Indiana Tech turns out to have a reason for this move: ABA accreditation. According to scam-dean Cercone, the ABA intimated that Indiana Tech was insufficiently selective: its "admission standards going forward needed to be more in line with standards for other new law schools". Cercone concluded that a "stronger … student profile" would favor accreditation.
But Indiana Tech cannot bet the farm on a three-point increase in median LSAT score. Right after its failed bid for accreditation, it brought in a scamster named John Nussbaumer as its "new Associate Dean for ABA Accreditation and Bar Preparation". Nussbaumer went to Indiana Tech with "31 years of full-time faculty experience at Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley School of Law, including 18 years in senior academic leadership positions".
Now, Nussbaumer wasn't hired for his ability to dot every i and cross every t on the application. No, two other notable factors got him lured away from his sinecure at Cooley. First, he has experience in winning accreditation for other law schools: "[h]e has appeared more than a dozen times before the ABA Accreditation Committee and Council of Legal Education, helping lead successful efforts to secure provisional and full approval for three different law school branch campuses" (presumably a reference to Cooley). Second, and undoubtedly more important, he is an insider in the ABA accreditation scam:
He has served as a member of the ABA Section of Legal Education Diversity Committee, and he is currently a fact-finder and site inspection team member for the ABA Accreditation Committee. He has worked collaboratively on accreditation issues with the staff of the ABA Managing Director’s Office, including Managing Director Barry Currier, and has also worked on accreditation issues with the ABA House of Delegates, the ABA Standards Review Committee, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Congressional Black, Hispanic, Asian Pacific, and Progressive Caucuses.With its hired gun Nussbaumer, Indiana Tech can be expected to—ahem—procure accreditation just in time for the graduation of its inaugural class. But how much is this costing the parent university?
A few years ago, when the building of this law school was announced, Indiana Tech University had a $40M endowment. I conservatively estimate outlays of $6M per year for the law school. (If the average salary is $100k and other charges such as benefits and payroll taxes add half of that, the 28 employees cost $4.2M per year.) Had the law school succeeded at bringing in 100 students in each class and maintaining its annual tuition at $30k, by now it would have been reaping $9M per year in income. Discounts on tuition would have reduced that figure, but the theoretical annual surplus of $3M could have made up for many discounts, shortfalls in enrollment, and other deficiencies.
In its first year, Indiana Tech was quite stingy with discounts. Only one person got half of tuition waived, and his "discount" actually exceeded tuition. (I'm willing to bet that he was Felts, the boy who on Indiana Tech's Web site posed in an unprofessional orange-yellow necktie and announced that people should "certainly" attend Indiana Tech on the advice of a local judge—without mentioning the significant fact that that judge happened to be his father.) So probably the people who approved the establishment of the law school calculated that the thing would break even at 75 students per year (¾ of the anticipated 100), maybe even fewer, and that in any event the university would cover any shortfalls for the first five or six years.
Instead, total enrollment has not yet come close to the figure anticipated for the first class alone, and tuition is now at zero. The university must be covering just about the entire cost of operating its toilet law school—not to mention the cost of two bids for ABA accreditation. That's one hell of a drain on an endowment that several years ago stood at $40M. And the rest of the university depends on that endowment, too.
On top of all that, the university now has to pay for an "Associate Dean for ABA Accreditation and Bar Preparation" who was approaching retirement from a cushy job at Cooley. For how long can the university afford to sustain its financial sinkhole of a law school? The endowment must be badly depleted, and the law school won't be viable even if (rather, when) it becomes accredited. Expect this toilet to be flushed once and for all within two or three years.
Thanks to Dybbuk for much of the information that inspired today's article.
I have now come to the conclusion that Indiana Tech will be a fine law school. Why? Because you can attend a ranked, competitive law school like I did and struggle along with a limited network, no real connections and no work. Or you can go to Indiana Tech, Marshall or Cooley, all unranked and do well if you have the connections, network, family and work. Its the old Mayor Daley aphorism: If you are nobody nobody sent and from Harvard or my school, you will struggle. But if you are from any old law school and are SOMEBODY, SOMEBODY SENT, you will better than me, a struggling solo with a 37K Schedule C.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's too big to be flushed. Like a massive turd that you look at in the bowl afterwards and think, "Hmmmm, if I flush it, it's gonna get stuck halfway round the bend and then I'm gonna have to stick my fucking hand down there and kinda squidge it past, then my fingers will stink of shit for the rest of the day no matter how many times I wash my hands. Or I could preemptively break it into a few chunks now and then it'll flush cleanly, but that still requires me to touch it and squeeze it and that's really messy."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there's many people out there who are tired of this turd sitting in the bowl stinking Indiana Tech, but it's just too massive to fit down the pipe. And right now, I bet the board and the trustees and the faculty are all arguing about who's going to roll up their sleeve and gingerly massage this beast into the sewer or break it into manageable chunks.
It will be flushed. Nobody wants shitty fingers though.
