NEWARK — If all goes as planned, in the next few months Rutgers University's two law schools will become one.
The state university's governing board approved a plan last week to merge the law schools at Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark into one unified law school.
The new school — called Rutgers Law School — still needs the approval of the American Bar Association before the deal is finalized. If approved, Rutgers will be one of the nation's largest law schools, with more than 1,000 students and 100 faculty members.
It will also be one of the most unusual law schools in the country. Rutgers Law will have two campuses of nearly equal size on opposite sides of the state. It will be run by two co-deans.
Students will be able to take classes on a new "holodeck," identical high-tech classrooms in Newark and Camden with large screens linked via a live video and audio link. The rooms are designed to allow a professor to teach and interact with classes on both campuses simultaneously.
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NJ Advance Media asked readers to submit questions about the new law school. We posed the reader queries and some of our own questions to Rutgers Law-Camden Acting Dean John Oberdiek, Rutgers Law-Newark Acting Dean Ronald Chen and Rutgers-Camden Chancellor Phoebe Haddon last week in Newark.
Q: What does this merger mean to the law schools' ranking? (Question submitted by NJ.com reader Justin)
Q: Will the ranking go up? (Rutgers-Newark currently ranks 87th on U.S. News & World Report's best law school ranking. Rutgers-Camden is 102nd.)
Q: What will be the cost of the merger? Will the merger reduce the expense of maintaining two separate schools? (Question submitted by NJ.com reader Artclam)
Q: Is there any dollar figure on what you'll be saving?
Chen:
No specific dollar figure. This will be done through a natural process as we discover new ways that this merger can accomplish those efficiencies.
Q: What are merger costs?
(Question submitted by NJ.com reader FOTM)
Q: Would teaching faculty be required to cover classes at both campuses? (Question submitted by NJ.com reader Logger2)
Q: Will all courses be offered at both campuses?
Q: Have there been any other cases like this — in which two equal-size law schools merged — in other parts of the country?
Q: How can a single law school be run by two co-deans? What if you disagree?
Q: What's the point? How can they be the same school when they are so far apart? (Question submitted by NJ.com reader Sparkymarky)
Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find NJ.com on Facebook.