In 1997, Carlisle's Dickinson School of Law merged with Penn State.

In 2003, a memo discussing the possibility of the Carlisle campus being shut down and replaced with a law school at University Park sparked an uproar in the Carlisle community.

And in 2006, months of negotiations, legal suits and bantering were practically forgotten at last Friday's Board of Trustees meeting.

Between 60 and 80 students are expected to comprise the inaugural law school class at University Park, but they won't have their own building; not just yet, anyway.

Instead, they'll be sharing the new, $68 million Beam Business Administration Building until they have their own $60 million building on campus.

Not a bad deal, right? Especially when there are still thousands of Penn State undergraduate students who have classes in the Willard and Sackett buildings.

But instead of having professors who are available to offer their expertise and direction in person, students will be able to participate in class discussions and lectures ... by way of videoconferencing.

University spokesman Tysen Kendig said videoconferencing has always been an aspect of the dual-campus plan.

How 21st century.

Pay a fortune to go to school to get an education that's the equivalent of CDs you could order online for five easy payments of $19.95.

Dwindling applications and a Big Ten university pursuing an accredited law program can only be a natural fit for an institution seeking to boost its law school's pedigree as well as the number of law school applicants.

Which, one may suppose, they have done successfully. At the board meeting, law school dean Philip McConnaughay said the number of applicants increased by 31 percent.

The fruits of Penn State's patience and labor have paid off.

Despite the fact that the Carlisle community and Dickinson faculty members balked against moving to University Park and perhaps eventually closing the Carlisle campus, Penn State steamrolled ahead with visions of hundreds of multi-millionaire law school alumni donating money dancing in its head.

Faculty and staff who opposed the move said the location in Carlisle benefits students because of its proximity to Harrisburg and long local history, and the community because of the boost it gives to the local economy.

But there were also those who maintained that allowing students the option of studying law at Penn State would complement their education as well as enhance it, given the resources available at University Park.

Aware of what the Penn State "brand" means to students and potential applicants, i.e. consumers, mediocrity is simply unacceptable.

The powers that be want a degree to mean something special when its consumers graduate, and gosh darn it if videoconferencing and scraping by within a hair's breadth of American Bar Association regulations is what needs to be done, then gosh darn it, it will be done.

When it comes down to it, Penn State wants its law school, currently ranked 90th in the country by U.S. News & World Report, to compete with schools such as the University of Michigan School of Law, currently ranked eighth.

It sure is a shame that the scope and aim of the university's mission is not providing a better a education, but rather, merely turning a profit and staying competitive with other Big Ten businesses.