My Profile Search Directory Submit News Contact Us Logout Alumni Home
Spring 2004UVA Lawyer - Home
Dean's MessageOpinionClass NotesIn MemoriamIn PrintFaculty Briefs Home
Twitter

 

Commitment to the Commonwealth

Dean John Jeffries

John C. Jeffries, Jr. '73

This issue of UVA Lawyer celebrates the Law School’s continuing commitment to the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to being a great national law school, we are also a proud part of a leading public university. As such, we have a special obligation to the Commonwealth and to her citizens.

Institutionally, that obligation is discharged in three ways. First, Virginia residents continue to enjoy an advantage in admissions. Second, Virginia residents receive a significant discount from out-of-state tuition. The discount recognizes the years and decades of financial support from the taxpayers of Virginia before we reached Financial Self-Sufficiency. Third, Law School graduates who practice in the Commonwealth are eligible for forgiveness of their student loans. The income limits on loan forgiveness are such that graduates who go to large firms do not benefit. Those who do benefit are Virginia graduates who wish to practice in rural or underserved areas of the Commonwealth and who might be coerced to do otherwise were it not for loan forgiveness. In all these ways, the Law School as an institution honors its historic commitment to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Of course, there are also many informal links between the Law School and the Commonwealth, including the large number of our graduates who play leading roles in this state. Some of them are profiled in these pages. And it is also true that Law School students and faculty are actively engaged in public service to governments, communities, and organizations in the Commonwealth.

In all these ways, the University of Virginia School of Law remains inextricably linked to the Commonwealth of Virginia. This is a relationship of which we are proud and which we hope and believe will continue forever.

* * * *

Among the articles in this issue is a speech given by Leonard Sandridge to a group of Law School alumni on September 11 of last year. Leonard is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Office of the University. It is his responsibility, under the leadership of President Casteen, to develop and implement a strategic vision for the University as a whole.

Leonard’s remarks on Financial Self-Sufficiency are well worth reading. Not only does he describe how Financial Self-Sufficiency works; he also explains how it benefits both the Law School and the rest of the University.

UVA Lawyer Home