ANAHEIM — The fate of Chapman Law School's first graduating class hinges on discussions today between the campus' top administrators and representatives of the American Bar Assn., who will decide later this month whether the school deserves national accreditation.
After two failed bids for ABA approval, Chapman officials say they have raised standards across the board: higher grade-point averages and test scores for beginning students, more stringent evaluations of faculty members, tougher academic policies for grading and dismissal.
Those measures were in response to the ABA's rejection last May of Chapman's petition for accreditation. The legal association criticized the school for inadequate faculty evaluation, lack of rigor in the curriculum and lax grading and probation policies.
"Our professors don't enjoy giving lower grades," Dean Parham H. Williams Jr. said of the tougher academic standards. "But this is something that has to be done to ensure that we are producing the best students."
The school's uncertain status is not sitting well with many at the school, which is operating in leased space in Anaheim while a new $21-million facility is built near Chapman University's main campus in Orange.
One third-year student, who asked not to be identified, said he has opted to extend his studies at Chapman for another year to delay graduation in the hope that the school will have ABA approval by then.
"It makes law school very expensive," the student said. "I'm even looking at other graduate schools now. If Chapman doesn't get accredited, I will have a law degree but won't be able to practice."
Another third-year student, Scott Shuttleworth, said the changes in grading policies have hurt his grade-point-average but now his class ranking is high.
"In one class, I earned a B-plus, but it was later dropped to a C-plus," he said, because of a raised grading curve. "Do I care? Yes, but I have bigger fish to fry. My ranking is more important than my GPA."
Shuttleworth is among an estimated 50 students who intend to complete their studies at Chapman in the spring, regardless of what the ABA decides. Besides, he added, he thinks the school will win national accreditation this time.
"After all the changes over the past nine months, I'm confident the school will become ABA approved," he said.
If it earns ABA approval, Chapman would join the ranks of the 180 most respected law schools in the nation, and its graduates would be entitled to sit for the bar exam in any state.
