I just returned from a few days in Atlanta. I thank Kathy Boase for her guest blog post in my absence.
Atlanta has become an increasingly important market for the Law School. In 2006, the city ranked fourth in Law School alumni population, behind the DC metro area, New York, and Richmond. In addition, 62 percent of Atlanta alumni participated in last year's annual giving campaign. This level of support is needed from all of our major markets if we are to maintain our standing in the first rank of American Law schools.
My trip was highlighted by our annual alumni luncheon on February 27 and a Class of 82 mini-reunion luncheon on February 28.
More than 100 alums attended the luncheon at the Four Seasons. Sadler Poe '70, the National Appeals Chairman, gave an excellent report on the importance of annual giving and read excerpts from the thank you letters of scholarship recipients. Dean Jeffries concluded the luncheon with a update on the state of the Law School.
The Class of '82 mini-reunion luncheon included Keith Cowan, Peter Quittmeyer, Tom Bever and Tim Pollock. Diane Prucino, Dennis Zakas, and Richard North were unable to join us.
We discussed activities planned for Law Alumni Weekend in Charlottesville and reminiscing about classmates and Law School life then and now. I try to plan these sorts of gatherings as often as possible because classmates who work in the same city often don't know each other is there.
Reunion cycles have taken on added emphasis for the Law School for a couple of reasons. One is the importance of our annual giving program. We are participation driven and take pride in leading all law schools with 51% of our alumni making a gift last year. Reunion giving contributes to that success because we give full credit for reunion gifts in our annual giving totals.
Reunion giving also helps us sustain Financial Self-Sufficiency, the arrangement we have struck with the University by which we pay our own way and put more money in the University's coffers for use elsewhere on Grounds.
The primary benefit of Financial Self-Sufficiency has been to help create a stable revenue model for us (because of greater autonomy in pricing tuition), and the primary consequence has been to raise student demand for financial aid. We haven’t been in the business of raising money for scholarship endowments since low tuition gave every student an implied grant when they walked in the door. That’s no longer the case, hence the immediacy in emphasizing endowment building for that very purpose.
The Class of '82 has selected student financial aid, in the form of scholarships and loan forgiveness, as the use of their reunion gift. We know future Law School students will be in their debt.