Great comment. A massive metaphor of Leiteresque proportions.
DeleteWho says Indy Tech isn't selective? They hire from Cooley! Only the best!
ReplyDeleteAccording to Cooley's 909 for fiscal 2012, Cooley paid Nussbaumer $234,540. How much did it cost Indiana Tech to lure him away from a sinecure at a far more stable (though still toilety) institution where he had worked for more than thirty years? I estimate a cool half-million this year, plus a bonus for getting accreditation for Indiana Tech.
DeleteWell, Cooley isn't exactly rolling in cash these days.
DeleteAnd they won't be opening any new branches any time soon. Nussbaumer may have been encouraged to retire from Coley, or even paid to do so.
Yes, but....
DeleteSomebody who's an experienced professional with a proven track record of getting failures certified might be in demand.
-Barry
But this highlights two problems: one, it's pretty clear the fix is in and IT gets accredited by the ABA; two, there is apparently a limitless supply of cash bankrolling this place. It's been operating for two years and has been completely upside down the whole time-but it's still enticing dolts to attend and shows no signs of closing. In fact, none of the schools seemingly in parlous financial shape-TJ/Charleston/IT/Vermont to name a few-have closed or appear to be getting ready to close. It doesn't make economic sense, but survive they do. And don't misunderstand-this place ought to be closed(as should at least 1/3 of all law schools) but these TTT schools have some sort of supernatural economic resilience. I just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a puzzling situation. Each malignant law school has a different way of surviving, so general rules may not apply.
DeleteThomas Jefferson still survives on he haircut it forced upon its unsuspecting bondholders.
Vermont Law School's assets are secure because its facilities are useless to anyone else.
And Indiana Tech had some major donors up front, although you don't read much about it any more. They've literally blown through millions from a few naïve local donors. It's only this year that things are starting to get serious, as in threatening the inflated salaries of its clownish professors.
One general rule still applies: funds are limited. An institution that burns through its money cannot survive indefinitely.
DeleteIndiana Tech did indeed get millions from naïve local donors. But it cannot expect to get more money where that came from. Who will want to put money into a proven failure of a law skule?
Both Thomas Jefferson and Vermont are in financial trouble. It's true that Vermont's facilities (a few buildings in an unincorporated community that's half an hour's drive from the nearest grocery store) are useless to anyone else—but that also means that Vermont can't readily borrow against them.
Who are these clowns donating (for tax reductions) to a fricking school, for in part, prestige? There are no other deserving recipients out there...?
DeleteYou are correct 4:51. The TTTs do have supernatural economic resilience, same as all other law schools. It's called unlimited GradPLUS loans courtesy of Uncle Sam and the U.S. taxpayer! No matter how bad the school or how unlikely the student-borrower's chances are of getting an adequate job/income to pay off the massive loans (or even passing the bar!) following graduation, Uncle Sugar is willing to put forth any amount up front and completely risk-free to the school.
ReplyDeleteBut, Indiana Tech charges no tuition, so how can this be, you ask?
Easy. It's got someone putting up the operating funds for now. Maybe it's the University endowment, maybe some other source. It doesn't matter, once the ABA's seal of approval is in hand, the money will flow!
Why do you think TJSL's creditors didn't take away the building and repurpose it? Because their financial analysts had determined there was no better (more lucrative) use for that asset than to house a law school, based on all that risk-free federal cash coming in for each student they enroll.
Get Uncle Sam to run off that spigot, and then IT and TJSL and all the other bottom-feeders will shut down overnight!
Yes - when you are running a business with ignorant and subsidized customers, you can survive a lot.
Delete-Barry
Indiana Tech will get the ABA's rubber stamp of approval. But that doesn't mean that students will rush in. Accreditation will lead to more interest, but not enough to cover the cost of operating this toilet. Again, my calculations suggest that Indiana Tech would need about 70 students per class, all paying full fare, just to break even. Where is it going to get them? Currently it gets about a hundred applicants per year, of which many won't accept an offer.
DeleteIn addition, Indiana Tech cannot easily reinstitute tuition after reducing it to zero. Recall that this year's entering class was considerably stronger than the previous years' (though still lousy). Expect those students to be sufficiently aware and enterprising to demand that tuition be kept at zero, at least for themselves. After all, they can easily fly the coop.
Can 13 1Ls be called a class? It's more of a study group. And there's got to be some attrition too. Indiana Tech needs to end this farce.
Delete"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
DeleteAnd I see far more fools than angels these days.
While I can't argue with either of the Olds, the signs point to the scam lasting until Congress takes action-which is to say, forever. The next step for places like TJ and IT will be to fully open admissions. And they'll downsize a bit; they'll also fire all the faculty they can and hire local practitioners, who will come very cheap(how cheap? I'd be many a desperate solo will take $3,000 to teach a class-maybe even two-for a semester). And this will be a bragging point for the schools-bringing "hands-on real world experience". I can see the websites now-come to IT-we're not a theory school, we're a practice school!
