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COUNTRY'S FIRST COLLEGE DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY GAINS STATE APPROVAL

Based on Novel "Completion College" Concept, NH School Will Officially Open Doors in August 2010

SALEM, NH, July 21, 2009 - The nation's first college dedicated exclusively to
the study of history, including important aspects of American legal history, has gained
approval from the state of New Hampshire to open its doors in August 2010, becoming
the first ever history-only school. The New Hampshire Post-Secondary Education
Commission, which oversees advanced education in the Granite State, approved the
Massachusetts School of Law (MSL) application last month.

Located in Salem, New Hampshire, The American College of History and Legal
Studies (www.achls.org) has been created by the Massachusetts School of Law at
Andover (MSL) and recently gained approval from the New Hampshire Post Secondary
Education Commission. ACHLS will also be a novel "completion" college, offering only
the junior and senior years of college. After their junior year, students who do well at
ACHLS will be able to enter law school at MSL and receive their B.A. after the first year
of law school, rather than after a fourth year of undergraduate school.
This new senior college is "a revolutionary development in American higher
education," said Lawrence Velvel, MSL dean and cofounder, and a recognized leader in
law school education reform. "ACHLS' curriculum will focus exclusively on general
American history and legal history, with attention to U.S. history in the context of world
history and the history of constitutional and regulatory law."

Velvel said professors would teach by the discussion method, rather than the
lecture method; class size will be held to 20 students or fewer; and that focusing
exclusively on history will enable ACHLS to hold tuition down to $10,000 a year,
"inexpensive by today's standards."

The new college "will stress rigor of thinking and analysis, fluent speaking and
good writing," Velvel said, "with students being required to write many short-to mediumsized,
heavily critiqued papers in every class on topics raised by the material discussed in
the classroom."

"ACHLS' faculty will be comprised of educators who have a broad interest in all
of American history rather than an intellectual focus on limited portions of it," Velvel
said. "What's more, their primary interest will lie in teaching and working with students
rather than in doing research and writing on narrow slices of our national past."
Velvel explained one of the primary reasons for founding ACHLS.

"The public and our leaders are too often ignorant of history," he said. "We
believe a greater knowledge of the subject can enable this country to avoid repetition of
past mistakes and have a more successful future. Further, as a high percentage of elected
officials, judges, and corporate executives are lawyers, it is imperative to begin the
process of trying to ensure that American leaders, especially its lawyers, have the
historical knowledge needed to make intelligent decisions in the national interest."
Students who wish to do so can concentrate their work in any of four areas, (1)
the history of civil rights in the United States; (2) urban history; (3) the history of
American foreign affairs; and (4) the lessons taught by history. Courses offered will
include "The History of Women's Rights"; "Race in American Law"; "American History
in the Context of World History"; "The History of American Constitutional Law"; "The
History of Economic Regulation in the United States"; "The History of the Growth of
Cities in the United States"; "The History of Immigrants in the Northeast"; "The History
of American Foreign Relations;" "The History of the Clash Between Ideals and
Practicality in the United States."