Another "feasibility study" has alleged the need for a new law school, this time in El Paso, Texas. And the U of Texas at El Paso calls itself the perfect home for this would-be über-toilet.
The state's legislative body commissioned the so-called study from Kennedy & Company Education Strategies, a firm in Virginia that offers various consulting services to universities. On its Web site, we read that its "feasibility studies can help serve as an advocacy document to Boards of Trustees or funding authorities to provide accurate forecasts for the investment needed to support high-quality programming in new fields". Or to legislatures that want "advocacy"—propaganda—rather than sound, independent analysis.
According to the "study", this law school would need ten years to become financially self-sustaining. It would require an infusion of $20 million in capital. That does not include the cost of constructing a building needed on account of "limited campus space and accreditation requirements"—supposedly $60–110 million more. And we are expected to believe that an über-toilet in desolate Hell Paso with a maximum of 100 students per class would generate enough profit to pay back a nine-figure outlay, or that it would serve the public well enough to justify an unrecovered expenditure of that size.
Let's hope that sane voices will prevail in the Lone Star State. Old Guy, however, isn't betting on it.
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