The ABA has apparently deferred a decision on Concordia Law's accreditation application. It appointed a factfinder to go to the Boise, Idaho campus to gather more information on the application. This is high stakes for the 45 Concordia students set to graduate this May. The school had sought a waiver from the Idaho Supreme Court allowing 2015 Concordia grads to sit for the Idaho bar, irrespective of ABA accreditation. The Court denied the request.
I don't know what is holding up the ABA's decision, but I understand from conversations with a Concoria administrator that the school does not extend tenure to faculty members. I wonder whether that could be an issue.
Although I do think that lack of tenure is a problem, I doubt that's the ABA's problem with Concordia. Tenure isn't even one of the ABA's requirements, and other law schools without tenure are accredited. Perhaps the lack of tenure, combined with Concordia's religious-affiliation and other possible limits on academic-freedom, might be a problem for the ABA, but that's more about academic-freedom than tenure alone. From what I've heard, any prospective faculty being considered/interviewed need to sign a statement of understanding about the limits on speech associated with the university's religious mission.
Posted by: NoFreedom | August 28, 2014 at 10:44 AM