Law school at UNT would not be a threat to TCU
The addition of a law school to UNT would add to their increasing number of professional programs, but TCU officials say it would still not ive UNT an edge over TCU’s already existing programs.
By Antoinette Vega
Staff Reporter

The University of North Texas will not have an advantage over TCU if it acquires the Texas Wesleyan law school, Board of Trustees chairman John Roach said Wednesday
“UNT’s Health Science Center has good programs but TCU has an excellent nursing school and pre-medical program,” he said. “We compete with schools every day and the addition of a law school will not make that any different.”

UNT president Norval Pohl said the purchase of the law school fits into the long term goals of Denton university.

“We have always intended to start a law school in the next 10 to 15 years,” he said. “When TWU wanted to discuss selling their law school, we were interested.”

If UNT acquires the law school it will be the first public law school in North Texas.

Although a decision is not final, TWU has been discussing the possibility of selling its law school to increase funding for its undergraduate programs. TCU withdrew its offer to purchase the school last summer because TWU thought it was too low, said Chancellor Michael Ferrari.

UNT hopes to attract future students and keep current students affiliated with the university by increasing professional programming, Pohl said. They have established a new engineering program in Denton, their Health Science Center in Fort Worth offers the state’s only osteopathic medical school and the UNT System in Dallas offers undergraduate and graduate level courses.

“Professional programs add to the prestige of the university and make more courses available to students,” Pohl said. “Their development complements the mission statement in making the North Texas region number one in the nation.”

Pohl said if UNT buys the law school it may be re-located from downtown Fort Worth. One possible new location is Denton.

“We would prefer to leave the law school where it is at because it is accessible to students and has already made a mark in the community,” he said.

Catherine Bratton, a junior Spanish major who plans to attend law school, said UNT should buy the law school because more students would benefit from a public law school.

“If UNT buys the law school, students would have more of a choice of which law school they want to go to,” Bratton said. “Instead of going somewhere private, which is really expensive, they could go to UNT and save money.”

The addition of a public law school offers more opportunities to students, said John R. Todd, a UNT associate professor of political science.

“Since public law schools are regulated by the state, the tuition will be less than a private school,” he said. “Students who could not afford to go to law school before will now have a chance to.”

Antoinette Vega