Law School Funding Cuts Hit Hard

01/27/09

Administrators at the law school looked at reducing spending by cutting back on library acquisitions, utilizing electronic publications instead of hard copies, leaving staff positions vacant and decreasing faculty travel expenditures. According to Epps, the Temple University students have not been affected by the cuts academically, however, she is concerned that there will be more cuts in the future. She acknowledges that "over time, the continued loss of support staff and counselors will be felt deeply."


Temple is not the only law school experiencing budget cuts, a number of states are facing declining revenues and considering cuts where necessary. Private law schools are also feeling the economic crunch as they rely heavily on income from endowments. The dire economic climate has affected endowments hard, including Harvard University reporting a 22% decline since the summer and Yale University's reporting a decrease of 25% during that time.

Dean Saul Levmore of the University of Chicago Law School acknowledges that "funding for endowments can vary, but generally makes up a quarter to a half of the operating budget at private schools. Considering that many endowments have lost between 20% and 40% of their value, schools will likely need to make cuts." Levmore points out that the aftershock of the shrinking endowments won't be felt for many years; law schools will see "budget cuts in the short term but long-term reductions could reach about 17% for very endowment-dependent schools if the economy does not recover quickly."

Although Levmore won't discuss the recent losses to endowments at the University of Chicago, he expects that he will have to trim 5% from the law school budget for the coming academic year. He expects to reduce expenditures by leaving positions vacant for a short time and finding efficiencies wherever possible. He predicts that there will be significant reductions in visiting faculty at schools as law schools try to trim their budgets.

Levmore admits that visiting faculty is easy to cut because these individuals are not on the payroll permanently and schools may be more selective about hiring.

According to Dean John Valery White, The William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has seen their fair share of funding cuts by experiencing a total 9% cut through two cuts since December 2007. White acknowledges that, "you have to cut a little bit of everything in order to get up to a pretty big number," The law school has left some staffing positions empty, cancelled some staff training and faculty travel, decreased its library staff, reduced the number of course sections and switched to more electronic publications to reduce library costs."

In order to make ends meet, the law school is using money from donations to cover part of the operational costs, including staff salaries, which usually is used for capital projects and student travel.

Florida will also feel the effects of funding cuts if the current proposal to cut $150 million from the state's funding is pushed through in an effort to offset the state's $2.3 billion deficit. Florida State University College of Law has already reduced its staff hiring and reduced its full-time and part-time staff, increased class sizes and cut back on recruiting events. The law school is looking at increasing tuition by 15% to reduce the impact of the funding cuts.

Many law schools are left in the dark as to their financial futures until their upcoming budgets are completed in late spring or early summer. Some have already considered the ramifications of any financial shortfalls such as the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco who has requested that departments reduce their budgets by 5%, reduce hiring and cancel the cost-of-living salary increases for faculty and staff. Likewise, the University of North Carolina School of Law is anticipating a 3%-7% funding cut and has been asked to draw up three different budgets for the coming year to reflect these cuts. In addition, the school is already cutting costs on expenses for meetings, faculty travel, printing, supplies and furniture purchases. The school is not expecting the need to cut faculty or staff.

The issue of budget cuts leading to a decrease in financial options available for law students remains unanswered and will deeply affect the private schools who utilize lucrative financial aid packages to attract students. According to Levmore, financial aid is the fastest growing expense for law schools, and a reduction at one school could set off something of a chain reaction among peer institutions. The University of Chicago Law School has not made any determination about its financial aid awards for the next year."