The Absurdity of the Whole Feasibility Study Subterfuge

A Feasibility Study of ........
THIS?????

Ave Maria Town, March 22, 2006
Future site of Ave Maria School of Law
(at least according to Tom Monaghan)

How can you do a feasibility study of something that doesn't really exist? How can you make an informed decision to move to a building that does not exist? Why wouldn't you wait until the campus and homes and infrastructure and a track record are in place before even commissioning a study? Is Florida a good location for another law school? What do Catholics and others in Florida think about such a proposed move? What do faculty, students, staff, and alumni think of such a move?

All good questions, and all issues that were already addressed in the 2003 Florida Feasibility, which was kept firmly under wraps, until now. And now we know why.....

2003 Feasibility Study Summary:

This is located at the circulation desk at AMSOL, and there are many access restrictions. No email went out to inform students that it would be there, and only 4 have checked it out so far – none for over an hour. It is over 1000 pages, and it is clear why it needs updating…

The following excerpt-summaries are highlights:

Under Standard 105 of the ABA, the change of location (closing in Ann Arbor and reopening in Florida) will constitute a “major change.”

A canvassing of Florida lawyers revealed much ambivalence:
Many Catholic lawyers were perplexed as to why another Catholic law school would be opening in Florida, as so many others had opened in recent years.

One Florida lawyer noted that Ave Maria seemed to have found the one place in Florida where there wasn’t a law school.

The phrase “in conjunction with Ave Maria University” begins on page 1, and appears throughout the study, until the question of whether or not these entities would remain distinct is raised. After discussing the relationship between AMSOL & AMU, the study discusses law students’ reactions, which were overwhelmingly opposed to affiliation with the AMU.

Page 5: Reputation of AMSOL “runs a serious risk of being damaged by relocation to Florida without internal support.” (Internal support is later defined as: Faculty, staff, students, Board of Governors, and Alumni.)

Page 6: The authors of the feasibility study recommended an aggressive marketing campaign to improve reputation and perception BEFORE any move should occur.

Page 7: The Support of the Faculty: If the core faculty will not relocate, it may cause the ABA to examine the situation with “serious scrutiny,” as this may constitute a new educational “entity.”

Page 8: Then-current 2L class (class of ’05) was angry and expressing a “high level of anxiety and bitterness,” though the authors of the study acknowledge that these students knew that they would not be personally affected by the relocation.

Page 19: Tom Monaghan’s Money is a Liability: The study recognizes that Mr. Monaghan’s money is a donor liability, deterring other donors, who view AMSOL as “Tom’s School.”

Page 6 of the Current Student Survey (2003): The current students cite the administration as a weakness of the school because it is not being truthful about a prospective move.

So, now does everyone see why the Board and the Dean does not want to "update" the previous study, and why the Dean's good friends are in charge of a new, improved feasibility study?