Washburn Law building won’t meet December timeline. Here's why it will be worth the wait.
It’s been several years coming, so Washburn School of Law Dean Jeffrey Jackson doesn’t mind waiting a few more months for the school’s new building to be complete.
The law building, under construction for the past 17 months, won't meet an original timeline of being done by December 2022, Jackson told The Capital-Journal. The $33 million project hasn't been immune to same supply chain disruptions that have pushed back most construction projects.
Right now, workers are still waiting on some specialty windows that will adorn the building facing its Robert J. Dole Plaza, named after the late U.S. senator and Kansan who earned his juris doctorate from the school.
But barring any further delays, Jackson expects that the handover date for the facility will be in mid- to late February. Given that timing, the law faculty likely won’t fully begin to move into the building until the end of the spring semester, but Jackson said some of Washburn Law’s summer students may get to experience their classes in the new building.
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How the new Washburn Law building will differ
“The beauty of the new law school building is that the building itself and its technology are perfectly configured for the way we teach law today,” Jackson said.
Where classrooms in the current law building had been designed for large, lecture-style classes, the new building features smaller, more collaborative and intimate spaces that reflect the way modern law schools operate.
The new building’s technology will also specifically support Washburn Law’s Third Year Anywhere, a program that predated the pandemic by a semester and allows law students to complete their education remotely.
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Jackson expects that the new building will be a boon in recruiting top quality, highly credentialed students, which can help the law school rise in national rankings.
Aside from the benefit to students and faculty, Jackson is also excited that the new building will feature a dedicated suite for the school’s immensely popular law clinic, which provides no-cost legal services to the general community.
“It’s one of our most popular programs, and lots of people depend on the services of the law clinic,” Jackson said. “By giving it its own space, we’ll be able to provide a better environment for people who have to use the clinic’s services.”
Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at 785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: New Washburn Law School building delayed until early 2023
