University Of Idaho Wants To Expand Boise School

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — If lawmakers can get past jokes about too many lawyers in Boise, the University of Idaho stands a good chance of doubling its programs in the state's capital.

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter is behind a $400,000 measure to add a second-year offering for law students, to the third-year program now in Boise.

That's a far cry from 2008, when the Moscow-based school was rebuffed on more-ambitious plans to establish a full-fledged Boise branch law campus.

There's no longer bubbling suspicion, including among Moscow-based lawmakers eager to protect home turf, that the UI has machinations to uproot its law school from its relatively remote home on the Palouse.

Another thing: There's sympathy for the school's aim to keep pace with Oregon-based Concordia University's private law school, started in Boise last year.