The University of North Texas at Dallas announced a new dean for its law college Monday.
Angela Felecia Epps, a former law dean at Florida A&M University who has served in the U.S. Marine Corps, will replace the founding dean of the law college, Royal Furgeson, the university announced.
Epps said she plans to carry on the school’s reputation of emphasizing public service careers for its students, drawing on her six years spent with the Georgia Legal Services Program. There, she provided free legal services to low income people.
The law college was given provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association for three years in 2017, allowing the school's graduates to take the bar exam. Epps said the school has a plan for moving toward full compliance with ABA requirements for accreditation, including raising the bar passage rate.
The college had a 59 percent passage rate in July 2017. Epps said she plans to work to raise that rate to 75 percent or higher.
“In the process of doing that, we want to keep true to the mission: being affordable so students have access who wouldn't ordinarily have access to education,” she said.
The UNT-Dallas College of Law is known for its low tuition costs — it’s part of the school’s mission that attracted Epps to the role, she said.
“You want to have education that's affordable,” she said. “If it costs so much for students, they're burdened down with debt so they cannot pursue public interest jobs, which is what I've done and what we want our students to be interested in.”
Currently, the college has 351 students enrolled and has conferred 81 degrees.
Before Epps was the law dean at Florida A&M University, she was an associate dean at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a visiting professor at the New England School of Law and the University of Florida. She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology and political science from Cornell College and a law degree from Creighton University.
Furgeson will stay on staff at the university in a developmental role, the university said.
UNT-Dallas President Bob Mong said he is excited for Epps to build on the foundation Furgeson built at the law college.
“Dean Epps embodies our students — from the Marines to her legal career to her academic work, she has shown how hard work and achievement go hand-in hand,” Mong said in a news release.
Epps will start her new role as dean this summer, where she will be part of the college’s move to a new home in the former Dallas City Hall building at 106 S. Harwood Street in 2019.
