Law School News

• Citation: Vol. 38 No. 1 Pg. 54
• Publication year: 2015
• Pages: 54
• Year: 2015
• topic: Business of Law

Law School News Vol. 38 No. 1 Pg. 54 Wyoming Bar Journal February, 2015

Jacquelyn L. Bridgeman, J.

Interim Dean and Kepler Professor of Law University of Wyoming College of Law

Scholarships: Funding the Future of UW College of Law

In December of 2014, the University of Wyoming College of Law, in conjunction with our Dean's Advisory Board and the University of Wyoming Foundation, launched our "Fund for the Future" campaign. The goal of this campaign is to increase the year-to-year scholarship money available to students by a minimum of $200,000 each year. The reason we have chosen to focus our efforts in this way is simple. In order to remain competitive in recruiting, enrolling and retaining quality students to our College, we have to offer significant amounts of scholarship money. Our relatively low tuition rates, by themselves, are no longer enough.

Between 2011 and 2014, 126 ranked law schools had enrollment declines.^[1] Of that 126, 98 had double-digit matriculant percentage drops. During that time period, only 18 ranked schools increased their matriculant numbers and two remained even. The University of Wyoming College of Law was one of the 18 schools that increased enrollment. In fact, UW College of Law had the largest percentage increase of any school in the nation going from 69 matriculants in the 2011/2012 incoming class, to 85 for the fall 2014 entering first years.^[2]

Why, thus far, has UW College of Law been able to weather the tumultuous storm that is legal education much better than most schools? First, UW College of Law began the current period of legal education enrollment decline in a much better position than most schools. Although our tuition had increased over the years, it did not increase as much as most other schools nationwide. Additionally, when our application numbers were up significantly, we did not increase our class size. Thus, when applications dropped precipitously it was easier for us to maintain our class size and quality. Second, and most importantly, the faculty and administration of the College of Law saw this storm coming and planned for and made adjustments to proactively deal with it. We increased the quality and type of programs we offered our students, adding additional clinic and experiential learning opportunities and shoring up our traditional strengths in areas such as legal writing, natural resources, and rural law. We began to actively market and recruit students in ways we never had...