LOUISVILLE-BRANDEIS LAW CHOSE . . . POORLY: Activism Over Education? Law School Embraced Drag Shows And Social Justice Amid Rankings Free Fall.
Students at the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law were shocked in February to learn their school was hosting a “Drag Story Hour,” in which one of their professors dressed as a woman and told a story about a gay rabbit with a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
The event was part of the university’s “Drag Me to Class” fundraiser to raise money for students to attend the LGBT-focused Lavender Law Conference in the nation’s capital. But while the school leaned into drag, students were fuming over projections that the law school could be taking a massive dive in the US News & World Report’s upcoming law school rankings.
Those fears were confirmed on April 9, when the rankings saw Brandeis drop from 99 to 136 in the rankings. The 37 spot drop was the largest of any school on the list, and has left both faculty and students pointing fingers. School administrators blamed the drop in rankings on leadership changes, a lagging job market due to the COVID pandemic, and a new methodological ranking system by US News & World Report.
Current students aren’t buying it, and told The Daily Wire that the drop came as they witnessed the school pivot towards activism, and away from academics. The school’s total first-time bar passage rates have been in a free fall since 2020, when the rate sat at 89%, to just 75% last year. And the pass rate was just 65% in 2022, according to the most recent data available on the school’s website.
Instapundit has been covering Louisville’s decline since 2016 and before.
Flashback: “Apparently the University of Louisville law school has decided to meet declining enrollments and dwindling funds not by upping their game, but by ‘branding’ itself as a ‘progressive’ institution committed to ‘social justice.'” Plus: “Ultimately, of course, this is why U of L’s branding effort will fail miserably.” Called it!