Law Students at WSCL Face Crisis

Law Students at WSCL Facing Financial Crises - Withholding of Federal Financial Aid


Hundreds of students at the Western State College of Law in Irvine, CA are facing an unprecedented financial crisis. On top of keeping up with our studies, attending classes, preparing for the bar exam, and engaging in our extracurricular activities — including but not limited to law review, moot court, mock trial and providing pro bono representation to indigent and unrepresented minorities — Argosy, the company that owns our law school, was placed under a court ordered receivership due to unresolved creditor disputes on January 14, 2019.

As a result, most of the students who were relying on federal loans to pay for their living expenses during law school have not received their promised stipends. Without any warning students’ lives have been turned upside down by Argosy’s sudden collapse and Western’s potential shutdown. Some of us have received eviction notices, some of us are moving out of our apartments mid-semester, some can’t buy food, and all of us are unreasonably being punished for something we did not do and were not warned about. The school’s hands are tied and the Department of Education refuses to help us.

 
So now, we turn to you, our community. Western’s Student Bar Association (SBA) has created an Emergency Student Committee to help come up with solutions to help students in financial duress. The SBA will quickly distribute whatever funds are donated here directly to students in need (beginning with those who are in the direst situations i.e. facing eviction). Students at Western will have the opportunity to petition for aid and receive your donations directly through the SBA. We appreciate your help and look forward to continuing to be an integral part of the Orange County community.