WU makes plans for new $40M law school

When Dan Lykins first walked into the Washburn University School of Law as a first-year student in 1969, the future university regent considered the new building that had risen from the rubble of the 1966 Topeka tornado “the Cadillac of law schools.”

Lykins still believes Washburn law delivers a Cadillac-quality education.

“But the building itself is a 1969 Cadillac we’re still driving, even though we’ve put a lot of new tires and new paint on it,” Lykins told his fellow Washburn Board of Regents on Wednesday.

But Washburn law is about to get a new home.

The regents Wednesday approved a funding proposal for the most ambitious single-building construction and fundraising project in the university’s history — a new $40 million home for Washburn law on the southeast corner of campus at S.W. 21st and Washburn.

WU believes it can finance the proposed 152,600-square-foot building through a $20 million fundraising effort by the Washburn University Foundation, with another $10 million coming from university reserve funds. WU President Jerry Farley said the school is prepared to borrow the remaining $10 million in short-term bonds.

Farley said improving the physical plant for a “signature program” of the university would be important for Topeka, Shawnee County and the state of Kansas.

“When I hear people around the country talk about Washburn, they almost always mention the excellence of the school of law,” Farley said. “It has truly developed a phenomenal reputation. But right now, we don’t have the building we need for a world-class school of law in the 21st century.”

Built in its current location after the ’66 tornado devastated much of campus, Washburn law today squeezes some 420 students — a figure that reflects a decline in enrollment, law school dean Thomas Romig acknowledged — into a facility of about 96,000 square feet. In contrast, regional law schools in Colorado and Oklahoma surveyed by the SHW Architectural Group, the architect on the project, found those schools averaged around 177,000 square feet.

SHW prepared two project estimates. One would add to and upgrade the existing building on the northwest part of campus to 165,442 square feet for a projected $45 million. The university opted instead for a completely new building for $5 million less.

A definitive timeline for the project hasn’t been formalized. Fundraising for the $20 million in private donations — where major gifts are most likely to come from Washburn law grads — likely will take two to three years, WU Foundation officials said while expressing confidence that the goal could be met.

“We won’t exceed what we cannot commit to do,” Farley said of the project.

The university will examine how private donations are faring before going back to the architect with a final figure on what it can afford, he said.

Romig acknowledged that the project comes at a time when law school applications are down at Washburn and nationwide. But he characterized the decline as a reflection of economic times and predicted an uptick in coming years. Washburn law’s proposed new building could accommodate around 480 students, Romig said — a figure Washburn somehow handled previously in its current building.

In other action, the Washburn regents:

¦ Awarded a $79,000 contract to Ruckus Wireless/ISG Technology to upgrade wireless networking capacity for on-campus housing.

¦ Awarded both the on-campus exclusive beverage pouring rights and the food/snack vending contracts, both running five years, to Pepsi Cola of Topeka. The proposal calls for 25 percent of vended snacks to qualify under a national program that limits calories and fat content.

¦ Approved a one-year lobbying contract for $86,478 with Pinegar, Smith and Associates of Topeka.

¦ Approved a $350,000 contract to Sasaki Associates, of Watertown, Mass., and Bartlett and West, of Topeka, to develop a campus master plan — one that studies space utilization for future uses — for Washburn and the Washburn Institute of Technology.