DeleteNo, it's pretty clear; with the types of students these schools are attracting and admitting(i.e. utterly clueless) the schools appear to be able to get away with anything. So cutting costs to the bone becomes Virtue of Necessity, especially with the loan $$$ flowing.
The scam may shrink a bit, it may wobble a bit, but it will never end until the loans end.
Once accreditation has become a reality, the hip-hop generation will flock to Fort Wayne, Indiana to kneel before professors who "knows what it means to be a lawyer."
DeleteSuppose the Indy Techstas charge an average net tuition of $15,000 a year. Suppose they attract 60 new students a year at that price. Eventually they'll be pulling in $2.7 million a year, which could be enough to operate once Nussbaumer moves on to better thngs.
To build on 1:53 PM's thought, Indiana Tech has the unusual advantage of being so new it has no legacy tenured faculty that have high salaries and are practically unfire-able.
DeleteAnd there are plenty of lawyers out there who will gladly teach for small money, so Indiana Tech, if it can pull off accreditation, could operate much, much more cheaply than any of its competitors. So it has a possibility of survival that others could only wish for.
Even $1500 to teach one class for one semester will attract hoards of attorney applicants. If you check out their website, they have openings for an assistant clinical professor and a law librarian. Even a dink bag community college near my home had a crush of attorney applicants to teach an undergrad class in substantive criminal law in their CJ program. The guy who interviewed me thought a JD was a non-academic degree. Read: Toilet paper?
DeleteDidn't the ABA change the accreditation standards a few years ago to allow more untenured faculty? It was obviously a cynical move, largely a cost-cutting initiative for the worst toilets. Wouldn't it be ironic if it actually helped a few daring souls to learn about legal practice while in law school?
DeleteIn stark contrast to the princely salaries and benefits lavished upon hackademics, the fees paid to adjuncts do tend to come to just a few thousand dollars per course. Let's say $3000, the figure cited above. At two classes a week (god forbid three) for a whole semester, that comes to $100 per class—not counting preparation (preparing an entire course is a big job—if one doesn't teach the same course in the same way year after year, as many hackademics do), grading of exams and other work, communicating with students and administrators, and travel (time and expenses) to and from the law school.
DeleteAdjuncts fall into two types:
1) Experienced and capable lawyers who teach not for the money but either for the satisfaction of serving the next generation of lawyers or for the prestige of teaching. These will teach almost exclusively at the few good law schools, since neither professional satisfaction nor prestige can be had elsewhere.
2) Those who are desperate for money. One is unlikely "to learn about legal practice" from these people.
By the way, if any law professors are reading this blog, ask yourselves if you've graded your fall exams yet. If not, you need to get going right now. No more parties for you!
ReplyDeleteYour students need to know their grades and class standing in order to decide whether to quit, transfer, or continue. They need to decide over the holidays, when they're with family and friends rather than shysters and parasites posing as deans and professors.
If your students aren't in the top 10% or in a Top 13 school, they have no realistic chance of paying off their law school debts. Please give them the gift of adequate information so they can leave your pretentious academic slaughterhouse forever. No, you aren't entitled to a second semester of inflated tuition from naïve adolescents who don't even know how poorly they're doing.
Indiana is a booming, bustling place. While driving across it during a summer road trip, I noticed construction of diabetes clinics, new Walgreens, and new multi-story jails. Those new jails need to be filled with arrestees. Arrestees are clients....Clients are an attorney's merchandise, ergo Indiana Tech.
ReplyDeleteA unionized corrections officer gets a decent salary and a solid pension. He will deal with the same scumbags that a criminal lawyer will deal with. The C.O. gets paid by the state, unlike the lawyer, who only gets paid if the client or the client's family can and will pay the attorney's fees. Huh, you'd almost think the C.O. is getting the better deal, and he didn't even have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to "think like a prison guard" before he could apply for the job.
DeleteEven though my lower middle class income makes me miserable as a Solo these days, I think its a HELL of a lot better than baby sitting my clients all day as a paid CO. I take that back, my clients never never get locked up. Bad for bidness if that gets around. I want a reputation like my colleagues in the Yellow Pages where they show the jail door being opened.
DeleteNot all people accused of crimes are scumbags. Not even all guilty people are scumbags. And many people who are accused are not guilty.
DeleteEverybody, HELP HELP Start posting these sorts of comments to the Faculty Lounge blog. The law professors and deans are getting "tired of hearing" about law school scam and the real status of the profession.
ReplyDeleteHa-ha, 7:39 PM! The Faculty Lounge types don't know how lucky they are to still be getting such outrageous pay for doing so little!
DeleteStay away from that Web site, which is at least strongly suspected of divulging and otherwise using for nefarious purposes the personal information of some of the staunchest and most outspoken opponents of the law-school scam.
DeleteIt says Indiana Tech's tuition is zero. Then why is their website saying otherwise?
ReplyDeletehttp://law.indianatech.edu/admissions/costs/tuition/