A frank exchange of views

Dear Professor Campos,

I just read with much disappointment the article in the Business Insider, which attacks our efforts to begin a new law school in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I am quite surprised that we are the only new law school that is being attacked when there are also new schools in Tennessee, Idaho, and Texas that have either opened this year or are slated to open with us next year. I believe that each person is entitled to his or her opinion on this topic, but I find your quote within that article to be outrageous and completely inappropriate.

In the piece, you are quoted as writing, "Chutzpah has been defined as murdering your parents and then pleading for mercy because you're an orphan…How about setting up another legal diploma mill in a hyper-saturated market, while claiming that what will set your school apart is its emphasis on 'ethics' and 'professionalism'?"

You have no idea about the details of our school. We are NOT a “diploma mill.” You have not read our Prospectus that details how the school will operate and what we intend to accomplish. Additionally, you have not taken the time to reach out to me to learn anything about the true mission and purpose of our school. Finally, to equate the opening of a law school with murdering one’s parents is reprehensible. You should be ashamed, but people who throw incendiary devices into conversations rarely have any shame. If you have any integrity, I would invite you to contact me before you misrepresent the mission and purpose of our law school any further.

I would invite you to be more professional in the future and do your homework before you attack a very serious effort to train law students in a new and different way. There are people, like me, who have left established law schools and who have moved families to a new community because we believe in the vision that Indiana Tech has for its law school. Your remarks do more harm than good—not because of the content of your statement, but because you have obviously not done the work necessary to be armed with the facts!

Sincerely,

Peter Alexander

Dean and Professor of Law

C:         Dr. Arthur E. Snyder, Indiana Institute of Technology President

Law School Faculty

Dean Philip J. Weiser, University of Colorado Law School

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-indiana-law-school-to-open-in-2013-2012-10#ixzz28oHrpnFr

Peter C. Alexander

Dean and Professor of Law

PCAlexander@indianatech.edu | www.indianatech.edu/law

Ph: 260-399-2834 | 1-855-TECHLAW

1600 East Washington Boulevard | Fort Wayne, Indiana 46803

Dear Dean Alexander:

I have in fact read the Prospectus for your law school, which is available on line here:  http://www.indianatech.edu/Academics/Documents/Law-School-Feasibility.pdf

It makes what in my view is an extremely unconvincing case for your enterprise.  Your belief that there’s anything unusual or unique about what you’re proposing to do is mistaken.  What you are proposing to do is to grant law degrees at a high price to people who in most cases will not be able to obtain employment, legal or otherwise, that justifies the cost of their investment in those degrees, while paying yourself a high salary out of the money these people pay for the privilege of attending a seriously overpriced institution, that will leave them worse off than they were prior to their enrollment. 

Naturally you find this evaluation of your conduct outrageous and reprehensible, but “it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”  (Upton Sinclair).

Sincerely,

Paul Campos

Professor of Law

University of Colorado