Centennial Celebration

Norman Plass, the new president at Washburn University, believed the university needed a law school. He commissioned Robert Stone, a prominent Topeka lawyer, to head up a task force. In September 1903, the first class of Washburn University School of Law was enrolled. Forty-one students - some of them practicing attorneys - paid $50 a year tuition to attend classes in a rented space at 118 W. 8th Street. Dean Ernest B. Conant, a Harvard Law graduate and the only full-time professor, presided over 25 lawyers who had agreed to teach part time.

In 1905, the school was admitted into the Association of American Law Schools. The first class from Washburn University School of Law graduated in 1906. Seventeen students received degrees. Admissions continued to increase and the school was bursting at the seams.

During 1909, the school moved into a new home at 725 Kansas Avenue. In 1912, the school graduated its first female student, Jessie Nye, or as she was referred to-- "a graduate proficient with the needle."