Raggio calls for law school now

CARSON CITY -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio said a law school at UNLV should be approved this session even though it would be housed temporarily in an abandoned elementary school.

Raggio, R-Reno, said it is a "long process" for a law school to get accreditation from the American Bar Association and that should begin as soon as possible.

"(The school) should be approved as soon as we can, even if it is in temporary facilities," said Raggio, who cited a long accreditation process when he was on the board of directors of the Old College Law School in Reno.

His comments came Wednesday during a meeting of a Senate-Assembly budget committee reviewing the proposed building program for the University and Community College System of Nevada.

Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, said he backed a law school but questioned the rush to open it.

"We've survived for 100 years without a law school. Why can't we wait 2 1/2 years to three years for a permanent building?" Goldwater asked.

He wondered if the national accreditation would be affected by having the law school initially located in temporary quarters.

UNLV President Carol Harter said backers of the project feel "the time has arrived" and donations have been made. She said she did not know whether the contributors would be willing to wait another two years.

The law school, approval of which seems assured by the Legislature, would open in the Paradise Elementary School, which is to be vacated a year from June. The school is located across Tropicana Avenue, south of the UNLV campus. The law students would be in the school for about two years until a 96,000-square-foot section of the Dickinson Library on campus can be converted into a law school.

Harter said about $500,000 is needed for planning for the conversion of Dickinson Library.

UNLV is planning a new, $48 million library to replace the Dickinson Library. The new 300,000-square-foot Lied Library will be high-tech, including a robotic retrieval system, Harter said.

One part of the library will have high stacks of books that are not requested often. A student will use a computer to type in the name of the book requested and a robotic arm will pull it down from the stacks standing 35-40 feet.

Harter said the book will be retrieved in less than 10 minutes. The system will save 100,000 square feet of space because it will allow the books to be stacked higher than the ones requested more often.

UNLV has already received $15 million in contributions for the new five-story library, which will rival the Thomas & Mack Center in size. Harter called it the "most important project ever built" at UNLV because it will make the school a first-class research and educational center.

It will be able to house 1.8 million volumes compared with the current 800,000 and have 2,500 reader stations.

Harter said the other part of the Dickinson Library, an 83,000-square-foot round building, will be converted into administrative or faculty use.

State Public Works Board Manager Eric Raecke said the contract for construction of the Lied Library could be let in September and it will take 22 months until it is completed, expected in July 1999.

The 1999 Legislature will be asked to finance the furnishings and equipment.

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