The Growing Need for Private Support

The University of Maryland School of Law is the nation's second–oldest public law school. For decades and decades, tuition was affordable for virtually all Maryland residents who were admitted, and state support met most of the law school's operating needs.

Today, the amount and sources of revenue needed for the School of Law to remain competitive are drastically different from years past. Compared to 45 years ago, the School of Law has 2.5 times the number of students, four times the number of faculty, and a clinic that provides over 110,000 hours of free legal services to the Baltimore community. Tuition and private funds have replaced state support as the primary revenues source. Tuition has continued to climb to meet these needs. This year, tuition is $20,535 for an in–state student and $31,814 for the out–of–state students who make up half of our student body. Increasing tuition threatens to make law school unaffordable for many highly qualified students, and is forcing some recent graduates to forego public service careers in favor of employment that will enable them to repay their significant loan debt.

The School of Law must grow its endowment and annual fund with the support of graduates and friends. Today, its endowment trails those of most of the schools with whom it competes for students and faculty. Past alumni support for the School of Law has been transformative. When the law school undertook is last capital campaign, it did not place among the nation's top 50 schools in the U.S. News rankings. Following the successful completion of that $10 million effort five years ago, Maryland has climbed 16 places and is now one of the top 15 public law schools nationwide.