UNLV gets a boost from Boyd

By Christina Littlefield

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 1:27 a.m.

William S. Boyd was scheduled this afternoon to announce a $25 million pledge to the UNLV law school that bears his name.

The $25 million is a huge show of "confidence" in the law school which Boyd made possible, UNLV President Carol Harter and Boyd School of Law Dean Richard Morgan said.

"He wanted to give us the notoriety and the regard to build something really great," Morgan said.

The Boyd Gaming Corp. executive contributed $5 million in 1995 to help start the school and has since given more than $500,000 more through his companies.

"There's no question in my mind whatsoever that that was the money that triggered our ability to build the law school," Harter said.

The $25 million pledge, which Boyd was scheduled to formally announce at the UNLV Foundation building, is expected to be paid out in $1 million installments over the next 25 years, Morgan said.

The money will provide a yearly infusion into the law school, Morgan said, with most of the money likely going to support faculty salaries, guest lecturers, student scholarships and other education programs at the university.

Boyd, chairman and chief executive officer of Boyd Gaming, said he was donating the money because of the "outstanding" job the UNLV law school has done in providing a legal education to Nevada students.

"The school is creating opportunities for Nevada's young people that were not possible a decade ago," said Boyd, whose biggest properties include the Stardust, Sam's Town, the Orleans and the Suncoast. "My gift today will help to make sure the school continues its success and has a bright future for many years to come."

Boyd said he was forced to go out of state to the University of Utah for his law degree, which has proved essential in his career in gaming. He said UNLV law school's day and nighttime classes give locals the opportunity to pursue their degrees here.

"It wasn't for fame and glory," Harter said of Boyd's original donation. "It was for access for people who would otherwise not have it. That's the kind of man Bill Boyd is."

Boyd has also donated $1 million toward an endowment at UNLV's Harrah Hotel College and his family played a significant role in establishing the university's football stadium, named after Boyd's father. The Boyd family has long been a staunch supporter of UNLV athletics.

Boyd's announcement today raises his commitment to the law school to just above that of Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers, who with his wife Beverly has committed more than $29 million to the school.

Both Rogers and Morgan said the gifts may make the Boyd School of Law the only school in the country to receive not one, but two gifts of that magnitude.

"They ($25 million or more gifts) are very, very rare and they are very, very wonderful," Rogers said. "Bill Boyd is my hero."

Private money and state support have helped the law school to win national acclaim in a very short time span, Morgan said. Last spring, in the very first year the law school was able to be considered, U.S. News and World report ranked the school as 82nd in the nation.

The entrance hall to the school's main building honors more than 73 people or businesses who together have donated or committed more than $73.5 million, Morgan said. The Thomas family and Joyce Mack have donated about $2.3 million for the school's legal clinic and are considering a $2 million donation for a moot law courtroom, and Michael and Sonja Saltman donated $1 million for a conflict resolution center.

Morgan said the private dollars have helped create the school's law library and other educational resources as well as helped him "steal" the best faculty from around the country. Private money now supplements faculty salaries through 15 enhanced professorships and five endowed chairs, helps bring in guest lecturers and enhances all of the educational programs.

Both Rogers and Harter said they hope the Boyd donation will lure many other donors in the $10 million to $25 million to commit to the university's capital campaign.

Already, between Boyd, Rogers and the Greenspun family, the school has three such pledges on the books. Rogers said that the Greenspun recently increased its $25 million pledge to the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs to $35 million to help pay for an expansion in the new building.