ARGOSY EXPANDS ITS REACH, BUYING WESTERN STATE U. COLLEGE OF LAW
Argosy Education Group has announced its agreement to purchase Western State University College of Law, as the country's largest commercial provider of graduate education continues its push to build itself into a national university.
Argosy's businesses now include the University of Sarasota, 10 psychology graduate schools, a medical-technology college in Minnesota, and three information-technology colleges in Canada. It also has an option to buy Atlanta's John Marshall Law School, which it is now managing.
Western State University College of Law, in Fullerton, Calif., was founded in 1966. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and was provisionally approved in 1998 by the American Bar Association.
Officials at the law college said that aligning itself with Argosy would help the independent institution develop. "Western State has been one of the few law schools in the nation without any affiliation with a major university," said Maryann Jones, its dean. "The change in ownership will offer an increase in resources and support by a central university administration."
Argosy has upset some students and professors at the University of Sarasota with its plans to put the Argosy name on that institution and some of the others it owns. But in the wake of Argosy's announcement on Thursday, professors at Western State have expressed no such concerns about losing the institution's independence, said Marcia Wilbur, a professor and former dean of the law college.
"The views are all very positive," said Ms. Wilbur. "People think it will allow for the continued growth of the institution."