Endowments

The Importance of Endowments

Endowments are at the heart of GU Law's long-term financial plan.

Establishing endowments for the law school addresses three critical components of its commitment to educational excellence:

• affordability of a legal education
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• the continued excellence of Gonzaga's nationally recognized clinical law program

Like most private law schools, Gonzaga is heavily dependent on tuition revenues to cover the cost of providing a quality legal education. Understandably, these costs have risen exponentially along with the growth in the law, specialization, technology, and programs such those in clinical practice.

Carefully directed, endowments can:

• reduce tuition dependency
• increase the stability of revenues
• increase the predictability of the financial planning process

Ultimately, endowments ensure the most productive use of resources and the highest quality of educational programs.

Names that Live - A Personally Named Endowment Opportunity

Endowments for scholarships, the law library and programs benefit both students and the School of Law. With endowed scholarships, Gonzaga can admit and assist the most talented, motivated young people, while remaining financially stable.

• Library endowments can ensure the continued strength of the library's general or special-subject collections.
• Endowments help strengthen programmatic needs in areas such as moot court, the law review, and the clinical law programs.
• Named endowments provide donors a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and honor their families, friends, and loved ones -- those who have provided inspiration and guidance. It is an honor that will be remembered year after year in the scholarships and special funds that bear the names that live on at Gonzaga in perpetuity.

Today, more than 20 alumni have established named endowments. An individual, group, foundation, or corporation can establish an endowed scholarship with a gift or pledge of $25,000 or more. Additional gifts may be added to a scholarship at anytime.

Thomas More Scholarship Program -- $250,000

Since 1980, the Thomas More Scholarship Program has made it possible for over 150 law students to attend Gonzaga. That amounts to over $4.5 million in tuition waivers.

These scholarships recognize a high level of academic achievement and a strong social concern for the welfare of others.

• Over the years, Thomas More Scholars have taken an active role in the life of the law school community.
• Following the completion of the first year of law school and prior to graduation, each Thomas More Scholar is expected to complete a minimum of 240 hours of supervised pro bono legal services for which they receive neither compensation nor academic credit.
• The income from the Thomas More Scholarship Program Endowment is allocated each year to supplement the amount of the scholarship award and support scholars in their pro bono legal service work.

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Scholarship Endowments

• Bronze Medallion Student Scholarship:
  General endowment $5,000 – $9,999
• Silver Medallion Student Scholarship:
  General endowment $10,000 – $24,999
• Gold Medallion Student Scholarship:
  Named endowment at the $25,000 level

Affordability is synonymous with access to legal education.

In the past decade, that access has become a significant challenge to private legal education. Although Gonzaga's tuition is among the most affordable of all private schools in the West, annual tuition exceeds $29,000.

Given the caps on federal subsidized loans and other restrictions, a Gonzaga legal education has been placed out of the reach of many qualified students. Those who do enroll find themselves burdened by increasing debt loads that can create significant additional financial pressures in the early years of practice.

Scholarship endowments enable the School of Law to:

• restore a better balance
• to lighten the burden of enrolled students
• open the door of opportunity to qualified candidates who would otherwise be unable to receive a Gonzaga education

Smithmoore P. Myers Dean's Chair - $1.5 million

The School of Law and the Board of Trustees established an endowed chair in honor of Dean and Professor Smithmoore P. Myers, because of his many contributions to Gonzaga University School of Law. Smitty touched many in an extraordinary way, as teacher and administrator.

Smitty served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, and the judiciary as U.S. Magistrate. He is the lawyer we all wanted to become.

The Washington State Bar recently recognized Smitty with its Professionalism Award for his selfless service, his devotion to public service, and the good that the law can do in our community, as characterized by his law school tenure, and his local and state bar leadership.

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Faculty Enrichment - $75,000

breadth and quality of law faculty scholarly achievements attests to& Gonzaga's remarkable success in bringing outstanding faculty and scholars to the School of Law.

This endowment:

• encourages faculty to pursue new directions in teaching and research
• allows for the uninterrupted pursuit of innovative academic programs that cannot be funded from other university sources

Library Endowment - $100,000

The Chastek Library is an integral part of the educational experience at Gonzaga University School of Law.

To support this community of users, the library is continually updating and expanding its resources. Today, one of the library's greatest challenges is to add new electronic resources, while retaining print resources needed by users.

The library provides a laboratory, where students can learn to research, analyze, and apply legal principles. It supports faculty members by purchasing materials needed to support their scholarship and classroom instruction.

Chastek Library serves as a major community resource for Spokane and the surrounding area. It is common to see attorneys, or their law clerks, in the library researching issues for clients.

Chastek also contains a collection of Pro Se materials for use by non-legally trained individuals.

Institute for Law School Teaching - $75,000

Since its founding in 1991, the Institute for Law School Teaching has brought national and international acclaim to Gonzaga.

• Institute programs help improve the quality of teaching and learning at all accredited law schools in the U.S. and Canada.
• More than 9,500 legal educators in 14 countries twice a year receive the Institute's newsletter, The Law Teacher.

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