Sunday, August 31, 2014

Suffolk Latest Victim of Applicant Selfishness

As many "scambloggers" would likely concede, law school applicants have incomplete knowledge, to put it euphemistically.  One thing they may not understand is how crucial law school revenue has been in keeping entire universities afloat.  It's one thing to be Harvard, where the endowment can sustain the place for years to come.  It's another to be a school that's "tuition-dependent with a modest endowment."  Like Suffolk:
Given the general decline in law school enrollment, Smith said he would expect to take a “quality over quantity” approach in assembling new classes. “I don’t think there’s growth there,” he said, referring to enrollment.
...
The unexpected change in leadership comes as Suffolk seeks to stabilize its finances and attract students in the college-dense region. Facing a decline in enrollment and revenue, the university announced in June it would freeze employee salaries for the next fiscal year.
It also offered buyouts to all law school faculty members with tenure or renewable long-term contracts.
See what you little mutinous charlatans have done?  You've made Suffolk go out and bring in a 68-year old to clean up things and you've made him lose faith in law school enrollment.

For years, Suffolk could bank on a nice crop of incoming 0Ls to plop 35, 40, 45, 50k into the bank.  Now, because the lemmings have completely abnegated their role in the circle of life, Suffolk is offering buyouts to people who have jobs waiting at Ropes & Gray and freezing salaries.

Karma's a bitch, Boston-area lemmings.  When you've had a long and prosperous career and you decide to kick back, take it easy, and saddle the next generation with beautiful amounts of non-dischargable debt to fund your lifestyle choices (which may or may not be described as "drug dependent with women of large endowments"), don't expect any cooperation from the applicant pool.

5 comments:

  1. That's a brilliant analysis. (By you, not the greedy buffoons at Suffolk.)

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  2. "Smith said he would expect to take a “quality over quantity” approach in assembling new classes."

    i.e. they are lowering enrolment standards to the ground. If you have a pulse and can put an X on a loan document, you are in.

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  3. It's worse than that. Legal scholarship, produced of course by the finest scholars who have given up seven-figure salaries to make only mid-six figure salaries, is a vital public good. In fact, I'd say it's literally the only thing supporting our Constitutional republic- the oil of democracy. To not take out 250K in debt to go to law school is like not buying War Bonds. The brave souls who died for freedom at Bunker Hill are spinning in their graves.

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  4. Massachusetts has a very glutted attorney market with many law schools. Suffolk law school is a mediocre, yet expensive law school. It is easy to get into. New England Law, also in Boston, is the Mississippi of ABA approved law schools. Suffolk Law School should market itself by saying "At least we are not New England School of Law."

    The pay packages for the law deans at both law schools have been highly controversial. Despite low rank, high tuition, and weak employment prospects, the deans were paid millions. Law student outcomes were much less impressive than the law dean compensation packages.

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    Replies
    1. "At least we're not New England School of Law."

      I'd like to see a campaign that plants that slogan on buses all over Boston. Maybe NESL will go under in the process.

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