May 9, 2002
Law school tuition goal controversial, supported by market
The tuition debate at the UW isn’t about whether or not the cost of an education should go up. It’s about how high and how soon. Nowhere is that debate more prevalent than in the School of Law.
It’s virtually a foregone conclusion that the Board of Regents will approve some sort of tuition increase for the 2002–03 academic year when it meets on Friday, May 17. But law school tuition remains one of the most contested parts of that increase.
That’s because one widely discussed prospect had Washington residents paying as much as 99 percent more for their law education starting next fall. The latest proposal implements the increase in two steps, going to $9,700 in the fall of 2002 and to $13,000 in 2003.
Perhaps most surprising — there isn’t necessarily broad-based opposition to raising resident law tuition so dramatically, even among students.
“There’s a lot of people who would agree that $13,000 or even $14,000, $15,000, $16,000, is probably still a reasonable level for a law education, still a good value to people, still a discounted value relative to other options,” Vice Provost for Planning and Budgeting Harlan Patterson said. “There is, however, a lot of difference of opinion about how quickly you get there.”
Some, including Dean Joe Knight, would recommend raising tuition sooner rather than later. Knight’s argument is that a law school education at the UW is among the best available and that the current tuition rate is well below market value, which has contributed to the current financial crisis on campus generally and within the law school in particular.
“Where we are as a university in general and a law school in particular, we don’t have enough funds to maintain the excellence we’ve historically been able to provide,” Knight said.
And according to one student leader, many in the law school would agree that the education they receive is top notch and probably worth a lot more than the $6,500 a year they are currently paying. As a second-year law student and a member of the University’s Board of Regents, Amit Ranade has a unique perspective on the debate. He can appreciate the predicament facing both students and administrators.
“There’s no question it’s a bargain,” Ranade said. “Frankly, I chose to come here because it’s such a bargain and I know that many of my classmates are in the same boat.
“I know my legal education here is worth a lot more than $6,500. I’m willing to pay more. Am I willing to pay $13,000 for this education? When we raise the price, we should increase quality accordingly. This is a great school, but it can be among the best. We’re not there yet, so our price should reflect incremental increases in quality.”
Around the country, however, many are paying more than UW law students and arguably they’re paying more for a lesser education. The UW school is consistently ranked among the top 20 to 25 programs nationally. A new state of the art facility is on the way and an ambitious new dean is looking to turn a very good program into one of the nation’s elite.
Yet an entire three years of law education at the UW costs less than just one year at the state’s other two law schools. Gonzaga University and Seattle University both charge their law students more than $20,000 a year for tuition and aren’t considered among the nation’s top-tier schools. That’s indicative, Knight says, of the fact that providing a law education is an increasingly expensive endeavor.
“We came to the conclusion that going to $13,000 is not an outrageous amount,” he said. “It would, for one thing — vis-a-vis other schools in Washington or other schools in the Pacific Northwest — still make us substantially more affordable.”
In fact, the UW is a bargain when comparing resident tuition at a number of peer institutions. The state’s Higher Education Coordinating (HEC) Board designates 23 peer institutions for the purpose of comparison. Eighteen of those have law schools and 14 of those charge more than the UW bills its resident law students. The University of Utah — ranked 45th in the latest U.S.News & World Report rankings — charges its residents at virtually the same rate as the UW — ranked 25th.
And many of those peers don’t offer the quality of law education the UW does, according to Patterson.
“To find another law school of this quality, people would probably have to leave the state and pay in the neighborhood of $20,000 a year or more,” he said. “So $13,000 would still be a significant discount.”
For example, the University of California, Berkeley, charges resident law students more than $11,000 a year but nonresidents pay more than $22,000. The University of Illinois charges almost $11,000 for resident tuition and more than $22,000 for nonresidents.
But students argue that such an increase should be implemented over time, to be fair to those who had planned on a much lower tuition bill. And, they argue, the increases should be accompanied by specific improvements.
“I feel like (a 99 percent increase is) a pretty shocking response to the budget crisis in terms of putting the burden on the backs of the people who are least able to afford it,” said Ishbel Dickens, a third-year law student and president of the Student Bar Association. “Thirteen thousand is probably a reasonable goal over the course of three to five years when you’re in a new building and you have some resources that we currently don’t have.”
For example, Ranade says the school needs to improve the performance of its career placement office and give students more publishing opportunities if it’s going to ramp tuition up so significantly.
“I think the critical question is what are we getting for what we’re paying? I believe you get what you pay for and if we’re going to pay more we need to get more. That’s not just the law school — when I say that, I mean the whole University.”
The rising cost of tuition
The potential broad tuition increase that regents will likely approve on Friday, May 17, is the result of several factors. Some of those are:
- The Legislature gave the UW’s governing board some additional freedom to set tuition rates. For the 2002-03 academic year, Regents have no limits when it comes to nonresident, graduate and professional tuition rates. Resident undergraduate tuition can be increased up to 16 percent.
- There are several pressing needs on campus that will require increased investment at some point. Officials have outlined almost $50 million in immediate investments that need to be made simply to begin to protect the UW’s reputation as one of the nation’s premier research institutions. Even with the tuition increase and an expected 2 percent to 3 percent cut in other spending, the UW won’t be able to make all of those investments.
- A state budget crunch led to a $26 million cut in funding for the University during the recently completed legislative session in Olympia.
- Given the current situation on campus, perhaps the most important factor in a tuition debate is the relative value of a UW education. Tuition rates on campus, especially in professional schools like law, can go up significantly and still be inexpensive in comparison with UW competitors.
