Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Students
Dear Students:
As the New Year begins, I write to congratulate you on your progress in the legal profession. As your Dean, I am proud of our progress as an institution.
We have the top floor of the Towers residence hall reserved for law students. They have formed a wonderful sense of community. We have a new faculty-student mixer series, supported this year by the Izumi Family Fund. These events offer you the opportunity to interact meaningfully outside of the formal classroom context. We have a new wireless internet system in the classrooms, enabling laptop exams that began on a pilot basis this semester; the new café cart on the first floor, serving food and drink throughout the day; and enrichment events that feature speakers with national reputations.
Our faculty has expanded at an unprecedented rate. In 2004-05, we hired four new tenured/tenure-track professors; in 2005-06, we hired five more, along with a clinical professor, a LRW instructor, and a visiting professor. Each of the tenured/tenure-track professors typically teaches four courses per year. Their presence in the classrooms brings a greater range of course offerings and improved student-faculty ratios. Their productivity in scholarship advances intellectual discussions in many specialized fields and raises our academic profile.
The most significant development, however, will be the Damon J. Keith Classroom Building and Center for Civil Rights. Named for our LL.M. alumnus, the Honorable Damon J. Keith, a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, this structure will symbolize in bricks and mortar our arrival at a new level of excellence and contribute to the ongoing renaissance of Detroit. We have already secured the largest single private gift in the history of our Law School, from philanthropist A. Alfred Taubman. We have begun work with the DSA architectural firm on initial design phase plans, which we will use to generate the support of other potential donors.
The most important stakeholders of our Law School, of course, are you as our current students. In everything that we strive to do, our goal is to provide the best possible training for your role as advocates and counselors – leaders of our diverse democracy. After you graduate, our work continues with ensuring that your degree appreciates in value.
As we come to the peak of the admissions cycle, I thought I would ask you to help us. Of all the individuals who could persuade others of what they could do as attorneys, as well as what we can do in advancing them toward that goal, it is each of you. Please feel free to request a copy of our current bulletin from the Admissions Office to give to a family member, friend, college classmate, or colleague who may have an interest in joining us. I encourage you to pass along a bulletin and share your thoughts about our Law School; further information is available at www.law.wayne.edu. You should feel free to forward this email.
If you have a group that would like to come for a visit to the Law School, perhaps from your undergraduate institution or a civic organization, please contact Assistant Dean Linda Fowler Sims (linda.sims@wayne.edu). Best wishes.
