How the proposed Rutgers/Rowan merger affects my view of Seton Hall Law.

There has been talk of a merger between Rutgers University and Rowan University for months, the details of which are somewhat confusing. According to former New Jersey Attorney General, John Farmer, Jr., the "New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act" will split "Rutgers-Camden from the rest of the university and (Rutgers-Camden will be) funded separately; control will reside in a separate board for Rutgers-Camden and a joint board with Rowan University." While this seems unduly complicated, I wonder what it means for my alma mater, Rutgers School of Law - Camden.

Does "Rutgers Law  - Camden" become "Rowan Law?" If it does, it'll make things complicated for Rutgers Law- Camden graduates, new and old. In one instance, I would have to explain that I attended Rutgers Law, that there used to be two Rutgers law schools, but the one I attended is now Rowan Law, instead of having to explain that Rutgers has two seperate  law schools, and that I graduated from the one closer to Philly (afterall, New Jersey is the mass between Philadelphia and New York). Okay, so semantics. And, afterall, I'm not sure that the merger would force a change of the name of Rutgers School of Law - Camden.

Would the merger affect the education I would have recieved had I attended Rutgers after the proposed merger? I doubt that there would be an immediate affect, if one assumes that a legal education is primarily the result of the efforts of a law school faculty. While I cannot tell you that I found the instruction in all of the courses in which I enrolled to be above par,I believe that a number of professors truly shaped my legal educatuion in a way in which the same would not have been true at other institutions. Thanks to Michael Carrier (Intellectual Propery); Dane Perry (Religion and the Law); Sandra Gavin (Evidence); Earl Maltz (Conflic of Laws); Richard Singer (Criminal Procedure); Robert Williams (Statutory Interpretation); Camille Andrews (Antitrust and Independant Study in the interpretation of the federal antitrust statutes), my legal education may not have been the same. (To be fair though, the quality of the legal research instruction was sub-par in my humble opinion. Let your librarians teach research skills; you'll be better for it. Hays Butler was my Legal Research professor at Rutgers for my MLIS and he was far better than my LRW professor.). So (notwithstadning the legal research instruction) if the faculty remain and are replaced by equally qualified teachers (which may prove to be difficult should the merger ensue) I have faith that the little law school in what is perhaps the worst little city in America will continue to provide a quality legal education to its student body.

That being said, prospective students may disagree as applications at Rutgers Law - Camden are reportedly down. While the stats reveal a sad fact, it might be worse; prospective students might choose Seton Hall instead, where the law library director doesn't event hold a library degree.

So my advice to prospective law students in New Jersey is: Don't go to Seton Hall. (DCW)

P.S. The merger in no way affects my view of Seton Hall Law.