Dean Hutson explains how the affiliation with UNH will work
June 10, 2010
Dear friends,
On April 27, 2010, we officially signed an affiliation agreement with the University of New Hampshire, marking a significant milestone in the history of our school. Because our alumni and friends are the best ambassadors we have as we enter this new chapter, we want to directly address your questions regarding the nature of this agreement.
The affiliation agreement will become effective after the American Bar Association and our regional accreditors approve it. As an operating assumption, we are using the first day of classes, August 23, 2010, as that date. Our name will change to the University of New Hampshire School of Law. (We are also creating the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property, but that is not part of the affiliation agreement.) Upon the effective date, you will find us at law.unh.edu.
UNH will then become the sole member of the Franklin Pierce Law Center Corporation. This is an affiliation, not a merger, at this point. We will retain our own Board of Trustees, who will continue to exercise their oversight of the UNH School of Law. UNH will have certain Reserved Powers, including the right to approve such things as acceptance of gifts over $5M, adopting a deficit budget over $250K, or capital expenditures over $2M.
UNH will appoint six trustees to the 30-member Board in the first year. Over the course of four years that number will gradually balance out to 15-15. After January 2013, the Board could vote to fully merge, although until 2015 it would require a super majority to do that. After January 2015, it would only require a simple majority to merge. Alternatively, at this point the board can vote to continue the affiliation in its current format or to dissolve the agreement.
The affiliation agreement creates two joint integration committees, administrative and academic. Their respective missions are to explore and prioritize the many opportunities for integration. Some will be easy, e.g., faculty exchanges; some will be more difficult, e.g., joint degree programs. These committees have already started the work of assessing all possible areas of integration and we will keep you posted on their progress. The most current answers to your questions, as well as more information about UNH are now available.
There are a number of important considerations the affiliation agreement doesn’t address either because they aren’t relevant unless there is a merger or because it doesn’t make sense to tie the hands of a future Board which must exercise its own discretion. For example, the agreement doesn’t address the location of the school. Even if we do eventually merge, that doesn’t mean we will relocate. Both parties are committed to the UNH School of Law’s presence in Concord.
The affiliation agreement is budget neutral. We receive no money from UNH, or from the state of New Hampshire, and the only payments that we will make to UNH during the affiliation are for particular services that we contract for, such as IT. Our endowment will remain under our control. Whether operating under the affiliation agreement, or if a merger occurs, the UNH School of Law will continue to abide by the ABA guidelines that require all funds received by a law school be allocated for the operation of the law school.
We are confident that this affiliation will be of great benefit to the law school, the University of New Hampshire, and the state of New Hampshire. UNH shares our vision for a partnership that protects and encourages our innovative approach to educating practice-ready lawyers and our ability to nimbly meet the challenges of a rapidly changing global legal environment.
Sincerely,
John D. Hutson
Franklin Pierce Law Center President & Dean
