Penn State Law Splits Apart & Rebrands Carlisle Campus

The American Bar Association has officially approved Penn State's application to split its law school into two schools.  The State College campus will continue to use the Penn State name.  The Carlisle campus will lose the Penn State name, and revert to the original name of the whole operation: the Dickinson School of Law.  The split will formally begin with students admitted in Fall, 2015.  Apparently, students from both schools will  receive degrees with the title "The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University", but the now-separate institutions will be marketed under distinct brand names.  

We'll be watching to see if the schools develop very differently.  We don't know how these institutions inter-relate for budgetary or administrative purposes.  Will one school - say, Dickinson - be permitted to subsidize the other?  I could imagine Penn State deciding to keep its massive subsidy of State College Law, and thus maintain a very strong entering cohort.  At the same time, it might provide  little or no subsidy of Dickinson Law which might result in a far weaker entering class in Carlisle.  (It's fair to assume that, having lost the patina of the Penn State name, both students and US News voters may revert to prior perceptions of Dickinson Law.)  The success or failure of Dickinson to retain both reputation and tuition subsidies will have a big effect on Widener-Harrisburg, its local competitor. 

And the State College story isn't simple either.  Penn State Law - at least one in which Carlisle has no part - has precious few alumni and no signficant local employment market.  I wonder how supportive Carlisle alumni will be of State College grads when they can again hire Dickson alumni.  

Comments

[Igor]

LOL at "patina of the Penn State name"--you kidding me?

[antiro]

Igor, there's no reason to be rude. Filler is local to the PA law school goings-ons and perhaps the Penn State name has "an appearance or aura that is derived from association, habit, or established character." - Merriam-Webster

[Roma]

Split seems like a pretty desperate measure to stave off ruin in this market. Widener Harrisburg is already on the ropes. With a third law school in the central PA market, expect administrations to invoke exigency clauses in tenure agreements to let go of faculty.

[b]

Igor,

Penn State is a top ten public university, the definitely have a good name brand. Obviously their law school has a ways to go before they'll be on par with the rest of the programs.