Two influential faculty members at the Charleston School of Law (CSOL) have penned a letter to state regulators urging them to reject the school’s proposed sale to InfiLaw, a glorified “diploma mill.”
Exclusively reported on by FITS last summer, the takeover of CSOL by InfiLaw created a meltdown on campus – with the vast majority of students, teachers, staff and alumni coming out in opposition to the deal. This near-unanimity prompted state lawmakers to discuss a possible government takeover of the institution, although the leader of that effort – S.C. Rep. Stephen Goldfinch (RINO-Georgetown) – has been too busy battling a federal indictment and civil suit to follow through on his plans.
Still, CSOL’s leading professors are making it clear that they do not support the sale to InfiLaw.
“The proposed Infilaw takeover is not desirable,” reads a letter from professors Randall Bridwell and Gerald Finkel. “We join in this letter to express our opinion that the proposed plan would radically alter the current CSOL academic, professional and business model. We do not believe the new proposal would be in the best interest of the bench, the bar, the legal profession generally, or the public of South Carolina.”
According to Bridwell and Finkel, an InfiLaw sale would dumb down the school’s student body – lowering the threshold for admission and increasing the likelihood that incoming students would fail to graduate or pass the bar exam.
They also point to the pending sale as being responsible for a massive decline in admissions from qualified students – with CSOL’s 30 percent decline in incoming applications nearly twice the national average of 15.8 percent.
Bridwell and Finkel also note that CSOL has lost 32 current students (and 18 incoming students) since the InfiLaw sale was announced last July.
Hmmmm ….
It’s hard to argue with the points raised by these two professors. And it will be interesting to see if the S.C. Commission on Higher Education (CHE) – the regulatory body tasked with reviewing the proposed sale – will accept these points and use them as grounds to deny InfiLaw a license to operate the school.
Here’s the problem, though: CSOL is – at its heart – a business. And a majority of its owners have chosen to sell the business to a willing customer. That’s the free market, people. And as much as we agree with Bridwell and Finkel’s arguments, it’s next-to-impossible to justify government getting in the way of this sale (as it is categorically impossible to justify government taking over the institution).
In fact we believe adamantly that the CHE shouldn’t exist – and the sprawling network of government-funded institutions of higher learning should be immediately privatized.
If the CHE does deny InfiLaw a license to operate CSOL, though, state lawmakers must resist the urge to add yet another school to an already bloated, inefficient higher education system.
61 comments
“Bridwell and Finkel also note that CSOL has lost 32 current students (and 18 incoming students) since the InfiLaw sale was announced last July.”
Those student now matriculate at ITT Technical, where they will get a great education and a great job, unlike CSOL.
ITT Tech? Isn’t that one of those colleges that advertises during the “You are not the father” shows?
My son is in IT management and does not hire anyone with a “degree” from ITT Tech because they are fast tracked and don’t have the knowledge to be competitive.
Racist.
Jackie:
It’s “RACISSSSS“.
Please be more politically correct terminology oriented in the future. Thanks,
TBG
That actually is racist.
If we’re talking about spelling, then it’s schoolist.
If a WAC is a woman in the Army, and a WAVE is a woman in the Navy, then what is a WOK?
Thanks.
lol, now THAT’s funny
Almost as funny(to me) as making a fake PC comment and having all the lefties pile on board with me via the big ole thumbs up.
Wouldn’t that be a schoolist?
I love it when mothers think their little princes and so smart.
Let me guess, he still lives in his childhood bedroom and the two of you eat dinner together every night.
Yes.
Just like Bender and Bender, George Sink, J G Wentworth…
*looks around*
So TBG has heard…tell…of…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BjVbHyWVrtY
I do believe VCR repairman is a more desirable job than CSOL graduate.
This entire thread became far more funny than I ever dreamed, even with me leaving the “s” off students.
I believe there is more demand for VCR repairmen(though DVD/Blu-Ray has the edge) then a CSOL graduate.
Maybe advertising would help:
“Law clerk for only $100k in debt and live life to the fullest in a studio apartment while eating ramen noodles until your indentured servitude ends! You’ll have a JD and one day you might be an attorney!”
