Texas reps to consider UNT law school money

by Courtney Roberts of North Texas Daily

The Texas Legislature and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will decide whether to approve funding for the UNT Dallas College of Law when the legislative session begins Jan. 13.

In 2007, the original bill passed in the Senate but did not pass in the House because of a technicality.

"The bill was amended to another bill in the House, which had a combination of issues. Specifically, calendaring issues," said House Rep. Dan Branch, who is carrying the bill alongside state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, in the House. "For calendaring, there is a timeline on the bill, and if it hasn't been heard on the floor, then its time has run out."

UNT Chancellor Lee Jackson said the problem was a point of order unrelated to the law school.

"The bill it was amended to was a bill of eminent domain, which is a real estate acquisition by governments," he said.

If approved, the law school, which will be in the Dallas Municipal Courts Building at Harwood and Main streets, will cost an estimated $60 million, according to a previous UNT Daily article.

"We will be asking the legislature for $40 million, and the City of Dallas will be putting in $16 million," said Cynthia Hall, director of external affairs for the UNT System. "The city had voted in previous bond elections, and they wanted to cover the renovations' cost to preserve the building."

Until UNT Dallas has been administered as a general academic teaching institution for five years, the board "shall administer the law school as a professional school of the system" rather than a professional school of UNT Dallas, according to a version of the bill.

"The UNT College of Law will be administered under the system until the Dallas campus has been a standing university for five years," Hall said. "The Dallas campus will become a standalone university with a full-time equivalency of 1,000 students."

Hall said the law school will hopefully pass in the session.

"Right now, we're meeting with not only our elected officials, but also the American Bar Association to follow the steps to get accredited," she said. "Our goal is to start classes in the fall of 2010, when the law school is actually going to begin."

Dallas-Fort Worth is the fourth largest metropolitan area without a public law school, Branch said.

"I believe having a law school in the largest metroplex in Texas will further education in law and law society in the region that is projected to grow in the future," he said. "It is good for the growth of downtown Dallas."