Fall 1983 – Issue 30 - Stanford Lawyer - Stanford University

Thomas F. McBrideAssociate Dean, AdministrationDean McBride, for whom this was afirst appearance before the Board ofVisitors, expressed his pleasure atcoming to Stanford.The School's financial situation, hereported, is very much affected bytrends both outside and within theUniversity. These trends includeinflation (especially evident in utilitycosts), government financial aidpolicies, substantial tuition increases(the 1983/84 Law School tuition is$9,178), and the financial resourcesof the University-which is experiencinga "real crunch" in recoveringactual direct and indirect costs fromresearch grants and contracts."The result," Dean McBride said,is that "we have to run to stay even."This year, the School was askedby University planners to pare itsbudget for fiscal 1984 by $120,000.This we did, McBride said, withminimal impact on program, by generatingsome new income throughsuch steps as increasing the applicationfee (from $35 to $40) and bymaking significant cuts in administrativeexpenses.Student aid needs are, Dean Mc­Bride said, another major concern.Since 1979, scholarship expenditureshave exhausted availablereserves. "We need to direct moredollars into financial aid, particularlyloans, recognizing that most of ourgraduates will have the futureearnings to comfortably afford loanrepayment," he observed."And we need to maintain theutmost flexibility in use of financialaid funds, making strategic allocationsbetween the relative levelsof scholarships and loan support."Dean Diaz and her staffare, he said,now examining the gift terms ofexisting School endowed and expendablefunds to see whether someportion might be appropriately redirectedto student aid, particularlystudent loan, purposes.The School is also stepping up itsefforts to collect delinquent loansfrom graduates. "Our overall delinquencyrate is about 5.2 percent,"Dean McBride noted. The centralUniversity administration has beenincreasingly aggressive in its collectionactions, and the Law School willalso be taking additional action.A third major area of activity forDean McBride has been the "computerization"of the Law School. "TheDickensian image of lawyers withink-stained fingers and yellow padsis simply not true here," he said."Both professors and administrativestaff are eager to employ the latesttechnologies."So far, IBM personal computershave been provided to faculty andsecretaries to meet basic wordprocessingneeds. And next year heanticipates substantial increases incomputer applications in the administrativefunctions of the LawSchool. Student access to computers,both for wordprocessing(term papers, etc.) and for actualclass assignments, is also planned.Two faculty members are presentlydeveloping computerized instructionalexercises.The ability to access research dataquickly will be increased next year,too, with the introduction of theWESTLAW legal research database. LEXIS is already availablein the Law Library. Dean McBrideexpects to see "improvements inwork-load patterns and productivity"in various areas of the School asa result of these technological advances.He concluded by saying that hispurpose, and that of the administrativestaff he supervises, is "to supportthe faculty and students in theessential educational enterprise."Dean McBrideFall 1983 Stanford Lawyer33