Changes at Penn State Law

 

 

On 30 November 2022, the Penn State Law faculty, at the invitation of its interim dean, was delighted to receive the President of the University, who chose the occasion, together with those involved in the decision making process, to announce her recommendation "that we reunite Penn State’s two law schools into one — Penn State Dickinson Law — which would have its primary location in Carlisle." This marks the end of a 20 year cycle at the commencement of which a predecessor President announced a recommendation to move the faculty of law to the University Park campus, which saw the creation of the Penn State Law School and, eventually, the soon to end current situation.

The official text of the announcement as well as the press release follows.  We are told that the process will be fully transparent in the sense that decisions will be communicated and an opportunity to comment will be made available.  All of us at the faculty of law thank University officials for their diligence and attention to the interests of the university and its units.  We all look forward to participating in the process on the terms announced.

SENT ON BEHALF OF PENN STATE PRESIDENT NEELI BENDAPUDI

Dear Penn State Law faculty and staff,

Thank you for joining me at this afternoon’s town hall. I know there are many questions that we were unable to address today and more will be coming in the next few weeks and months. As this process unfolds, please know that we will work with each of you and in a transparent manner.

First, for those of you who could not make our meeting today, I shared that I am recommending that we reunite Penn State’s two law schools into one — Penn State Dickinson Law — which would have its primary location in Carlisle. Over the next semester, a panel consisting of faculty, staff and students, among others, from both schools will explore various options for the future of legal education at University Park as part of Penn State Dickinson Law. The panel will make a final recommendation to me about the shape of legal education at Penn State by the end of the spring 2023 semester. Penn State is committed to fully supporting all current Penn State Law students as well as students enrolling in the fall 2023 semester with an outstanding and fully accredited program of legal education at University Park, including complete bar exam preparation and job placement support, through graduation.

The panel will be chaired by Penn State Dickinson Law Dean Danielle Conway, who I am recommending to serve as dean of the united law school, with Penn State Law Professor Victor Romero serving as vice chair. The panel also will seek input from the University Faculty Senate and the recommendation regarding the structure of the united law school will go before the Board of Trustees.

In light of the recommendation for this reuniting process, it would not have been ethical to bring on a permanent dean of Penn State Law, so I made the decision to cancel the dean search and the provost has appointed Victor as interim dean beginning on Jan. 1. I want to thank Jim Houck, who has selflessly served Penn State Law and SIA as interim dean for two extended periods over the past decade; Jim will return to the faculty at his request. I also want to sincerely thank everyone who served on the dean search committee. The search resulted in several outstanding candidates, but it just would not have been right to make a hire at this time.

Importantly, as we discussed today, we will not be making any changes to the faculty and staff at Penn State Dickinson Law or Penn State Law until the panel makes its final recommendations at the end of the spring semester and after all final approvals have been attained. Penn State is committed to fully supporting all current students as well as students enrolling in the fall 2023 semester with an outstanding and fully accredited program of legal education at University Park, including complete bar exam preparation and job placement support, through graduation.

You have my word that the process will be transparent and consider your feedback.

Please know, and I mean this sincerely, that we will do everything we can to support you throughout this process, and we will be in touch with you every step of the way.

Thank you for your ongoing outstanding service to Penn State and the students of Penn State Law.

Sincerely,
Neeli Bendapudi 

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PENN STATE NEWS RELEASE, NOVEMBER 29, 2022INITIAL NEWS RELEASE

President Bendapudi recommends reuniting Penn State’s two law schools

A panel will develop plans for the execution of the reuniting process; the school’s primary location would be in Carlisle

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – President Neeli Bendapudi is recommending that Penn State 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. The united school would be called Penn State Dickinson Law, have its primary location in Carlisle, and be led by Penn State Dickinson Law Dean Danielle M. Conway.

