That's a damn shame. A bigger, badder law school would be great for Indy.

But a note on the "diagrams of the architectural designs." Those are _extremely_ preliminary drawings. When a firm is asked to suggest a general scheme for expansion. All that drawing indicates is a possible arrangement for new buildings and additions plus a pair of notes on how the expanded/improved quad would connect to existing campus facilities.

At my office, we're often asked to produce drawings like that before a client is even sure he/she wants to pursue a project. It's more of a talking point.

Sorry, I mean to say this first.

Good work, Josh. Congratulations.

Patrick, that is a good point about the drawings, though I was looking at them in the perspective of the entire proposal. I would not call the whole proposal preliminary, because funding had already been procurred, location had been chosen, and a use for the space already decided. This was at least enough to warrant discussion and review by decision-makers, and as ILN uncovered, that decision-maker was Terry Clapacs, even though he denied it.

In the other scandals where blogs ran with the story and MSM finally caught up to it, there are bridge-builders in the MSM that are blog-savvy. Howard Kurtz is one of those go-to guys for political stories; if something is getting buzz in the higher-eschelon blogs, WaPo readers will hear about it through Kurtz.

However, a relatively lower-grade scandal in Indiana might not show up on Kurtz's radar; you'll need a Hoosier Howie to break this story. Maybe you can go back and talk to the reporters who wrote on you guys in the Indy Star and get them interested.

Well I have numerous Indiana MSM contacts, in the Indy Star and elsewhere. I've talked with them about it, and those conversations spawned this post.

I think part of the reason this doesn't seem like a big deal to the average person is that it's a decision to NOT spend money ... it's hard to think "government wrongdoing" and "not spending money" at the same time.

Also it's a decision that primarily impacts school rank and reputation. Who cares about school rank and reputation other than the people connected to the schools? Not many people, I don't think.

This is a huge deal for anyone going to IU-Indy's law school. They know what the harm is. It's a smaller deal to anyone going to other law schools in Indiana, especially IU-B, who recognize the possible implications indirectly. But the reasons it matters aren't going to be easy to explain to people not associated with the law school/legal community.

I'm not arguing that what you've learned isn't important. It is. I just don't know that it's an MSM story. I bet more specialized publications would be very interested.

The MSM has a bias towards and in behalf of so-called education primarily because, for the most part, so little of it exists in schools of education or journalism. There is no fun in catching IU administrators lying their heads off and, it isn't even newsworthy because they are doing it all of the time. One need only scroll back to the Hoosier Review of last year and check out the Law School's serial lies about affirmative action revealed, not by MSM (who are also biased in favor of AA) but by bloggers.

I am very proud of you Josh. Good work!