Kopp: No law school ... and HEPC plotting?

More from Marshall President Stephen Kopp’s meeting with The Herald-Dispatch editorial board:

You know how a lot of Marshall partisans say it makes no sense for a university named after a chief justice of the United States to not have a law school? Well, forget it for now.

Marshall has shelved any plans to start up a law school, Kopp said.

But there are other programs in the works.

This came up when Kopp began talking about an effort within the Higher Education Policy Commission to reassert control over Marshall. For several years, Marshall has had almost total independence from the HEPC, thanks to an act of the Legislature that established separate governing boards for Marshall and WVU.

Without naming names or going into details, Kopp said there are indications the HEPC wants some of that control back.

Since the 1970s, Marshall had proposed 11 new degree programs that were either denied or delayed by the higher education governing authorities, Kopp said. One of those programs that was rejected was a pharmacy school, Kopp said.

Now, with automony, Marshall has a much freer hand to determine what programs it will or won’t offer, he said.

Kopp would not say whether a pharmacy school is or is not being considered.

What he would say is that those being considered are undergoing thorough business analyses.

Kopp said he wants to see such a plan before any program is considered, and that plan must assume that no money will be coming from the Legislature for it. Marshall must have the resources for the program, there must be a student demand for it and there must be a societal need, he said.

In other words, any new programs must be able to pay their own way.