Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995                   TAG: 9511080089
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press|
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

REGENT STUDENTS LAG IN PASSING BAR

Only 22 of Regent's 98 law graduates took the exam in Virginia this July, records show. And of those, only 12 passed, for a success rate of 54.5 percent, according to figures published Monday in Virginia Lawyers Weekly, a statewide legal newspaper.

The University of Virginia led with a pass rate of 87.7 percent, followed by William and Mary, 86 percent; University of Richmond, 77.3 percent; Washington and Lee, 76.7 percent; and George Mason, 74.4 percent.

The statewide average was 71 percent.

Regent's performance represents its second consecutive decline. The school's pass rate in the summer of 1993 was 76.7 percent; in the summer of 1994, it dropped to 61.3 percent.

The decline comes at a time when the American Bar Association has said Regent must improve its pass rate before earning full accreditation.

J. Nelson Happy, dean of the law school, said the numbers are misleading because they include only graduates who took the bar in Virginia. He said 75 percent of Regent's students passed nationwide, up from 66 percent in 1994.

``I think it's a positive sign,'' Happy said. ``Certainly, the overall improvement is impressive. It shows a good trend.''

Regent's law school, opened in 1986, received provisional accreditation from the ABA in 1989. The school wants to have it upgraded, but the ABA has cited the low pass rate and faculty tenure as stumbling blocks.

Regent since has instituted a tenure policy.

Happy has said improving the pass rates isn't a short-term proposition.

``Certainly we'd like to see the bar passage rate like the University of Virginia's,'' Happy said, ``but at a new law school, that's not possible.''

Regent is one of five American schools with provisional accreditation. An ABA evaluation team will visit later this month, and a decision will be made in January or May whether to upgrade the accreditation, Happy said.