No less than THREE D/L Bar qualifying J.D. programs have recently appeared on CalBar's site: University of Honolulu (flash from the past?) St. Francis eUniversity (Carmel-by-the-Sea), and Esquire College (Ain't that CUTE?) Will they be here TOMORROW?
Good catch! By golly! BAU has indeed disappeared, leaving not a ripple on the surface of the sea of legal education.
St. Francis eUniversity is a time-worn geezer. It's been around since at least June, when somebody called Nosborne started a thread about it: http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20053&highlight=carmel More than in Las Cruces, I bet. (We had a little rain about a week ago when some clouds chugged by. That's the last I recall.) But as for new colleges sprouting, yeah, they do that. The barriers to entry aren't terribly high. You can start a college in an office suite if you have a few friends that want to teach something. It makes periodic snooping around the BPPVE list interesting, because there's usually something new to look at.
Less ephemeral efforts There are two unaccredited B&M law schools in California that I am tracking with considerable interest. Both are new efforts and designed to serve areas and/or populations that are presently underserved. They are: Desert Law School in Palm Springs, being the only law school in the Coachella Valley, and East Bay Law School, being the only law school in Oakland. Both efforts seem designed to attain CalBar accreditation and both seem to have the support of the local Bench and Bar.
BAU/Laurel On June 27, 2005, I received a letter from British-American U, along with a copy of a "Notice of Termination of Approval" from the BPPVE. The reason for the termination was failure to file a timely application for a change in ownership. BAU was owned by Roger Agajanian (Dean) and Jean Laudadio (Chancellor). They were once married, and are now divorced. According to Agajanian, ""I did not think that I had to provide notification since it was within the family so to speak and did not involve any outside parties." The BAU web site is still live: http://www.british-american.edu/ Jean Laudadio, along with the key staff from BAU, now operate Laurel University. http://www.laureluniversity.com/ Like BAU, their offerings include law and business degree programs. According to the Laurel site, "Upon graduation and subject to fulfillment of the requirements of the California Committee of Bar Examiners, a Laurel University School of Law Juris Doctor graduate is eligible to take the California Bar Examination. " A correspondent on the Laurel faculty stated that many former BAU students have transferred to Laurel.