The first-ever in-state law school for Alaska is slated to open in March of 2015, according to multiple reports on the internet. But, the internet is not always honest. The proposed school violates state statute, the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education said, according to Alaska Dispatch News.
The commission said that the unapproved law school does not have authorization to operate in the state. The commission is required to issue approval prior to a postsecondary education provider advertising or enrolling students.
The commission then asked the Office of the Attorney General to write a cease and desist letter for the school, according to Joann Rieselbach, the school relations manager for the commission.
This is the second time this year that the commission has communicated with the unapproved school. A website was investigated in January with the same domain name. Calls were made to the school, but never returned. That website disappeared. Then, the website thealaskalawschool.com appeared online in May.
On the website, Daun DeVore is named as the founder and dean of the Alaska Law School.
Marygold Melli is a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin Law School. The website for the Alaska Law School says that she is on the schools Board of Overseers. When asked about her position in the unapproved Alaska Law School, she said, “That’s news to me.”
“I have nothing to do with an Alaskan law school,” she said. “I don’t know anything about it. That’s the most accurate thing I could say.”
The website also said that the editor in chief of the Alaska Law Journal is Richard Field.
“It isn’t a scam,” Field said about the school. “A woman named Daun DeVore has been working for some time trying to figure out how to set up a school. I haven’t been in touch with her for a little while, but I had in the past. I was helping where I could.”
“It’s a big undertaking, but she’s trying to make a difference, a positive difference,” Field said. “It seems to me it’s sort of a superhuman job to start a university almost single-handed, but she’s a very bright woman.”