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While expanding into new facilities this year, the Duquesne University law school plans to reduce enrollment and add additional faculty.

"It's part of our attempt to enhance the quality of the school and the education there," said President Charles Dougherty. "The basic method for doing that is to change the student-faculty ratio. You want to add more faculty and reduce the number of students to allow for smaller classes and more interaction with the faculty."

The law school plans to tighten enrollment standards and to reduce the number of law students from 640 this year to 600 next year, law school Dean Nick Cafardi said Tuesday.

At the same time, the school has added two people to the 24-member faculty staff, he said. The expansion left the school with room to grow since there's enough space for 30 faculty offices, Cafardi said.

Cafardi said Duquesne isn't the only law school in the nation tightening its standards. Across the country, law schools and universities are becoming more selective to cope with a surge in college-age students seeking advanced education. The slowing economy has contributed to the trend, too, he pointed out. With the job market tightening, more people are turning to law school to bolster their chances for employment, he said.

Over at the University of Pittsburgh law school, admissions ballooned to 272 this year, up from about 250 the year before as the slowing economy prompted a surge in applicants, said Fredi Miller, the assistant dean for admissions and financial aid. The last time the school saw such a growth in enrollment occurred in 1992, the last time the economy soured.

"We have been much more selective this year than we have in past years," she said. "This is the most highly qualified class that has been through the law school in some time."

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Cafardi said that in the past, Duquesne accepted applicants with a grade point average as low as 3.1 who ranked in the top 55 percent of scores from the Law School Admissions Test.

The school plans to tighten standards so that its students are averaging a 3.2 or 3.3 grade point average and rank in the top half of scores from the LSAT.

The number of those seeking law degrees in the nation decreased from 40,302 in 1993 to about 38,152 in 2000, said Vance Grant, the specialist in education statistics for the U.S. Department of Education. Grant said statistics are not yet available for more recent years.

Currently, applications to law schools accredited by the American Bar Association have hit 86,164, an increase of 18 percent over the number of applicants at this time last year, according to Edward Haggerty, spokesman with the Law School Admission Council, based in Newtown. The council produces the LSAT.

Duquesne's $12 million law school expansion added three new classrooms, two new courtrooms and a new computer lab. The school also has added a new lounge and a new cafeteria while expanding study area and renovating the library. In all, 32,000 square feet of space was added.

The expansion will be dedicated as the Murray Pavilion on June 2 in honor of John E. Murray Jr., the past university president and current university chancellor and professor of law.

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