Law school likely in UCI’s future

UC Irvine appears on the verge of finally getting a law school, as the UC Board of Regents gave the proposal a warm reception at its meeting Wednesday morning. The regents, who discussed the item but did not take action, are expected to vote on it today.

During the meeting on the UCLA campus, a number of regents supported for the proposal, although some said they wanted UCI Chancellor Michael Drake to continue consulting with the California Postsecondary Education Commission, a state advisory group. Otherwise, many in the UCI community predicted a green light from the UC Board of Regents today.

“Everyone I’ve talked to is excited, and we’re hoping for a yes vote tomorrow,” spokeswoman Susan Menning said.

“People have been pushing for this since day one. It was part of the campus’ original vision and got delayed a few times because of budget difficulties. It’s always been part of the long-term vision for UCI.”

UCI’s law school, if accepted, would be the fifth public law school in California, joining those at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA and Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. The UC Davis school, which opened in 1965, is the most recent in the UC system. Menning said that if the regents approve the law school today, UCI’s next step would be starting recruitment for a dean.

Jennifer Ward, a spokeswoman for the University of California, said the regents had asked Drake to come back in May with a report on his progress with the Education Commission. The Sacramento-based group gave UCI’s proposal a negative review in September, and UCI withdrew the proposal from the group’s agenda before its members could vote to issue a formal opinion.

Nevertheless, the university kept its proposal before the regents, with Drake making a presentation to the board in September. The board did not vote on it at the time.

The UCI law school, which administrators hope to open for the 2008-09 school year, would accommodate 600 students and focus on careers in the public sector. The school would be housed in an existing campus building for the first few years, with a new structure to be built in the future.

UCI has had a law school in its sights practically since the campus opened in the mid-1960s. In 1989, officials started a task force to look into creating the school, and tried unsuccessfully to get it off the ground over the next decade. A 2001 proposal gathered considerable momentum, but then-UC Provost C. Judson King opted to put it on hold until the state economy improved.

The UC Office of the President, in its recommendation to the Board of Regents, noted that between 1994 and 2005, applications for the system’s three law campuses increased 30%, while in fall 2006, only 14% of applicants won admission to any of them.