By Peter Cox

MPR News/90.1 FM

The University of Minnesota Law School is still trying to recover from a big dip in enrollment. And the university’s Board of Regents is weighing how best to help the law school while not taking too much from the university’s other programs.

Before and during the recession, revenue and applicant pools at law schools grew.

But then the recession took a toll on the job market, and law firms cut back.

“About a two-year delay after the recession, we started to see law school applications begin to decline,” said University of Minnesota Law School Dean Garry Jenkins.

According to numbers provided by the university, applications to law schools nationwide fell 36 percent between 2010 and 2017, and fell by 53 percent at the U over that same period.

Through that decline the U of M was faced with a difficult decision — increase the number of students, or keep their admissions standards high and accept smaller classes

The U chose to maintain its standards, and continue to be ranked in the top 20 law schools in the country.

Jenkins, who joined the law school in 2016, said to compete, the U needed to offer students incentives.

“So in other words, the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin and now the University of Minnesota were competing for a smaller pool of outstanding students and that raised the financial aid that we had to budget for,” he said.

In short, tuition revenues took a big hit.

Since 2012, the U of M’s central administration has been helping the law school with a yearly subsidy that’s now grown to around $7.5 million a year. And earlier this month, Jenkins had to ask for another increase in that subsidy over the next three years.

The plan, presented to the university’s Board of Regents in early May, would slowly increase the subsidy a total of $4.5 million to the law school through fiscal year 2021. A report given to the regents projects the school would have a structurally balanced budget and reserves to cover tuition revenue fluctuations by 2023.

At a May 10 meeting, a number of regents said they were unhappy with the law school’s request for more money. Especially as the U administration is also proposing a two percent hike in resident tuition for Twin Cities undergraduates.

“The bottom line for me is the cost of this subsidy … is beginning to get to the point where it’s too painful for other elements of the university to continue to bear,” said Regent David McMillan. He said he wants the law school to do well, but doesn’t want to see a subsidy continue to grow.