Maybe they could get Thad Viers to do a promo spot.
Extra points for you for dragging Viers into this madness! Good snag! Now we just need pictures of the crazy BBQ girl…
“We do not believe the new proposal would be in the best interest of … the legal profession generally, or the public of South Carolina.”
Impossible!
Today’s math term:
Inverse Relationship
“According to Bridwell and Finkel, an InfiLaw sale would dumb down the school’s student body – lowering the threshold for admission and increasing the likelihood that incoming students would fail to graduate or pass the bar exam.”
Then Jean Toal could swoop in just like she does for the USC law school.
Toal is so bad. Tell your legislators NOT to vote for her in 2 weeks. Hold your legislator accountable.
What you say may be true, however. Finkel and Toal are tight. She has let a few in his borderline ethical law firm slide under the radar with private reprimands while others who did the same thing in other law firms were suspended for 2 years. She is that corrupt.
Ya know…..just how SMART are these professors and students at the CSOL. Have they ever heard of KICKSTARTER..? Heck, use crowdfunding to buy the school for themselves and make money for themselves instead of the “OLD Foggie” lawyers. Talk about investing in your SELF. Heck, we are sure that Wayne Dowling down at SCBT on Broad Street would LOVE to close the deal. The students want to be lawyers to give the finger to a jury then it sure does sound like a good time to start.
What in hell is a “Foggie?” Is that similar to an old fogey?
“Foggies” are those dudes at Glam Rock concerts who run around with the smoke machines to give you that cool “rock and roll show smoke effect”.
Most of them got their training at ITT Tech or SPAWAR…
Bravo comment and reverb…..we wonder how many ITT students know the Spawar switchboard number to call about certain JOBS.
(Boomerang 901, 909, move agent X to CSOL legal department and move Glenn Mc ‘C’ to Lindsey’s pasture, wager 3 Zucker witness bitcoins, Facebook SAIC, Pintarest SCBT)
What in the wide world of sports are you talking about?
‘Facebook pintArest foursquare bullshit”
Well Mike, I only use this form of spelling the word for the ‘hook’ effect. It makes people think extra about what is being said. It also let’s people know they are ‘smarter’ than me for catching a mistake. Its the same tactic used by those South of the Border billboards with Pedro on I-95. Besides when you really sit back and think about the entire article and comment section. How smart are you compared to all those law students at CSOL. Do they have an interest in what is happening at the school they are paying tuition too. How smart are they about Fitsnews?
Son, you just went full retard. You never go full retard!
Heck, the consensus around SPAWAR Atlantic is that the students should actually put this whole sales event up on YOUTUBE to teach other students on how to BUY their school and make profit for themselves. Heck, go one step further and get FITSNEWS to run the actual student newspaper so that students would know what what was really going on the corporate board. Are these law students that socially disorganized that they cannot understand how to POOL their tuition money to leverage a buyout. Maybe they need to watch a Gordon Gecko movie and get Wil FOlks to ask some “Blue Horse Shoe” questions. Just exactly WHO is the student body president of this School of Law anyway. So much from learning anything from the movie “Animal LAW House”…!!
Why is SPAWAR relevant…to anything?
To illustrate your comment…….
At one point someone here named him “non-sequitur bro”.
It was one of the funniest and most accurate single word descriptions of anyone I’ve seen here.
Thanks, TBG and Touchin’; I thought perhaps I was missing something here.
Apparently, I was not.
Branton, you’re a long, long way from Dennis Miller. At least his allusions can be interpreted.
Why is SPAWAR relevant…to anything?
Because the employees and contractors who work there all drive automobiles that run on …..foreign oil.
Duh.
PLEASE get with the program.
Tonto………..you get a ‘Watson’……
(Boomerang Badge of Thought, 901, 404, move Lone Ranger to CSOL network admin, wager 3 mission bitcoins, Facebook Brian Hicks, Pintarest CSOL vending area, )
SPAWAR = OBAMA HENCHMEN reject the beast reject the beast repent repent repent
It sounds to be like these faculty are worried about their jobs….With declining enrollment, there are likely to be faculty layoffs and they would rather stick with the devil they know. After all, InfiLaw’s bar pass is not materially difficult than CSOL’s….
