The Fort Myers Florida Weekly reports that Ave Maria School of Law's juris doctor program licensed by state:
Ave Maria School of Law's juris doctor program has been licensed by the Florida Department of Education's Commission for Independent Education. Receipt of this license was the last of the licensing and accreditation standards the law school had to satisfy prior to holding classes in Naples this August.
That said, there appear to be some money issues. Avewatch.com has some info at (Second) Mortgaging the Future of Ave Maria Employees and Memo Challenges Ave Maria Finances/Ethics. And a member of the Board of Trustees seems to have lasted less than three weeks. (See Ave Maria University Trustee Departure is “Mystery” and Resigned Trustee Critical of University Leadership.)
Meanwhile, however, the Fort Myers Florida Weekly reports,
Classes at Ave Maria School of Law are scheduled to begin at the 12.5-acre Vineyards campus in Naples in August of 2009.
5 law schools in South Florida. Wow
Five in S.Fl? Try … eleven in the whole state! Here’s a list of the ten incumbents:
# Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law (Orlando, FL)
# Florida A&M University College of Law (Orlando, FL)
# Florida Coastal School of Law (Jacksonville, FL)
# Florida International University College of Law (Miami, FL)
# Florida State University College of Law (Tallahassee, FL)
# Nova Southeastern University Law School (Ft.Lauderdale-Davie, FL)
# Saint Thomas University School of Law (Miami Gardens, FL)
# Stetson University College of Law (Gulfport, FL)
# University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law (Gainesville, FL)
# University of Miami School of Law (Coral Gables, FL)
But at least Ave Maria will get to be first on the alphabetical list.
http://www.avemarialaw.edu/index.cfm?event=faculty.profiles
Looking at the head shots of the faculty on the faculty profile page for Ave Maria, there is only one black faculty member – and he is from Uganda. There are no African Americans. Everyone else is white anglo. Doesn’t look very diverse at all.
I wonder how many non-liberals (e.g. originalists, conservatives or traditional faithful Catholics) are on the faculty of most law schools?
Diversity, indeed!
In all the world, there are ZERO schools fully committed to keeping the concept of “natural law” (which was universally embraced even as recently as the international Nazi war trials at Nuremburg) alive and well – aside from Ave Maria School of Law.
It is telling that commenter “howard” is nervous that ideas that he may not agree with might be dealt with professionally in an academic environment.
In academia, diversity of thought is far more important and relevant than diversity of skin color. Lord knows that if 50% of the faculty were conservative blacks in the mold of Clarence Thomas or Janice Rogers Brown, people like commenter “howard” would still be carping.
[Note to self: Actual black citizens of African nations don’t count, according to the thought police.]