Despite accreditation woes, UNT ready to buy historic City Hall for downtown Dallas law school

[Harry]

Dallas' first public law school, in the heart of downtown, remains at risk of not being accredited by the American Bar Association. But that isn't stopping UNT Dallas College of Law from proceeding with long-standing plans to buy the old Municipal Building from the city.

On Monday morning, Lee Jackson, chancellor of the University of North Texas System, went to Dallas City Hall to outline its purchase plans for the 103-year-old landmark, which served as the city's fourth city hall until 1978. UNT plans to renovate the building, which is across the street from Main Street Garden, using $56 million in tuition revenue bonds approved by the state Legislature last year.

The city agreed to turn the building over to UNT at no cost but with an agreement that the historic structure be restored.

UNT first expressed interest in the old muni building a decade ago, and the City Council has repeatedly passed resolutions in support of planting a law school downtown. There was just one problem: Until it received the Legislature's blessings, UNT didn't have the money to make its dream tangible.

In the interim, the city is spending some $14 million in bond money to rehab the building's exterior, especially a rotting roof, and other pieces of the Beaux Arts building gone to seed because of deferred maintenance. 

read more:  http://www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2016/09/26/despite-accreditation-woes-unt-ready-buy-historic-city-hall-downtown-dallas-law-school

[oldguystudent]

Do I want this picture?  

Or maybe this?

This perhaps?

Or am I completely misguided, and perhaps this is most appropriate?

[PlummMeanGreen]

The UNT System is one campus too many for a non-Permanent University Fund system IMO.

 The Dallas law school, Fort Worth med school & Denton's main campus would have been easier to focus & to strengthen.  UNT-Dallas should have never happened because of UTA's proximity.  Are we spreading ourselves too thin & at what expense to the other campuses?  Just a layman's .02.

????

Edited October 7, 2016 by PlummMeanGreen