The cost of attending law school at the University of Arizona may nearly double next year, and under a proposal at the state Legislature, the school would not get a penny of it.
Arizona State University's Law College prices are also expected to rise dramatically, with it also receiving no benefit from the increase.
Recommendations from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, under the direction of Republican legislators, would remove $565,000 in funding from both law schools to counter the additional money the law schools could receive from a tuition increase.
Officials at both schools bristle at the possible loss of more state money.
"The tuition amounts are designed to absorb the cuts already suffered," said Patricia White, dean of ASU's Law School.
At the UA James E. Rogers College of Law, Dean Toni Massaro said she and her staff have cut about $800,000 from what was an $11 million annual budget.
"If they cut us once more, it's game over," Massaro said. "I would have no capacity to find that money, not if the strategy of the Legislature is to cut whatever we increase tuition to be."
Raises for faculty have been frozen at both law schools, and there have been few funds to keep professors courted by other law schools, let alone do any hiring, she said.
One UA law professor was offered $30,000 more a year by the William and Mary College of Law in Virginia, although the professor stayed in Arizona. Other universities offer salaries that Arizona law schools cannot match, Massaro said.
"Even if we keep them, they end up working for far less than they're worth," White said. "It's really very difficult."
At UA, the proposed cut could conceivably cost the law school far more than the half-million dollars proposed. In 1998, James Rogers, a Las Vegas television executive and alumnus of the law school, donated $100 million to be used to advance the institution. However, a caveat was added that if the Legislature ever singled the school out for cuts greater than those for the rest of the university, his donation, most of which is to be given after his death, would be reneged.
The university has an agreement with Rogers that his donation not supplant state funding, UA President Peter Likins said.
However, even if the legislative cuts are approved, Likins said the universities receive a lump sum from the state to distribute as they see fit. To prevent losing Rogers' donation, Likins would make sure the law school cut was spread evenly across UA.
For years Arizona's universities have been among the cheapest public institutions in the nation. According to documents from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, only eight of the nation's 76 public law schools are cheaper than UA and ASU.
The Arizona Board of Regents has called on the state universities to increase the tuition cost several thousand dollars during the next few years. Both Likins and ASU President Michael Crow have proposed tuition increases in excess of $1,000 for next school year for all students.
White said that both law schools' tuitions are now about $2,500 a year with $3,250 in fees on top, so that total cost is $5,750.
Massaro said UA officials are proposing increases of $1,250 in tuition and about $3,000 in fees. If the regents approve this plan, the cost of attending law school at the UA would soar above $10,000 a year.
ASU's fee and tuition increase proposals are likely to be less than UA's, but White said they would still be "substantial."
In April, the regents approved a range of fees for the law schools that go as high as $8,600. Regent Kay McKay said that as long as the increase is needed to cover costs, she did not think the board would oppose it.
"What is it costing us to educate them?" McKay said she would ask. "If indeed (the law college's budgets) are not supportive I would not support it. But I suspect that it is (needed)."
Though the cost is expected to increase, the number of people applying to the law schools is also going up, about 20 percent at each university. These budgetary problems combined with the high demand for the two schools make them less accessible.
"Our enrollment has been unnaturally large the past few years through mistakes," White said.
When deciding enrollment, law schools always accept more students than they expect, because some of them will opt for another school. More students than the school planned for have been enrolling at ASU, and she said, "We are very anxious not to do that this year."
ASU has received more than 3,000 applications this year and hopes to admit 160; more than 2,000 applications have been received by UA and about 150 will be admitted.
Despite the higher cost, Terry Sue Holpert, the UA law school's assistant dean, said she does not think it will deter students from wanting to attend the two universities.
"I think you would find that people are so uptight about getting in (to
law school), the money would really be a secondary consideration," Holpert
said.