A proposal to open a second campus of The Dickinson School of Law will be decided in two weeks. Dickinson's board of governors will meet at 10 a.m. Aug. 13 at the law school in Carlisle to vote on a Penn State University offer to operate a two-campus law school.
"I can't say who's going to be there [in Carlisle]. They can participate by phone," said LeRoy Zimmerman, board chairman.
A vote to accept the plan would also be the end of the Dickinson board's control over any relocation.
Under the plan, the second campus would open in 2008 in a new $60 million facility in University Park. The 170-year-old Carlisle campus would get a $25 million upgrade.
Penn State officials, however, have said the university must have authority to close the Carlisle campus if the two-campus plan fails.
Board members said they will not give up the right to keep Dickinson in Carlisle.
Zimmerman said four board members are negotiating terms of the proposal with Penn State officials.
The negotiating team will give a public progress report in a meeting at 10 a.m. Aug. 9 in the Harrisburg offices of the law- school board's lawyer, Jack Stover, at 213 Market St.
The Carlisle meeting of the 35-member board will also be public, as required under an amendment to the state open-meetings law signed this month by Gov. Ed Rendell.
Penn State in November proposed moving Dickinson to State College, but withdrew the offer June 14 and suggested the two- campus idea instead.
The condition that the board give up its control over the law school location was revealed July 21.
Meanwhile, the law school's alumni association has decided to oppose the proposal.
Law faculty offered opinions to the board in closed meetings in May. But Zimmerman said professors have not taken a unified position on Penn State's proposal.
ELIZABETH GIBSON: 249-2006 or egibson@patriot-news.com INFOBOX: VOTE SCHEDULED
Nearly a year after plans to build a campus for The Dickinson School of Law in State College surfaced, the school's board of governors will vote on the proposal. Their ballots will be cast in public, as required by a new state law that opens previously private board meetings to the public.
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