Six years ago, officials at Roger Williams University had the task of recruiting students to a law school that didn’t have a building, faculty or accreditation.
Rhode Island’s only law school drew 150 students its inaugural year in 1993 and now four years later the Ralph R. Papitto School of Law has over 400 students, two-thirds of whom are full-time. The school is named for the university’s chairman of the board.
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“It’s obvious looking at our growth that there was a need for an institution of law studies,” said Bruce I. Kogan, interim dean of the law school. “Rhode Island now has a place to train the next generation of lawyers and an outstanding legal resource.”
Kogan said the current enrollment, a mix of day and evening students, is about 200 shy of reaching the maximum enrollment of 600 students. He added that the school would like to increase the student body, but over time.
“Instead of plunging ahead for growth we want to maintain a level of enrollment that makes sense. We want to make sure any growth will not dilute the resources we have here,” Kogan said.
Even though law school enrollment is down in recent years nationally, Roger Williams has done well. Kogan attributes its success to its new $12 million school building on its Bristol campus, strong faculty, picturesque location and its recent accreditation.
“Getting full accreditation in February of 1997 helped. We received it
the fastest of any law school in the country,” he said. “Being accredited is obviously important in attracting students.”
Roger Williams used the standard routes many schools use in reaching potential students. College fairs and mailings to pre-law advisors are a couple of the more traditional methods, but tapping into the Internet has proved to be a great outlet.
“We are getting probably 10-15 requests a day for catalogs from students who visit our web site,” he said.
The 24 full-time faculty members at the law school, gathered from across the country, are a vital facet of the school that is stressed on the school’s web site.
“The prospect of being able to be in on the ground floor of a law school is quite appealing to professors of law, so we attracted a lot of well-qualified people,” said Kogan, who left a law school in Delaware for Roger Williams.
The university’s $19,000-a-year tuition is slightly less than other private law schools throughout New England, but it isn’t the biggest attraction to the school.
“Basically it is a really pleasant environment to be taking a very stressful course of work. I didn’t want to do this at a school in a city, which is hectic to begin with,” said Stacey Cohen, a third-year law student from Staten Island, New York.
Like Cohen, who graduated from the University of Rhode Island, 60 percent of the full-time students are from out-of-state. Cohen said along with being in an ideal location, the quality of Roger Williams’ faculty helped make her decision.
“The professors are well respected not only in New England, but all over the country,” she said.
The school also provides for Rhode Islanders an alternative to commuting into Boston, which is an obstacle for people juggling work and studies.
“
Considering my life, including my work, it didn’t make sense to add an extra two hours of a commute to Boston to study,” said Gary R. Parente of Warwick, who by day is a financial manager at a Middletown company. Parente said while Roger Williams didn’t have much of a track record to evaluate its program, he was impressed with the school’s ability to get accreditation so quickly.
“It took them three years to get accredited, which says a lot to me. That told me that the folks who put the program together said ‘if we are going to do this we are going to do it right,'” he said.
One measure potential students look at in a law school is not as impressive at Roger Williams. The number of Roger Williams law school graduates passing the multi-state bar exam is around 63 percent. Kogan attributes the percentage, which is over 70 percent in Massachusetts, to more rigorous scoring demands to pass the Rhode Island test these days.
“Although the (percentage) is a little disappointing it was not unexpected,” he said. “At the time we came on board the state bar decided to change the scale. Five years ago there was an average pass rate of 80 percent. It declined because it is today much harder to pass.”
Kogan added that he had no problem with the changes made to the test, saying it will only lead to better attorneys in Rhode Island.
Lauren E. Jones, president of the Rhode Island Bar Association, said the law school has been a welcome addition to the state’s legal community.
“We have seen a wonderful sense of cooperation, both with the professors and the students. Students have been involved in a number of projects that have helped the judicial system,” he said.
One of those projects includes volunteer services rendered to low-income residents by students in their last year of studies. Jones said the school has been a resource to practicing lawyers in that the school has a legal library that can be used by the public and has numerous forums addressing today’s legal issues. Also local attorneys can take classes at the school to fulfill yearly continuing education requirements.
“We are excited about Roger Williams’ role in the state and look forward to its growth in the future,” Jones added.
