Florida Board of Regents Selects Orlando for New FAMU Law School Site

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
The Florida Board of Regents selected Orlando as the site for Florida A&M University's new College of Law last month, endorsing the recommendation of FAMU president, Dr. Frederick S. Humphries, and chancellor, Dr. Adam Herbert, to locate the college there.
"I believe that no other institution in this state can do a better job of increasing the number of qualified African American lawyers than FAMU," Humphries says. "Our intent is not to compete with other law schools statewide, but to carry out the college's mission."
According to Louis Murray, associate vice president for administrative and fiscal affairs and chairman of the FAMU Site Selection Committee, the university's next step is to seek Board of Regents approval for the architectural program. Murray also says it will take about a year to complete the program design and another year to construct the building. Until the new building is completed, the FAMU College of Law will be housed at a temporary facility in Orlando. The planned completion date for the permanent facility is October 2004.
Humphries said FAMU will work toward enrolling its first class by 2002, concentrating on fund-raising and recruiting faculty, students and staff for the college that is expected to enroll 125 full-time and 75 part-time students the first year. At full capacity, the school is expected to have a staff of 132, including 32 full-time faculty members and 640 students.
Blacks now make up just 2 percent of Florida's 64,000 attorneys, but 15 percent of the population.
FAMU's law school was taken away in 1968 when mostly White Florida State University was granted a law school that was built about a mile from the A&M campus in Tallahassee. After years of pushing for getting the law school restored, Florida lawmakers agreed this year.
But they say it should be outside Tallahassee, someplace where it could better benefit an underserved minority population.