MINUTES
ACADEMIC AFFAIRSCO~~ITTEE
YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY
DATE: Monday, December 9, 1968, at 4:00 P.M. in Central Hall t Room No.2.
PRESENT: Dean Edgar, chai noan Behen, Prof. Alleman, Prof. Batty, Dr. 0111 an ,
Dr. Chrisp, Prof. Fortunato, Dr. Hare, Dr. Richley.
Cha1nnan Behen called the meeting to order at 4:05 P.M.
Prof. Botty indicated that her committee(A-3~fsstill meeting weekly.
Professors Fortunato and Hare presented the results of their effort to
fonnu1ate a preliminary report reflecting the substance of this committees
deliberations on the substitution of the J.D. degree lL.B degree. After
much discussion and some revision of the report, it was moved by Dr. Di11an
and seconded by Dr. Hare Itthat the revised fonn of the report be accepted
by this COIIIDittee and that Chainnan Behen be directed to present it to
President Pugsley."
The committee spontaneously and unanimously agreed that Professors
Fortunato and Hare be lauded and thanked for their excellent work in pre 
paring this report.
The next meeting w111 be called by Chaiman Behen.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:20 P.M.
Victor A. Richley
Recorder
YAR:aIIS
cc: President Pugsley
Dean Coffield
Dean Edgar
Prof. All_n
Dr. Behen
Prof. Botty
Dr. Bridgham
Dr. Chrisp
Dr. Dillan
Prof. Fortunato
Dr. Hare
Prof. Niemi
Mrs.Sch~nuttgen
December 9, 1968
A PRELIMINARY REPORT submitted at the request of President
Pugsley by the Academic Affairs Committee; Dr. Behen, Chairman.
SUBJECT~A proposal to grant degrees of Doctor of Jurisprudence
(Juris Doctor) to holders of Ll. B. degrees of the former
Youngstown University Law School.
This proposal was considered by the Academic Affairs
Committee during the course of three meetings held October 14
and 21, and December 9, 1968. After full deliberation of the
issues involved, and, according to a motion, ;'recognizing the
fact that the Law School has been discontinued for almost a
decade," it was decided that no real I academic" issue \oTaS in 
volved in the proposal, but rather one of possible justice to
the graduates of the former Law School, and one of expediency
or publicrelations~matters on which the Committee felt it 
self without authority to judge or to act. Therefore, we
suggest that the matter be referred to the residual legatee
of the former administration, the present Board of Trustees
of Youngstown State University, and are prepared so to recom 
mend to the Senate.
It should be emphasized that the Committee did not at
any time take a vote on thE J. D. issue. It is therefore im 
proper to speculate on how such a vote would have gone; and
furthermore impossible to assess the weight to be attached to
any of the conflicting views to be exhibited below. What the
Committee's action does propose is that the matter, while of
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interest to the Committee, does not fall within its proper
province.
Legal training was the firstac~demicfield offered
by Youngstown College. In a continuous effort to make legal
training more uniform, standards were established by such
organizations as the Ohio League of Law Schools, the American
Association of Law Schools, and the American Bar Association.
The Youngstown institution was accredited by the Ohio League,
but it was not accredited by the national associations because
it was a night (part-time) school, and did not have the re 
quired three full-time professors.
The accreditation which it did huve was sufficient to
meet state bar examination requirements, and to give its
graduates admission to study for advanced degrees at some
other institutions; for instance, at Case-Western Reserve.
The Youngstown Law School, until it closed almost a decade
ago,gr~duatedseveral hundred students. The achievements of
its graduates are well known to this community. At present
about half the judges sitting on the bench of its local and
regional courts are YU Law School graduates. A great number
are serving, with distinction, the leg&l needs of this com 
munity through the general practice of law, further, many
occupy responsible positions in industry.
The Committee on Academic Affairs is fortunate in
having, among its members, two YU Law School graduates who
not only have a special interest in the matter at hand but
(/
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Page 3
who, it can be assumed, express the point of view of their
severalhundr~dorphaned colleagues. Moreover, the committee
also has, among its members, several academicians holding
Ph.D. degrees, all of them admitting to~visceral"objections
to the J. D. proposal. Thus it might have been difficult
for the committee to reach substantial agreement on a recom 
mendation, if it had in the first place determined that the
matter fell within its province.
The entire committee could agree, however, that if the
Law School in question heG not been discontinued, but were
today an accredited unit of Youngstown State University, the
problem would simply not exist. Like every other law school
in Ohio andrr~rethan two hundred others in the rest ofth~
n0tion, it would today be grunting J.D. is and making them
available, retroactively, to all of its former graduates.
Nor is the propriety of granting such degrees really at
issue, however much some members of the committee felt it
should have been when the practice began. Granting J. D.
degrees is tod2y too widespread in&~ericanlaw schools to
make it the sUbject of fruitful discussion. The questions
at issue are whether YSU should take steps to remove an in 
equity affecting the alumni of a law school that no longer
exists; and whether, assuming that such inequity really
exists, YSU would be well-·advised to take steps to remove it.
The first question is a matter of justice, the second a
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matter of public relations.
On the question of justice, a great deal was said on both
sides. It was suggested th2t failure to substitute the J. D.
degree for the LI. B. perpetrates an injustice. When YU closed
the Law School, in a real way it turned its back on the educational
needs of this community. By refusing to make the conversion in
the face of the overwhelming Ohio and national precedents, it
will be compounding a wrong. There is ample evidence that YU
Law School graduates were well trained, performed exceptionally
well on the Ohio Bar Examinations, and distinguished themselves
at least equally with the graduates of other Ohio law schools;
and that if they had gone to Akron, Ohio State, or Case-
Western Reserve, they would today hold J. D. degrees. But
they did not, and the Law School was discontinued for lack
of national accreditation (it was accredited by the Ohio
League of Law Schools) and luck of that community and local
Bar Association support which could have assured its continuance;
and in any case the graduates received the degree they sought
from the institution they chose to attend.
Nevertheless, most menmers of the committee felt that
some form of justice was involved in the proposal, and
that YSU, as "residual legatee
l1
of the YU Law School, could
properly, other things being equal, occupy itself with the
request of large numbers of its Law School graduates.
The question of expedience is a thornier matter. It
was argued that granting the J. D.'s would help to consolidate
community support of the present State University, and facili-
Page 5
tate the careers of the graduates. On the other hand, it was
argued that the move might be seen by the academic community,
and by the community at large, as an attempt to curry the
favor of a particular group at the expense of the University's
reputation for granting earned degrees to those who earned
them and honorary degrees for distinguished public service.
The J. D. proposal falls in neither category, and some members
of the coramittee feared that the move might be seen as a
blatant and disreputablemanipuI~tionof academic prcprieties.
While there is ample precedent for granting J. D.'s to
LI. B. holders of existing law schools, there is no precedent
for granting J. D.'s to LI. B. holders of discontinued law
schools. If YSU is to create the precedent, presumably on
the grounds of visible justice to its Law School alumni, its
decision must inevitably be colored by a consideration of the
expediencies involved.
In this area, only the University's officers concerned
with its public relations are corapetent to jUdge.
Respectfully submitted,
David M. Behen
Chairman