George Mason University’s law school faces $38M in running losses

Dive Brief:

• Amid ongoing budget deficits and projected tuition revenue declines, George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School is facing a cumulative loss of $38.3 million by fiscal 2025, according to documents presented to the university’s governing board for a Thursday meeting. 
• Preliminary figures show that fall enrollment in the law school has increased 18.4% from 2023, to 116 students. However, that headcount is down 27% from 2022 and less than half of the 259 students that enrolled in fall 2021. 
• “The dean has been informed that the university wants to find creative ways to address the financial status of this important school,” a memo on the Scalia school’s financial situation noted.

Dive Insight:

George Mason’s law school has landed some high-dollar, high-profile (and controversial) donor gifts over the years, including $30 million that led to naming it after the conservative Supreme Court Justice and $50 million in 2019 from the estate of a former judge.

The Scalia law school could use more multimillion-dollar gifts now as it struggles to rein in its operating deficits. 

For fiscal 2024, the law school logged a $7.8 million deficit and is projecting a $13.2 million deficit for 2025. And that’s after posting annual deficits of between $3 million and $5.8 million each year going back to fiscal 2020. 

In 2024, tuition revenue declined about 5.8% to $23.5 million while expenses rose by more than $1 million from the prior year. For 2025, the school projects an even steeper tuition revenue decline. 

A proposal shared with the law school dean calls for discharging a $4 million loan to the school in equal increments over three years, as well as spending to cover tuition discounting and operating expenses. 

The above is contingent on the law school breaking even financially at the end of each fiscal year, as well as its ability to grow its revenue outside its J.D. program, reduce operating costs or increase fundraising, according to the memo to George Mason’s board. 

The memo also noted that the school enjoys a “substantial degree of autonomy, with the ability to set tuition rates — with the university board’s approval — as well as make decisions on admissions, enrollment targets, discounting strategy, curriculum and facilities.

The law school has in recent months received $7.6 million in donor gifts, including $5.6 million for its Law and Economics Center’s educational programs for lawyers and judges.