Association would also need to voice its approval, which Bendapudi acknowledged could potentially take two or three years.
Matthew Schuyler, chair of the board of trustees, already voiced support in a written statement.
“The board supports the consideration of reuniting our two law schools into one, as this outcome would likely enhance the university’s legal education offerings, while helping to achieve the broader goal of being effective stewards of our resources,” he said in a news release.
No changes to faculty or staff would occur until the panel’s final recommendations. When asked if there was a scenario where no faculty jobs were lost as a result of the move, Penn State’s president answered in the affirmative.
“Yes, there is a scenario,” Bendapudi said. “Because based on the recommendations that come back from the panel, it could range from, we’re just going to keep both locations and just cut out the administrative overhead by operating as one school to we’re just going to have the majority of education at Carlisle post- ‘27 or ‘28, whenever that might be.
“But our commitment is to working with every single faculty member and staff member — every single one — because we have the time to find a way to absorb them into other units across Penn State.”
Bendapudi and two spokespeople emphasized this was not a closure.
As a result of Bendapudi’s recommendation, the university canceled its search for a new dean at Penn State Law. Interim Dean James W. Houck, who has served in the position since last year, will return to the faculty at his request — and Penn State law professor Victor Romero will take on the interim role Jan. 1.
Any students enrolling at either law school next fall will also have the opportunity to graduate from their preferred campus, Bendapudi said, and will still receive bar exam preparation and job placement support.
A previous administration originally separated the law schools to promote flexibility, believing two independent schools with different deans and administrations could better respond to a rapidly changing legal profession. One school was meant to focus on niche specialties, with the other centered on creating “practice-ready” attorneys.
The Dickinson School of Law was founded in 1834 — 21 years before Penn State — before merging with the university in 1997. In 2006, the Dickinson School of Law University Park opened as part of a two-campus law school until 2014, when the two began operating independently.
