Northwest Indiana News.

Valpo Law School declines to admit a class for next fall, after finding the school to be financially unsustainable. A decision about the long-term prospects are expected in the next six to eight months.

Northwest Indiana's only law school will have a different look next August after Valparaiso University's board of directors voted not to enroll first-year law students.

The decision, announced Thursday after a Wednesday board meeting, comes despite the fact that a year-long censure by the American Bar Association recently was lifted, and focuses on the school's declining enrollment, which has made the school financially unsustainable, officials said.

Currently enrolled students will be able to complete their education at the 138-year-old school, and officials expect to maintain the current faculty and staff.

"We made a promise to (the students) when we admitted them to provide them a legal education at a fully accredited American Bar Association law school," Mark Heckler, the university's president, said during an interview Thursday, adding the students will be provided the resources to pass the bar, career services to find jobs, and access to alumni networks. "We intend to honor that promise."

The decision was a difficult one, board chairman Frederick G. Kraegel said in a prepared statement. "As the need for legal education continues to be challenged, we have taken numerous actions during the last several years to try to stabilize the law school's financial situation."

Those actions, he said, included reducing employment levels last year in attempt to align the school's faculty and staff with its decreased student population.
...
The law school had 575 students in 2010 but that number dropped to 237 students this year, according to information provided by Niemi.

A year ago, university officials announced that the ABA had censured the law school because it was not in compliance with the association's admissions standards. The ABA notified university officials on Monday that the censure had been lifted.

The censure was not a factor in the board's decision to hold off on admitting new students, Heckler said.

"They all agreed we needed to work on lifting that censure," he said, adding the environment for law schools nationwide, with declining enrollment, was the determining factor.
...
Third-party projections and the likelihood of declining enrollment helped make the determination that the law school is financially unsustainable for the foreseeable future and its continued operation could significantly impede the university's ability to achieve its mission, vision and goals, officials said.

The board has directed the university's administration to continue exploring alternative possibilities given the law school's financial challenges. Those could include affiliating the law school with another law school, or relocating the school to another geographic market with a greater demand for legal education.
...
Not accepting students next fall allows the administration to take a pause and look at alternatives for the school's future without the extended commitment of another class, he added.

In the meantime, the university's administration will coordinate with its accrediting organizations so currently enrolled students can complete their legal educations.

Second-year students will advance next year, as will this year's class of first-year students, if they choose to remain at the law school.

"That group we'll work through their individual circumstances and what they want to do," whether that's staying at VU or transferring to another law school, with individual plans for each student, Heckler said. "That's where the anxiety was, 'Are we going to earn our degree at Valpo?' And we made it clear to them we have a commitment to them."

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.