A nonprofit law school in Downtown San Francisco faces an existential vote on Wednesday, as students and faculty join forces to keep the 122-year-old institution alive, the San Francisco Standard reported. Founded in 1901, Golden Gate University has struggled to stay afloat in recent years, but the surrounding neighborhood’s deteriorating economic condition has taken its toll. A January 2022 plan to stay afloat by selling property sputtered out with the “precipitous devaluation” of Downtown commercial real estate, the university said in a letter to the law school community last Friday. The administration acknowledged that a proposal regarding the law school’s long-term future exists. However, the university neither confirmed nor denied that outright closure or giving up its accreditation with the American Bar Association were on the table. Students, faculty and alumni, however, were told that the Board of Trustees would either close the law school altogether or relinquish its accreditation, according to a letter circulating to save the school. Golden Gate Law currently has about 200 students, according to Student Bar Association president Mohammed Jamal, and needs some $50 million over five years to avoid bankruptcy.
