http://www.wlu.edu/presidents-office/messages-to-the-community/message-to-the-law-school-community/strategic-transition-plan
The Garbage Pit’s Announcement: This certified trash heap issued a press release, labeled “School of Law Strategic Transition Plan,” on February 9, 2015. Here is the text, in part:
“Washington and Lee School of Law
Strategic Transition Plan
In response to the changes in the legal profession and legal education nationally, Washington and Lee's School of Law has adopted a proactive approach to stabilize the school's enrollment and financial structure without sacrificing its special strengths. The University's senior administration, in consultation with a working group of faculty and administrators within the law school and a task force of trustees, has developed a strategic initiative that is now being implemented after being presented to the Board of Trustees at its winter meeting this month.
As outlined in the bullet points below, Washington and Lee's law school intends to protect its core values, including its emphasis on educating students for professional integrity, as well as its defining characteristics of personalized attention, strong student-faculty relationships, and an innovative curriculum. At the same time, the financial framework will enable the school to return to self-sufficiency by the 2017-18 academic year.
Highlights of the Plan
• Beginning with the 2015-16 academic year, the school will enroll entering 1L classes of about 100 students, resulting in a full-time student body of about 300. For comparison's sake, the current law school student body is 374 and includes the largest third-year class in school history. The Class of 2017, which entered last fall, had 101 members…
• The current student-faculty ratio (9:1) will be preserved, but with smaller enrollments the allocation for faculty compensation will be reduced by about 20 percent (equivalent to six positions) and will be achieved through attrition over the four-year period. In addition, some senior faculty salaries will have a one-time salary reduction of 2 percent with salaries frozen for all faculty during the three-year period.
• Six administrative and staff positions will be reduced over a five-year period, and there will also be budget reductions for visiting and adjunct faculty.” [Emphasis mine]
You’re welcome, thieves! For too long, you vultures have fed on the flesh and futures of lemmings. Now, that you have gorged yourselves – and the potential pool of victims continues to shrink – you are forced to undergo some serious cuts.
Actually, it appears that the univer$ity’s senior administration and the board of tru$tee$ made this decision for you, bitches. Isn’t it great to see that potential law school applicants are now starting to resemble “sophisticated consumers”?!?!
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/02/washington-lee-law-school-cuts-salaries-downsizes-faculty-staff-invades-corpus-endowment
Other Coverage: On February 19, 2015, Paul Campos wrote a Lawyers, Guns & Money entry entitled “Washington and Lee Law School cuts salaries, downsizes faculty and staff, invades corpus of endowment.” Check out his analysis of the situation:
“Prior to last year, the school’s total JD enrollment was consistently between 390-405 JD students, so this plan represents about a 25% reduction in the student body relative to historical norms.
W&L got a lot of good press a few years ago for transforming their third year of law school into an “experiential” externship-based program. The program didn’t result in more jobs for their graduates, however, and now the school’s central administration is bringing down the budget hammer.
Similar stories are now playing out all over legal academia.” [Emphasis mine]
I know how much “law professors” love to claim that attorneys and law students suck at math. However, the administration, tru$tee$ and business consultants at the parent univer$ity have some arithmetic skills. After all, they are planning to reduce overall SOL faculty compensation by about 20% – as a way to offset an enrollment drop of 25 percent. If the cockroaches were in charge of cuts, they would try to trim their salaries by about 1/10 of that amount. Plus, they would also try to maintain their foolish journals and wasteful clinic offerings – at the same time.
Conclusion: As you can see,the trash pit will charge $45,110 in tuition alone– for the 2015-2016 school year. Fees will add another $1,107 to this big-ass figure. It is also currentlyrated as the co-43rd greatest, most magnificent and sensational law school in the entire country – by US “News” & World Report. Sadly, waterheads are still applying to, and enrolling in, this pile of excrement. Hell, if these commodes charged $78K per year, in tuition alone, idiots would still seek admission.
Keep your eyes open for other college$ and univer$itie$ to cut the fat among their law faculty, in upcoming months. For decades, these corporations – even the ones designated as “non-profit” - have relied on the law schools as cash cows. You can bet your ass that the main heads of these supposed “in$titution$ of higher learning” will not bleed money – in order to keep the pigs afloat. By the way, these men and women are smart enough to realize that the national decrease in law school applicants isnot a temporary trend. Do you really picture these shrewd administrators bailing out the swine for SEVERAL years, in the hopes that the law schools will eventually see an increase in enrollment?!