I just received the Chancellor's email. Here is the most important part: "I am pleased to announce the merger of the University of Wisconsin Law School and the Marquette University Law School, which will begin during the fall semester of the 2005-06 school year and will be completed by the fall semester of 2007." I had heard rumors about this, but I had no idea that the talks were so advanced. The motivation for the merger is simple: both universities are looking to reduce costs. Here are some preliminary thoughts:

* The students. Always first on my list of concerns. According to the Chancellor's email, the number of students in each graduating class should approximate the number of students currently graduating each year from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Unfortunately, to meet this target, some of the current students from both schools will be asked to leave prior to graduation. In the long-term, of course, this will be good for future graduates of the law school, who will face less competition in the marketplace for lawyers.

According to the Chancellor's email, the new school will be part of the University of Wisconsin system, but resident tuition will be raised to $26,176 -- the current tuition for Marquette students. This is a substantial increase over the current resident rate of $10,730 at Wisconsin, and I expect to hear some grumbling about that.

Perhaps the biggest effect on current students (besides those who will be booted out of school) will be immediate recission of the diploma privilege. Apparently some members of the state legislature were unhappy at the lack of real standards for bar admission in Wisconsin.

* The professors. Obviously, a new law school with a student body roughly the size of Wisconsin's current student body does not need to double the number of professors, so it appears that the merger will result in substantial terminations, even breaking the tenure seal for some professors. According to the Chancellor's email, the Board of Trustees of the University is still undecided about how to handle this, but the Chancellor suggested that the Board had already agreed on several "safe harbors," including one for professors who graduated from a Wisconsin high school. Whew! (Good luck, Christine!)

* The new building. This deal is being presented as a "merger of equals," so part of the plan requires a location change for both of the existing law schools. The University of Wisconsin Law School is currently located in the heart of the campus, on Bascom Hill, but some members of the University faculty outside of the law school have referred to our presence there as "an infection." So we will vacate our current building in 2007, once the newly acquired facility has been made ready for use. A picture of that new facility is here. Consistent with the "merger of equals" theme, the new campus will be located about halfway between Milwaukee and Madison, just outside of Beaver Dam.

It is still unclear whether there will be major programmatic changes, but I think change is inevitable given the emphasis on cutting costs. The University of Wisconsin Law School has a long and proud tradition of clinical work, but frankly, the residents of Beaver Dam don't need the same levels of assistance as the residents of Madison, so I expect big cuts in that area. The new campus will be so far from any major airport that international programs won't make much sense. And I have heard rumors about the complete elimination of student-edited journals because, let's face it, students have no idea what they are doing anyway. I am sure that other news will be trickling out as the day progresses, so stay tuned.

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