ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GRUNDY
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Appalachian School of Law has hired half of its faculty, hit its fund-raising target and plans to open in August with more than 100 students, president Lucius Ellsworth said Thursday.
``We're right on schedule,'' Ellsworth said.
The campus in Grundy, near the Kentucky and West Virginia borders, is being converted from a junior high school and an elementary school that have been closed. The administration and admissions offices will be moved from a nearby bank building to the campus in June when the renovations are finished.
Last week, the Appalachian Regional Commission awarded a $209,200 grant to the private law school, which is being developed to help the coal-mining region keep some of its brightest students. The money will be used to pay a faculty member and buy office equipment.
Last year, the nonprofit law school received a $280,000 ARC grant to subsidize the costs of running the administrative and admissions offices.
More than 500 people have inquired about attending the new law school, and six of the 12 students who applied in December have been accepted, Ellsworth said.
The small number of applicants is not causing concern, he said, because most law schools receive two-thirds of their applications between February and June.
The law school plans to enroll about 110 students in August and 125 students in each of the following two years.
The American Bar Association requires at least six full-time faculty members for a law school to be accredited. Ellsworth said the Southwest Virginia law school will have at least six and may end up with seven for the first school year.
The first dean will be Dennis Alan Olson, who has been an associate professor at the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Irving, Tex., since 1990.
The school appointed one professor and two associate professors in December, and offers have been made to two other applicants, Ellsworth said.
Buchanan County is providing the campus buildings and paying for their renovation.
At the beginning of last year, the school's steering committee set a goal of raising $6.2 million to operate the school and set up an endowment for scholarships and other needs.
Ellsworth said private donations have reached $2 million, which is one-third of the goal for the three-year campaign and what they expected to raise by the end of 1996.
The law school will emphasize legal ethics and the practice of Alternative Dispute Resolution, a method of settling domestic and civil cases outside of court.
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