Dean's Statement

The University has launched the largest capital campaign in the history of public education.  The campaign will touch every unit of the University, including the Law School.  We are proud to be part of this effort, but the responsibility for our future remains on us.  Under Financial Self-Sufficiency, the Law School must look to its own resources, including private giving.  I would therefore like to say a few words about the Law School’s campaign goals.

Thanks to the success of our building projects in the 1990s, the Law School already has the finest physical facilities in the nation.  This time, we invest in people.  Of the Law School’s total goal of $150 million, more than half is targeted to student financial aid.  This is an unprecedented allocation for a capital campaign.  It signals our commitment to access and choice for the nation’s finest students.

In making this commitment, we have three concrete goals:

• to enable every deserving student to attend the Law School regardless of financial circumstance;
• to create a level playing field with other top law schools so that admitted students who choose Virginia face no financial disadvantage; and
• to provide loan forgiveness for students who enter public service so that career choices will not be coerced by the need to repay student loans.

Additionally, the capital campaign will help the Law School attract and retain leading faculty and fund curricular innovations, such as our new Law & Business Program.  Our ultimate aim is to make sure that Virginia delivers the premier student experience in American legal education.

These are grand ambitions.  To achieve them, we need your participation.  Fortunately, the Law School already enjoys the broadest base of alumni support of any law school in the nation.  Last year, more than 51 percent of our graduates made gifts to the Law School.  To my knowledge, this is the first time that any law school, public or private, has received gifts from half its graduates in a single year.

As our participation rate proves, Virginia has the most faithful and committed alumni in the country.  The aim of a capital campaign is to provide the financial foundation for our future.  My job is to explain why our future deserves your support.  In approaching that task, it is enormously gratifying to know that the quality of the experience our graduates enjoyed while they were students makes them want to help.  This reservoir of affection and loyalty is our institution’s greatest strength.

For what we are and for what we hope to be, you have our heartfelt thanks.           

Dean John C. Jeffries, Jr. '73