BOSTON (AP) - Southern New England School of Law is renewing efforts to create a University of Massachusetts law school.

The private law school in Dartmouth has offered to donate its campus to create the state's first public law school.

In 2005, UMass trustees approved merging Southern New England with UMass-Dartmouth, but the state Board of Higher Education voted against the proposal.

The plan called for the state to assume $2.5 million in debt. It was bitterly opposed by potential rivals such as Suffolk University Law School.

Southern New England Board Chairman Mardee Xifaris said in an Oct. 5 letter to UMass President Jack Wilson that the school wants to help the university carry on its mission to create affordable education.

Wilson says the university will study the financial ramifications.