It’s no secret that the “crunchberries” in Cap’N Crunch cereal are not, in fact, real berries (although that fact was completely lost on one woman who, yes, filed a complaint that the yummy cereal’s makers had misled her and other consumers).
It’s also no secret that California’s recent budget crisis and the global recession have made things tough for both the legal profession and for law schools.
In the midst of the economy’s downward spiral, 3Ls have seen their start dates deferred or offers even rescinded, law firms have had to cut associates or give them incentives to take a pay cut, and new law schools that were set to open in 2010 have had to consider pushing their opening dates back.
Some new law schools have fared better, however. According to Charles Cannon, an official at the new U.C. Irvine School of Law, the school — which will welcome its inaugural class this August — benefited from timing. "If we'd been a year later, who knows?" Cannon told The National Law Journal. "Because so many things were in place when they were, we're sailing ahead."
But despite the school being able to sail forward as planned with Capt. Erwin Chemerinsky at the helm, because of California’s budget crisis, it’s still a little hazy whether it’ll face turbulent budget seas during its inaugural year.
In the hopes of making up for the state’s $24 billion shortfall, Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting or reducing funding to many of the state’s programs, including the University of California system. The Governator may even cut $10 million from the U.C. Hastings School of Law, a move that would transfer the costs of running the school to the students, in essence turning it into a private school.
According to Rex Bossert, the U.C. Irvine School of Law Assistant Dean for Communications and Public Affairs, it “is too soon to tell whether or how any cuts to the [U.C. Irvine] campus will affect the law school.”
Bossert, in an email, further stated that new faculty members who have accepted offers and the 15 faculty members currently on staff will not be affected by cuts or a hiring freeze because their offers were accepted a while ago.
Think it’s easy to fix California’s budget mess without cutting funding to higher education? Try your hand at it at with the L.A. Times' 'California budget balancer'.
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