Penn State President, Bendapudi, has proposed a merger of Penn State Law with the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. However, the merger would result in dissolving Penn State Law, and threatening a law school presence in University Park to the detriment of its students. 

Since the separation from the Dickinson School of Law in 2014, Penn State Law has created its own reputation and identity in the heart of University Park. Its organizations and competitors have distinguished themselves amongst the best universities in the world. A few examples are winning the 2019 Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court competition, Winning the Midwest Region AAJ Mock Trial Competition in 2022, and Penn State Law’s chapter of the Black Law Students Association being crowned chapter of the year nationally in the 2021-22 term. Penn State Law’s professors have given their careers to the mission of the school and have donated substantial amounts of money, along with pulling investments from career connections. Its clinics have gone on to serve hundreds of clients statewide and beyond, such as the Entrepreneurial Clinic which helps businesses navigating the complex legal requirements required for their success.

Its home, the Lewis Katz building, is a recently developed, state of the art education center, built using alumni funds for the benefits and pleasure of the law school. University Park has benefited the law students by granting them access to the wider university’s resources, allowing students to pursue joint degrees such as the JD/MBA, JD/MIA, etc. The wider University has also benefited from offering other participating Graduate students the opportunity to take classes in law, giving them legal knowledge of their future markets.

Nevertheless, based on current plans, the University’s new president, Neeli Bendapudi, would put all of Penn State Law's success at risk. Students from the law school and broader University could lose the educational opportunities provided by having a law school on the University’s main campus. We worry that the Lewis Katz building may well be repurposed as a non-law school building. The professors and staff who have devoted their careers to this institution may be left without a home despite their contributions to the University as a whole. Despite statements made by Bendapudi, the student’s level of education would suffer once professors decide to leave, because fewer and fewer classes will be available during the transition. The clinics which have provided free legal aid to the residents of Pennsylvania would be at risk of shutting down. The merger would result in one law school in Carlisle, in a remote building, potentially with less resources, which supports only half of the class size as Penn State Law.

If you support maintaining a Law school presence in University Park regardless of the name, show your support by signing the petition.