Academic

In attempt to offset the state's $24 billion deficit, the governor proposed last week to eliminate all state funding for the UC Hastings College of Law, an action that could jeopardize the trust that established it 131 years ago and put the college at further financial risk.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed to eliminate the $10.3 million the state gives directly to the San Francisco college, which makes up about 20 percent of its total operating budget.

When the college was first established in 1878 by a $100,000 trust from California's first chief justice Serranus Clinton Hastings, it included a provision that requires the state to fund at least 7 percent of the college's operations, said Leo Martinez, a law professor at Hastings and soon-to-be acting chancellor and dean of the college.

If the governor's proposed elimination of funding is found to violate that provision, the trust plus the interest it has accrued since it was first established could revert back to the Hastings family, Martinez said.

The college is considered part of the UC system but is funded separately from and is not under the control of the UC Board of Regents.

In a broader sense, there is no news here.  The entire system of UC law schools is quickly moving towards market pricing.  It remains to be seen how this phenomenon will affect the diversity and quality of these law schools over the long haul.