The news that Texas A&M University plans to spend millions to buy Texas Wesleyan School of Law caught many law students and professors by surprise and left law Dean Frederic White eager to learn how his faculty members’ lives may change as A&M employees.
On June 26, both universities, as well as The Texas A&M University System, announced they signed a letter of intent for Texas A&M to pay $20 million at closing, and another $5 million within five years, to assume ownership and operations of Texas Wesleyan’s law school in Fort Worth. Texas Wesleyan would remain the owner of the land and facilities and would offer a 40-year lease to rent them to A&M for $2.5 million per year. The deal, if approved by three accrediting bodies, would transform the Texas Wesleyan law school from a private to a public law school to open in June 2013.