Penn State has canceled the dean search for Penn State Law, as it would not have been appropriate to bring on a new permanent dean at this time given the recommendation to reunite the two law schools. Victor Romero, Penn State Law professor and Maureen B. Cavanaugh Distinguished Faculty Scholar, has been appointed as interim dean of Penn State Law, effective Jan. 1. Romero will replace Interim Dean and retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. James W. Houck, who has served as interim dean since August 2021, and will return to the faculty at his request.

Reuniting the two schools allows the University to advance legal education at Penn State and offer law students a more robust law school experience. With an extremely competitive marketplace for legal education and nine law schools in Pennsylvania, the University’s current two-law-school model is not the best approach for achieving excellence in legal education. Ultimately, concentrating its resources on a single school would allow the University to build a stronger law school. Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law have been centrally funded since the inception of their separate accreditation. With these recommended changes, there would be significant savings over time, which can be reallocated into other academic units.

To launch the recommended process to reunite, Bendapudi will convene and charge a panel to study and then recommend options consistent with the objectives of the unification. The panel also will seek input from the University Faculty Senate and the recommendation regarding the structure of the united law school will go before the Board of Trustees. The panel, which will include representation from the students, faculty, staff and alumni of Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law, will be chaired by Conway, with Romero serving as the panel’s vice chair.

Penn State is committed to fully supporting all current students as well as students enrolling in the fall 2023 semester with legal education in Carlisle and University Park, including complete bar exam preparation and job placement support.

“Both Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law have been successful in delivering their outstanding programs of legal education since their separate accreditation; however, it’s clear that bringing Penn State’s two law schools back together as one is the best way to serve law students and, I believe, the right path forward for legal education, including teaching, scholarship, service and community, at Penn State,” Bendapudi said. “I want our law students to know that we are fully committed to you. As we evolve, you will continue to receive an outstanding, fully accredited legal education, as well as professional development opportunities, at your current campus, through graduation. For our faculty and staff, we recognize your tremendous talent and dedication to this University, and we will work closely with you throughout this process.”

No changes in the current faculty and staff at Penn State Dickinson Law or Penn State Law would be made by the University administration until the panel makes its final recommendations at the end of the spring semester and after all final approvals have been attained.

In addition, the School of International Affairs (SIA), which is currently co-located with Penn State Law in University Park, will remain largely unchanged, however, the University will explore relocating SIA to a new home within the University. The search for a permanent director of SIA will continue, and timing and details will be shared with the school’s students, faculty and staff.

“The Board of Trustees is deeply committed to the mission and vision of Penn State. In keeping with our land-grant mission, we strongly believe in the transformative power of education and its impact throughout the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and beyond. This commitment includes ongoing discussions and careful analysis to define the proper scope and structure of our two law schools,” said Matthew Schuyler, chair of the Board of Trustees. “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.”

Legal education at Penn State

The oldest law school in Pennsylvania, the Dickinson School of Law was founded in 1834 and merged with Penn State in 1997. In 2006, the Dickinson School of Law University Park campus opened, and the two campuses operated as a single, united, two-campus law school until their separation into two, separately accredited law schools — Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle and Penn State Law at University Park — beginning in 2014. The two schools admitted their first distinctly separate J.D. classes in fall 2015. There are currently nine accredited law schools in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

About Victor Romero

Romero joined the Dickinson School of Law faculty in 1995 and joined Penn State Law in 2000. His scholarship emphasizes the law's impact on marginalized groups and he is especially interested in borders and boundaries — both legal and cultural — and how they function.
Romero served as associate dean for Academic Affairs at Penn State Law from 2006 to 2008 and again from 2015 to 2019. A former advisory board member of Penn State's Africana Research Center, Romero previously served as president of both the South Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the ACLU and the NAACP of the Greater Carlisle Area. He has also served as a visiting professor of law at Howard University and Rutgers. Prior to joining academia, Romero worked in private practice and as a law clerk to a federal judge in Los Angeles.

He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Swarthmore College and a juris doctor degree from the University of Southern California.