Cooley Law School Lansing
Cooley Law School is making plans for a possible closure of its Ann Arbor campus, but no decision has been made.
(File photo)
LANSING -- The upcoming semester at Thomas M. Cooley Law School's campus in Ann Arbor could be the school's last, but plans are not set in stone, school officials said Monday.
Cooley's president, Don LeDuc, and the dean of the Ann Arbor campus, Joan Vestrand, met with students at the school last week to outline possible transition plans for current students, Cooley spokesman Jim Robb said Monday.
An email to students obtained by legal blog Above the Law described the potential assistance the school would make available to students if the campus is closed at the end of the fall term, which begins in September.
Robb confirmed the email's authenticity, but cautioned that no decision had been made on whether or not the campus would close.
"We're developing a plan in the event that it should happen," Robb said. "No decision to close the campus has been made yet."
The plan will include early registration for affected students, cash payments to offset increased costs for travel and other expenses while completing a degree, a stipend for graduating students to defray costs for bar review and additional advising help, Robb confirmed.
The school announced last month that it would not enroll incoming students at the Ann Arbor campus as part of an overall cost-cutting move.
Robb said that plans are not being made for closures at the school's other satellite campuses in Auburn Hills, Grand Rapids and Tampa, Fla., or at the school's main campus in Lansing.
An agreement to partner with Western Michigan University is also still on track. WMU president John Dunn said Monday that accreditation bodies had approved the partnership and the renaming of the law school as the Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
No specific timetable has been set for a decision on closing the Ann Arbor campus, Robb said, as Cooley officials examine staff and faculty cuts to "right-size" the school's budget.
Cooley has seen an enrollment drop in recent years, and is expected to be between 2,200 and 2,300 students this year, down almost 200 from last year.
Brian Smith is the statewide education and courts reporter for MLive. Email him at bsmith11@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.