The troubled University of the District of Columbia (UDC) School of
Law failed to win provisional accreditation from the American Bar
Association (ABA) during its summer meeting held earlier this month in
San Francisco. UDC Law School officials, however, will be given another
chance to make their case for accreditation when the ABA reconvenes in
January 1998.
The decision “was a positive one,” says Dean William L. Robinson,
who attended the ABA meeting along with UDC President Julius F. Nimmons
Jr. “This means that students already enrolled in the law school will
be considered as attending an accredited institution.”
Students entering in the fall, however, will be attending a non-accredited school.
The law school, formerly known as the District of Columbia School
of Law, received provisional accreditation in 1991. According to ABA
rules, however, the school had to reapply for accreditation when it
merged in 1995 with the University of the District of Columbia. An ABA
accreditation committee denied an application from the school in
January and decided to remove the independent institution from its list
of accredited law schools.
In a surprising and complicated move at its meeting this summer,
July 31-Aug. 1, the ABA accreditation committee rescinded the decision
to drop the D.C. School of Law from the list of accredited schools —
even though the school no longer exists. An ABA letter said that, “if
such a recommendation were acted on by the House of Delegates at this
time, it would create confusion and possibly have a negative impact on
the impending developments regarding the University of the District of
Columbia School of Law.”
The decision “means that students [who] enrolled in the D.C. School
of Law will remain eligible for federal financial aid and loans,”
Robinson explains.
Before the bar association reconsiders granting the law school
provisional accreditation in January, both the university and the law
school must show substantial progress, according to a letter from the
bar association. The ABA said it will be taking a close look at one of
the thorniest issues confronting both the law school and the university
— “final approval of a budget for the university that could assure a
level of financial support for the School of Law.”
