Dean's
Message
AS
YOU HAVE HEARD, THE LAW
SCHOOL IS
now operating under Financial Self-Sufficiency.
Under this arrangement, the Law School gives up state
funds (which were rapidly declining anyway) but retains
the tuition dollars generated by our students. So far,
this arrangement is working exactly as we had expected
and hoped.
 While
we proudly remain part of the nation’s leading
public University, we are financed much as our private
competitors. Like Harvard, Yale, Duke, or Georgetown, we
rely primarily on tuition and secondarily—but crucially—on
private giving. In 2002-2003, more than $14 million in
private funds were expended on behalf of the Law School.
This sum is not a minor or inconsiderable part of our budget.
On the contrary, it is indispensable to our success. Without
your continued loyalty and support, the Law School could
not have achieved the prominence we now enjoy, nor could
we hope to realize our ambitions for the future. With your
help, we can do anything.
Special thanks go to the Class of 2003.
Fully 66 percent of the students who graduated last spring
pledged their support to the Law School. This is a record
for a graduating class, and a remarkable demonstration
of support from a group of young lawyers often burdened
with substantial student loans. I can’t think of
a better endorsement of the quality of the Virginia experience
than the loyalty of these young graduates.
Dean John Jeffries |