So you used the $15 billion dollar figure for UT because it has the only law school in the system, but divided the Indiana schools up? gross
If UTEP and UTD opened law schools, do you think UT-Austin Law's endowment would be cut to 1/3?
Well, UT-Austin certainly wouldn't be the only child anymore. It seems reasonable to assume that a law school in a large system with no other law schools will have an easier time getting capital funding from the system endowment than a school that has to compete with several others for access to the same pool. The decision to open a fifth UC law school (Irvine) certainly is not going to
improve the position of Berkeley, UCLA, Hastings, and Davis when it comes to funding. Of course these four schools all have campus-specific endowments as well (which are included in the endowment listing), so they will be hurt to greater and lesser degrees depending on how much they now depend on system funding vs. their own.
In the absence of data breaking endowments down to the campus and college level, this seems like the least worst approach available. And given the magnitude of differences between schools, it's close enough to be useful. Specific data in many cases just doesn't exist, because schools either don't account for endowment funds that way, or at least don't report it. Even law school deans
sometimes complain because their universities don't fully segregate operating expenses and income by college, which makes it harder for them to report accurate "expenditures" figures to US News.