Dec. 9—GRAND FORKS — The dean of UND’s law school says he is bringing forward a proposal to increase tuition for current and future students in a bid to stave off a projected deficit.
The School of Law is also considering increasing its class size from 85 to 100 students to increase revenue and meet the demand for legal professionals in the state, Dean Brian Pappas wrote in the Gavel, the state bar association’s magazine, last week.
“We simply need to increase tuition every year, as all schools do, to be financially sound,” Pappas wrote.
Pappas’ article gives the School of Law’s annual tuition and fee cost at $17,663; U.S. News and World Report places tuition at $17,462.
According to the article, the law school faces a $2.1 million deficit by the end of the 2028 fiscal year under current circumstances.
“Transparency is very important to us,” Pappas said in a statement provided to the Herald. “At this point, the options mentioned are preliminary and we will be engaging in a university decision process. Rest assured that any decisions we make will include opportunities for shared governance and input from our faculty, staff, and students. When that process is completed, I am happy to share that information with the broader community.”
The law school dean says several factors are the cause of the deficit, including restrictions on increasing tuition imposed by the Legislature in 2023 and 2024 that have effectively lowered the school’s purchasing power due to inflation.
He also pointed to UND’s broad standards for who qualifies for in-state tuition and its generous contiguous rate for residents of neighboring states and provinces as a limiting factor on revenue, as well as the law school’s need to pay its share of UND’s rising operational costs.
“As a small school, we lack multiple programs where we can find efficiencies and opportunities for growth,” Pappas wrote. “While we are planning to increase enrollment from 85 to 100 next year, we do not believe we could expand beyond that without needing additional resources or accepting students that may struggle to pass the bar exam.”
To combat that, Pappas proposes raising tuition by up to 15% for incoming first-year law students and up to 6% for current students, beginning next year.
He writes the university would also consider eliminating its contiguous rates for first-year out-of-state students, estimating the combined changes would reduce the projected deficit to $350,000, “something we can eliminate through targeted cuts and smart planning.”
The article says scholarship endowments will “increasingly be a focus” of the law school’s efforts going forward.
Law Professor Michael McGinniss, one of two law faculty elected to represent the school in UND’s University Senate, declined to comment, saying he deferred to the dean on the matter.
“I think he sees some stark realities of the financial situation that the law school could be in if there aren’t some changes to the tuition model,” said Tony Weiler, executive director of the State Bar Association of North Dakota.
Weiler said he favored a proposed increase to class sizes, citing a shortage of legal services in the state and particularly in rural areas.
He acknowledged concerns that tuition increases could drive more students away from pursuing a law degree, but said he hoped that could be offset by more scholarships.
“I don’t have that fear,” Weiler said. “I would trust that the dean and those in the law school would understand if raising (tuition) was going to drop your numbers significantly, and I would think that based on what I’m reading from him, the answer would be ‘no.'”
The School of Law’s sticker price is markedly lower than many other law schools in the U.S., though Pappas notes in his article that law schools offer significant discounts “to game the (U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges) rankings.”
Despite the projected deficit, in his statement, Pappas noted that “our law school is in terrific shape,” achieving its first U.S. News ranking this year since 2018 and appearing in the top 10 for affordability and in the top 90% for bar passage rate.
Additionally, law school applications are up 29% for the past two years, and applications are up by more than 20% this year compared to last year, he said.
Tuition increases at the law school would have to pass several barriers, including the State Board of Higher Education and the Legislature, before such changes could be implemented.
Law faculty also have a say in whether class sizes can increase.