Law school leads the way

Friday, Oct. 7, 2005 | 9:09 a.m.

As UNLV officials work to raise $500 million in the university's most ambitious fundraising campaign, they point to the Boyd School of Law as the poster child for what donors can do.

On Thursday the law school won another pledge -- the Thomas and Mack families pledged $3 million for a moot court complex.

"We feel it's important for businesses in Las Vegas to support the local institution of higher education," said Tom A. Thomas, whose Thomas & Mack Co. also funded a legal clinic at the school.

He said the donation came in part because of the work the school does in the community with the legal clinic.

"They're doing such a great job being advocates for those who would not have a voice in this community," he said. "Of that I am most proud."

The complex will include a courtroom with 180 seats that will be able to accommodate a visit from the Nevada Supreme Court or the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It will also include offices and a common area for faculty and students.

This is the latest in a string of private donations to the law school. Dean Richard Morgan has raised nearly $20 million in cash and secured $58.5 million in pledges since the school opened eight years ago.

The law school has been a shining example for the university's fundraising effort. The law school has raised $6.8 million more than any college in the university.

UNLV President Carol Harter said such donations have led the law school to national prominence -- the first time it was ranked by U.S. News & World Report, it made it into the Top 100.

"I think it sets the bar higher for every other dean in the university," said Harter, who has stationed development officers in every college.

UNLV has secured $263 million in gifts and pledges during the campaign, and university officials hope they'll be able to funnel more money into other academic programs to raise the level of achievement throughout the university.

But that hasn't been easy at UNLV, which Harter has said has "had to rely on the kindness of strangers."

Since Harter became president in 1995, the university has raised more than $243 million in private money. An established large school can raise that in a year -- UCLA raised $262 million in fiscal year 2004.

UNLV's fundraising efforts are hampered in part because it has a young alumni base -- the campus graduated its first class in 1964 -- and more than half of its graduates earned their degrees in the last decade. There aren't many retirement-age alumni who might give.

But giving at UNLV is on the rise, increasing 38 percent between 2003 and 2004, compared with a 3.4 percent increase nationwide, according to the Council for Aid to Education.

Much of UNLV's fundraising success has been at the law school and the Harrah College of Hotel Administration.

The law school has used private donations to hire professors that the school normally wouldn't be able to afford and start specialty programs such as a legal clinic and a center whose charter is to settle conflicts outside the courtroom. The programs -- both ranked in the top 25 in the nation by U.S. News -- have helped build the school's reputation.

Glenn Schaeffer, a Fontainebleau Resorts executive, helped found the International Institute of Modern Letters, putting UNLV's masters of fine arts program on the map. Now the program is recognized internationally and has attracted scholars such as Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.

In competition for top-notch faculty with other schools, the law school and hotel college have used private donations to set up professorships that come with larger salaries and some with incentives such as personal laboratory space and graduate assistants.

In the College of Fine Arts, most of the donations go into what Dean Jeffrey Koep calls "student labs" -- theatrical productions, concerts and art shows. The state cannot afford to underwrite those costs.

"You can't have a major in biology without a lab to practice on, and you can't have a piano major without a piano," Koep said.

Christina Littlefield can be reached at 259-8813 or at clittle@ lasvegassun.com.