On finances, UB law students kept at kids’ table

Last month, the Student Bar Association at the University of Baltimore School of Law asked for a seat at the table as the law school tried to sort out its financial relationship with the university that led to former Dean Phil Closius’ resignation.

SBA President Julius Blattner, in an email sent to students Tuesday night, said the organization will not have representation on the committee reviewing financial data but will instead receive weekly updates on the committee’s progress.

“The Chair of the committee [law school professor Michael I. Meyerson] believes that having a student serve on the committee tasked to reach the broad agreement with the President [Robert L. Bogomolny] would be more harmful than good in reaching the best deal possible,” he wrote. “After the agreement is in place, the Chair believes student input is not only useful but essential.”

Blattner also said an independent auditor will not be involved in the negotiations because of “time considerations”; instead, financial figures from the university and “other comparable law schools” will be provided to select faculty and university officials.

The committee will first determine if other law schools are getting treated better by their universities than UB, Blattner wrote, followed by reaching an agreement with Bogomolny over how to put UB’s law school on equal footing with the other law schools.

“The final part, which is where student input will be most important, is then to decide how best to use any additional monies,” Blattner wrote.

The agreement is supposed to be in place by mid-October to aid the dean search process and “get the law school moving forward and focused on the future as soon as possible,” he wrote.