Dean defends MU law school’s reputation, affordability
The MU School of Law was hit by a double dose of bad publicity this spring when its national ranking plummeted and tuition increased. However, Dean R. Lawrence Dessem said the law school’s reputation and recruitment abilities remain solid.
In an interview with the Columbia Business Times, Dessem addressed the rankings drop and emphasized the school’s strengths and overall affordability as well as the challenges facing recent graduates.
Dessem said that because of the recession, “students and law schools need to be more creative and more aggressive” to ensure that graduates find jobs.
To help MU law students find work after graduation, the School of Law will add a career service professional. The full-time position, which Dessem plans to fill this summer, will work with students to prepare resumes and build interview skills while trying to open doors for graduates by building relationships with potential employers statewide.
National rankings have gained importance because of their significance to college graduates seeking a reputable school. The lists are easy to access and understand, but Dessem downplayed the usefulness of the data.
“I just don’t think you can make those significant choices based on a computer model or a ranking sheet,” Dessem said.
U.S. News and World Report’s Best Grad School rankings survey more than 1,200 programs and consult more than 12,000 experts to compile the annual list.
Although its ranking has fallen this year, Dessem said affordability is one of MU’s strong suits. The MU law school costs an in-state student about $16,000 each semester. The University of Illinois law school, on the other hand, costs about $36,000.
“We couldn’t charge that much while still fulfilling our mission in this state,” Dessem said.
Dessem doesn’t see the rankings drop or tuition hikes as a serious problem for recruiting students, and he pointed out that more than 1,000 people applied for the law school’s 150 available spots in the fall of 2009, the most since 2004. He thinks that, in part, the school’s reputation for producing successful graduates will carry it through tough times.
If students can’t or desire not to find work in law, which Dessem admitted is a tough national market, their degree is also useful elsewhere in the professional world.
“The wonderful thing about a law degree is that people can use it in the business, political and nonprofit arenas,” Dessem said.
He listed Gov. Jay Nixon, Sen. Claire McCaskill and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongowski as examples of law school graduates becoming political leaders.