Law school accredited in 18 months
Janhavi Purohit
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News
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According to Dean Roger Dennis, the relatively short process resulted from a variety of factors, from preparation to support from the administration.
"We were working to get an early site visit, and in my not-so-humble opinion, we were extremely prepared," Dennis said.
Professor of legal writing at Drexel, Terry Seligmann, agreed that one of the main reasons as to why the CoL received such early provisional accreditation was the level of preparation involved.
"A lot of work went into deciding the mission before we opened our doors. That's why it was easy doing a self-study, because we already knew what we were looking for," Seligmann said.
The level of University support, as well as the amount of experience the faculty had with the American Bar Association's process, also helped, Dennis said.
Chris Simoni, professor at the Law library, agreed that support from the central administration was a large contributing factor.
"The faculty and staff really worked hard to make it a success. They made the Drexel difference," Simoni said.
According to Simoni, another big part of the accreditation process is that the Law School meets the American Bar Association standards for their law library.
Simoni, former director of the Law library at Northwestern University, said that part of the process of building up the library involved hiring a staff and building up the collection.
Simoni added that the support from the staff at the Hagerty Library also contributed to the Law library coming together successfully.
"It was good to have the help of Jane Bryan [director of libraries at Drexel] and her staff. They helped me build up the collections, find all the sources, and all of that. It's just amazing, the level of support we got from the University library," Simoni said.
According to Dennis, the College of Law looks forward to a few main goals from this point onward, namely, receiving full accreditation, building up the faculty and expanding the student body, and completing the planning of the curriculum.
Seligmann added that finding faculty members who are "good teachers and scholars, and want to link theoretical and practical knowledge," will be crucial to the success of the law school.
Simoni said he looks forward to the continued success of the law school, and added that the early provisional accreditation was a good reflection on the school's progress.
"I think the ABA looked at the team that we have here, and the support we're receiving, and said 'they're going to be serious players,'" Simoni said. "They know we're serious about the legal game."
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