Download Magazine - Levin College of Law - University of Florida

“We openedin 1909 with 38students and twofaculty members.We now have morethan 1,200 studentsand 100 facultymembers.”addition to the LL.M. in Graduate Taxation. Ourhighly regarded Environmental and Land Use LawProgram now offers the nation’s first LL.M. in theseclosely-related fields.The generous support of alumni and friendslike those listed in the Honor Roll section of thismagazine has helped us pass the halfway point inour $47-million capital campaign, and, along withtuition devolution, has been instrumental in allowingus to continue our progress despite Florida’s tightbudget climate.Recent guests to our campus have included U.S.Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor andRuth Bader Ginsburg and former Secretary of StateMadeline Albright. This fall we have been honoredwith visits by both Chief Justice of the United StatesJohn G. Roberts Jr. and U.S. Supreme Court AssociateJustice John Paul Stevens.We are particularly proud of our faculty, whoseproductivity and scholarship are chronicled in our 2008Report From the Faculty, online at www.law.ufl.edu.During the past three years, the faculty has published53 books (including casebooks), with publishersincluding NYU, Oxford, Princeton, and the Universityof Chicago. The faculty has also published 251 lawreview articles and book chapters, with publishersincluding Ashgate, Cambridge and Harvard.Q. As you look ahead, what do you see in thefuture for the law school?Economic indicators continue to be bleak as thismagazine goes to press, and that is cause for greatconcern for all of us. As a state institution, ourfortunes, of course, are tied to Florida’s, and if budgetscontinue to decrease we will have some very difficultdecisions to make. However, on our current track thelaw school has an historic opportunity created by thetuition differential strategy and a modest forthcomingreduction in class size to vastly increase our qualityand reshape our institution, despite the budget cutswe have undergone. The support of our alumni andfriends is more important now than ever.The College of Law is in the initial stages of amajor strategic planning effort called “UF Law2015,” in part in preparation for the Strategic Plan &Self-Study required for the ABA sabbatical site visitin spring 2010. We have a stellar group of faculty onour Strategic Planning Committee, and they will beconsidering what we would like our law school tolook like in the year 2015. For the college to operateat its highest level of efficiency and best serve ourstudents, for example, we may envision a law schoolwith a slightly smaller J.D. program, better studentfacultyratios, and more skills training per student. Wemight look for our tuition to be close to, but below,the mean of our peer institutions. Our entering classcredentials might be even stronger, as we keep morehigh quality Florida residents in Florida for theirlegal education. And we hope to improve the broaddiversity of our students and faculty as well.As we look at how we educate our students in thefuture, we must consider choices such as class size andselection. Legal education is changing around us, and wemust focus our attention on who we are and where weare going as an institution. We must look at who we areteaching, and what we are preparing our students to do.Our alumni are an important part of this effort, and weinvite your suggestions and participation.— ROBERT H. JERRY IIDEAN; LEVIN MABIE AND LEVIN PROFESSOR OF LAW100 YEARCELEBRATIONApril 24-25, 2009Visit www.law.ufl .edufor more information.FALL 2008 3