Globe Metro Columnists Take A Victory Lap on UMASS Law School

By Steve Poftak
February 8th, 2010

Adrian Walker picks up where his colleague Yvonne Abraham left off last month.

While Abraham’s column was primarily a 640 word exercise in ad hominem attack, Walker actually talks to the current SNESL (and future UMASS law school, apparently) dean.

It’s a shame that neither columnist could divert from their talking points to ask a few basic questions, like 1) Why isn’t the current performance of the students at SNESL mentioned in UMASS’ proposal to take over the law school, 2) How do you reconcile the almost $10m discrepancy in library assets between UMASS’ proposal and SNESL’s tax return, and 3) Why would current SNESL leadership (which has failed to achieve accreditation for ten years) be retained?

But don’t worry, all those questions have already been answered, right? Right?

Per Education Secretary Reville:

[T]his has been probably the most heavily vetted proposal that’s come before the UMass board and the Board of Higher Education because of all the opposition attention that’s been focused on it — we see these numbers as adding up well.

We’ve raised the above issues and others (here and here). Did not seem to grab the UMASS Trustees, Board of Higher Ed, or Department of Ed’s attention.

Now, the law school will be subsumed in the murky budget waters of the UMASS system, eliminating any hope of tracking their performance. But, as a public service, here’s the UMASS-SNESL Final Application and Related Appendices. Wouldn’t it be great to look at these in two years and see how they are performing against plan?