This is funny… I wonder if there may be racial undertones in these professors’ comments. They are two middle aged white males and there are not many people of color on the faculty at the school. Infilaw schools are more diverse. Just a thought
Makes sense to me. This is where the Civil War started. Many people here wish the South had one. These professors may be in that group.
Many people here wish the South had one.
Had one what?
If you voted this comment “up” despite the ridiculous “South had one” thing, you should be beaten.
Except Finkel is a liberal from New York
Law Professors have the second Highest Paying Jobs with Most Time Off in the USA. Why does their opinion count?
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/09/09/the-highest-paying-jobs-with-the-most-time-off/
Because most drink red wine at night and get copious taxpayer dollars(directly or indirectly) to pontificate and that makes them “special”?
Sure, I sit in my lazy boy at night and scratch my balls while slurping down a Milwaukee’s Best, but I don’t get paid to do it. I do get to sniff my fingers now and then though, so life has its rewards.
“scratch my balls while slurping down a Milwaukee’s Best”
—- thought that folks who drink Milwaukee’s’ Best had to hold it with two hands
That’s only the double deuce Beasts.
It’s a sale of a privately owned asset to another entity. You know, capitalism. Why do you adopt the phrasing of the CSOL professors and call it a “takeover?”
Customer: I would like to take over this new Jeep.
Used Car Salesman: What?
Customer: This is a takeover. I want to buy it.
Used Car Salesman: Oh, are you a professor at Charleston School of Law?
Lol….
ha ha. Charleston has a Law School. I get it…early aprils fools joke. I almost fell for it.
so when Infilaw “takes over” the school, how long do you think that Bridwell and Finkel will keep their jobs? Hahaha….
From what I’ve read, InfiLaw’s mission is to “establish the benchmark of inclusive excellence in professional education for the 21st Century.”
Their mission, which is supported by three key pillars (1) centering on “serving the underserved,” (2) providing an education that is “student-outcome centered,” and (3) graduating students who are “practice-ready”, seems to be positive.
More information about their success rates at other schools would be helpful to put the information here in context.
You share the same mission objective as ITT Tech.
Their other schools have lower BAR passage rates, higher attrition rates, higher tuition, and lower admissions standards. Charlotte School of Law has a BAR passage rate of 53% and Florida Coastal has a BAR passage rate of 67% in 2013 according to each respective state’s BAR website. The numbers speak for themselves. Additionally, both Florida and Charlotte continue to have large classes, despite a 15% overall decline in the number of applicants nationwide. The situation with their third school in Arizona is so bad that they were forced to change its name from Phoenix School of Law to Arizona Summit Law School this year. You need to look past their PR firm’s rhetoric and at the data instead.
If you’re a lawyer and teaching at CSOL, you are not “influential”.
If George Kosko wants to sell the school then George Kosko can sell the school. If Fritz Hollings says he can that is.
Look at Lander in Greenwood. It seems on the verge of collapsing. I recommend Clemson “take” over it, and use it for ICAR technology and other high tech training requiring a BS degree. Our colleges should trim down and only the best should be allowed to exist. I think Clemson USC, and College of Chas should be the top three and the others should fold, along with the CHE. If education truly needed all this attention and money we would have something to show for it but we don’t. BTW, the best school academically in South Carolina is Furman University. For the record, I am not an alumnus.
That looks so much better than my refrigerator box, I’m tempted to go postal.
you do realize that these faculty members that you’re bashing graduated from USC Law and Harvard Law School, right?
It’s “Haaaaavard” meester, get it right.
“Haaaaavuhd”, Lovie.
Harvard – isn’t that where Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, Anthony Kennedy, John G. Roberts and Antonin Scalia went? If that’s the case, his voice must carry a lot more weight than anyone elses!
Fits..you report on this a lot, and seem to have an interest in it (much like Nancy Mace and Nikki Haley..but they are at least along your site’s “theme”).
Do you have some “I wish I was a lawyer” envy going on?