UO’s Law School gives the average student a 50% discount on tuition. The cost of this is now $8M a year. The money comes from UO’s general fund – which is mostly undergrad tuition for College of Arts Sciences students, and state funds:
You’d think that would buy us a pretty respectable law school. Barely. The US News rankings put our law school in a tie for #72. Almost every other UO graduate program, with the notable exception of the Lundquist College of Business, does better, despite the Law school money suck:
Looks like noise + some variation based on how likely the graduate degree is to be offered by other R1s.
Oregon looks like an upper-mid-level smallish state university in these rankings. Not bad, all things considered. But think of what might have been. I wonder, did anyone over the past 30 years try to interest Phil in helping to raise UO to, say, #30 rankings instead of mid-50s? That would have been a real goal to strive for — it would put Oregon at maybe #15 in public university rankings of these programs — but not out of reach, and consistent with Oregon’s state public university “mission.” Instead, he apparently decided to put his money into ths shiny new “Knight Campus.” Which some people say is sucking money out of the rest of the “campus.” He could have done both, had he been inspired to do so. Maybe there’s something coming along; I’ve been wondering for many years.
The rankings that matter. At least the flagship beats up on Eastern Oregon U regarding alumni salary potential.
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-state/bachelors/oregon
All the high earning places have a lot of STEM grads except for Willamette U. I wonder how UO STEM grads compare.
UOM had a good run. Now it is irrelevant.
I think this comment is mistaken. If you omit the M from
the above then the comment would be correct
Some actual facts for balance: UO Law rose 16 places nationally and ranks #1 in Legal Research and Writing, #10 in Environmental Law, and #12 in Dispute Resolution. It’s also the #1 law school in Oregon (over Willamette and Lewis & Clark). Who’s sucking now?
Good to see some positives highlighted. Still, with 40-50 FTE faculty the Law School is the same size as, say, the Econ Dept. What is the opportunity cost if an extra $8M a year was split and sent to a couple CAS departments for a decade instead of Law? Opportunity hires, new facilities, classroom resources…Oregon is certainly giving up some extra prominence and better rankings in CAS departments by doing this.
The economics department has 28 faculty on its website (including non-tenure related, not including the Dean or the Emerita).
That was the physics “same order of magnitude” same size!
Really appreciate these periodic updates about the law school. It appears they are admitting anyone willing and able to borrow the money to attend and the dean is advocating for “diploma privilege” so graduates won’t have to take a bar exam. The bar, and the public, should not allow the law school deans in Oregon to be the gatekeepers for admission.
I am not sure that William Knight attended law school but he practiced in Douglas County before becoming the editor or publisher of the Oregonian. In the old days you could take the bar exam whether or not you went to law school.