ucsd to acquire cal western law school?

[cynthia foster]

San Diego City Beat, via the Last Blog on Earth, is reporting some curious information about the possibility of UC San Diego acquiring (or merging with, or partnering with) California Western School of Law. 

This information apparently surfaced at a San Diego City Council Rules Committee meeting, wherein City Attorney Jan Goldsmith asked UCSD Vice Chancellor Debra Neuman about ongoing "conversations" between the two schools.  Neuman confirmed talks between the two schools, but would not provide further information.  In a subsequent exchange with Last Blog on Earth writer David Rolland, Neuman denied that UCSD has plans to purchase Cal Western, but did say the two are planning on "working together in some way."

UPDATE: UCSD Associate Vice Chancellor Stacie Spector emailed me the following response:

"As of right now, our discussions with Cal Western School of Law are, as [Neuman] describes, preliminary friendly informal discussions.  This topic of considering a formal partnership comes up every couple of years between CWSL and UCSD.  Additionally there are many collaborations and joint programs that we work on together currently, but that is routine at this point."

Comments

[Brian]

I think this merger has been secretly happening for years. When I was at UCSD almost all of the law-related Poliscie classes were taught by Cal Western profs. Coincidence? No, shady...

[Cynthia]

Brian,

I think you're right. A couple of people I spoke to while writing this item indicated that this "merger" rumor has been around for awhile. How were the Cal Western profs? Were you annoyed that you were getting a fourth tier education at a UC (and paying UC tuition for it)?

[Brian]

Haha, no I was grateful because they were the easiest classes around - which is saying a lot because I was a Poliscie major. The profs always seemed to be cool, young guys. They were always once a week, three hour classes, with no mandatory attendance. Your final grade was based either on an open-book racehorse final or a final paper. They're probably a little harder on the law school kids.

[Alison]

A proposed merger between the two was first seriously weighed in 1981-1984, there are records of it in the Mandeville Special Collection. UCSD and Cal Western have this weird amorphous quasi-partnership agreement to share resources. There's a jointly conferred Master's in Health Law.

Most people figure that it's a matter of "when" not "if". It would be great to see it happen close in time to UCI getting off the ground. It would make a great case study for which works better, building from the ground up, or absorbing and improving an existing institution.