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William S. Richardson School
of Law KE KULA KANAWAI |
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| Volume 8, No. 4 | Week of September 15, 2003 |
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30th Anniversary Dinner
Update |
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Our big news this week is our 30th Anniversary and Reunion Dinner on Sat. Sept. 13, 2003. It was a tremendous success with 800 attendees including alumni from every graduating class, six law school deans, present and past faculty, community leaders including Gov. Lingle, Lt. Gov. Aiona ’78, past Governors Cayetano, Waihee’76 and Lt. Gov. Hirono. The judiciary was also well represented. Mahalo to the honorary co-chairs, the dinner committee which met regularly from early this year, the alumni entertainers, university relations, community donors and numerous law school staff and friends who spent so much time organizing this special event. For those who missed the event, below are the deans’ messages from the printed dinner program. |
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Professor and Dean Emeritus
Lawrence C. Foster |
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| Good evening, my name is Larry Foster and I am the proud dean
of the William S. Richardson School of Law. From January 1, 1995 to June
30, 2003, I was privileged to say these words at countless Law School events.
There are so many reasons why I was able to describe myself as the “proud
dean”—the scholarship and teaching skills of our faculty; our
students’ continuing success in national and international competitions;
our school’s long-standing commitment to public service; the support of the community for the Law School; the growing reputation of our programs on environmental law and Pacific-Asian legal studies; and the positive impact of our alumni on the legal profession, the business community, and the broader community around the world, to name a few. From our school’s accreditation and closure crisis in the mid-1990s to the on-going budget cuts, the last eight and one-half years have been difficult ones for the University and the Law School. I am pleased to say tonight that at least for the Law School, the hard times are a thing of the past. In response to the tight economic times, in 1995 our school developed a new financial plan that has allowed our school not only to survive these difficult times, but even flourish. Our gross tuition revenue increased from around $500,000 in 1994 to just over $3 million last year and since 1995 we have established sixteen new endowments to support our faculty and students. While most other academic units on campus continue to struggle with shrinking budgets and faculty/staff, the Law School’s faculty, staff, and budget increase each year. We still have a long way to go in order to provide the level of economic support our students and faculty need and deserve. Along this line I am particularly pleased that the proceeds from tonight’s dinner will be used to fund yet another endowment for our school: to support our students and our Pacific-Asian Legal Studies program. Another favorite theme of mine is that it takes a community to make an exceptional Law School. Your attendance here tonight is yet another sign of the wide-spread community commitment to our law school. Thank you for all you have done for our Law School over the years and I am confident that under the inspired leadership of Dean Avi Soifer, we will continue to earn your respect and warm friendship. |
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| Dean Aviam Soifer | |
| It is thrilling to be able to look back with care at where
our Law School has been over the past thirty years and to consider what
we still can become. We began with the bold vision and strategic acumen
of William S. Richardson and so many others, including the pioneering spirit
of our early classes and those who taught and cared for them. We built well,
despite years of significant challenges. We truly have become a nationally
and internationally recognized model for our diversity; for our excellence
in teaching, learning, and scholarship; and for our abiding commitment to
the community and the public interest. By virtue of the extraordinary dedication
of students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends, we now enjoy a myriad
of gratifying opportunities to grow from strength to strength. Larry Foster’s committed service to the Law School did much more than to help preserve its very existence. In countless respects during a long and crucial era, he and so many others led the way to today. And currently the William S. Richardson School of Law is known for our generosity of spirit, our rigorous educational program, and our strikingly diverse backgrounds and perspectives, as well as for our ongoing service to Hawai‘i, the nation, and, indeed, across the entire world. William Faulkner once said. “The past is not past; it is.” The past is particularly present within the multilayered complexity of Hawai‘i today. Tonight’s tribute celebrates the fact that in looking back, we can readily discern an enviably solid foundation for an exciting, and most fulfilling future. It could hardly be more of a pleasure than to be Dean Foster’s successor; to share with the stellar staff and faculty and all of you in this grand celebration of our past; and to know that the Law School can count on your dedication and assistance as we create an extremely bright future together. You may rest assured that we will continue to be exemplary in many of the ways we already are. Thirty years from now, for example, speakers at great events such as this one will cheer our Law School for its continuing emphasis on the lives of the people behind legal disputes. We will still be applauded for never forgetting the importance of personal contact and context in the legal education we offer, as well within the lives of the lawyers we produce. But by 2033, we will also be widely recognized for path finding for the entire country in our links across the Pacific. We will be even more celebrated for our diversity, and for reaching deeply within our own community to preserve and to create a uniquely Hawaiian place of learning and public service dedicated to seeking pono. To the entire WSRLS community, mahalo nui loa! |
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