More on possible UNT Law School

[NT80]

UNT exploring possibility of buying area law school

10/24/2002

By Matthew Zabel / Staff Writer

University of North Texas officials want to open a law school in the area, and that may mean buying one.

UNT officials recently entered preliminary discussions with officials at Texas Wesleyan University to purchase that law school in downtown Fort Worth, UNT Chancellor Lee Jackson said Wednesday.

Texas Wesleyan spokeswoman Lisa Fellers said UNT, among others, have asked for information about the law school, and Texas Wesleyan officials have simply responded to those inquiries. They are "not actively trying to sell the law school," she said.

Kelli Horst, a spokeswoman at Texas Christian University, said officials from that school spent about a year in discussion with Texas Wesleyan officials regarding the law school.

Ms. Horst said TCU officials last May sent Texas Wesleyan an estimate on what they thought the law school was worth, but she would not say what that amount was. Discussions between the two schools ended this summer, she said.

Mr. Jackson said if UNT’s discussions lead to an agreement between the two schools, UNT would operate that law school there, about three miles away from its Health Science Center.

"Our interest clearly would be to keep it in downtown Fort Worth," Mr. Jackson said, because "that is a prime location" for a law school.

Even if the discussions with Texas Wesleyan do not lead to UNT buying the law school, UNT still wants to open a law school, Mr. Jackson said.

"The University of North Texas will be interested in offering a public law school when the time is appropriate, sometime in the next decade," Mr. Jackson said.

If UNT opens a new law school, he said, the university would have to conduct a space survey to determine where the right place would be. So far, that type of study has not been done, but anywhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton area would be possible, he said.

UNT officials began collecting law library materials in the early 1980s, he said, anticipating that one day the university would open a law school.

A public law school, coupled with the College of Engineering that is scheduled to open next fall, would help round out UNT’s academic offerings as it strives to be the premier state university in the region, Mr. Jackson said.

A public law school also could benefit the region by making a legal degree more accessible and affordable, Mr. Jackson said, and that’s what UNT wants to provide.

"UNT is committed to developing a law school in North Texas, regardless whether we work out an agreement with Texas Wesleyan or not," Mr. Jackson said.

About 700 students, including about 470 full-time and 230 part-time students, study at Texas Wesleyan’s law school. The school, which occupies a basement and first floor of a two-story building in downtown Fort Worth, opened in 1989 as the D-FW School of Law. In 1992, Texas Wesleyan acquired the law school and in 1997 moved it to its present location.

Twenty-nine full-time professors and 36 adjunct professors teach in the school, a university official said.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area does not have a public university law school, Mr. Jackson said.

Texas Wesleyan and Southern Methodist University, both private universities, have law schools.

Mr. Jackson stressed that the discussions with Texas Wesleyan are in the preliminary stages. Before talks could be formal, governing boards of both universities would have to vote to enter formal negotiations. He did not know how long discussions might continue.

"If our boards were to agree in the coming months that we have enough in common to enter into negotiations, I’m sure that action would include a time table, but right now it’s too early to say," Mr. Jackson said.