CU
MAKING HISTORY IN LEGAL EDUCATION
University
of Colorado Law School prepares for move to new Wolf
Law Building; Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer
to deliver keynote address
BOULDER,
Colo.-The Colorado Law School will officially dedicate
the new Wolf Law Building on the University of Colorado
at Boulder campus on September 8, 2006. Never before
has an entire campus student body voted to tax themselves
to build a new law school because of a lack of financial
support from the state. The Law School announces that
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will attend the
dedication and deliver the keynote address.
"History is being made with the opening of the new
building," said Dean David Getches. "The Wolf Law
Building will be a source of pride for everyone associated
with Colorado Law for generations to come. It is a
monument to the determination and generosity of those
who made it possible, and its technologically advanced
classrooms and courtrooms, and gracious public areas
will further our mission of providing the excellent
legal education to our students."
In
2003, Colorado Law students successfully worked with
the student government to create a $400-per-year student
fee that fully replaced the $21 million that the legislature
rescinded in the wake of Colorado's fiscal crisis.
This fee will provide a total of $100 million for
capital construction on the Boulder campus. Sixty
percent of the cost of the Wolf Law Building is being
provided by students.
The
move to the Wolf Law Building will take place over
two weeks beginning July 28, 2006. The new building
will be a state-of-the art educational facility. It
will foster active civic engagement with the community
and will better prepare the legal community of tomorrow.
Colorado
Law is among the nation's 25 top-ranked public law
schools and among the 10 top-ranked law schools in
the West. It is ranked 4th in the nation for environmental
and natural resources law.
WOLF
LAW BUILDING AT UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FACT SHEET
The
students and faculty of the University of Colorado
School of Law are engaged in preparing for the future
through responsible involvement and participation
in the real world institutions of government, law
and society that impact our American way of life.
· The dedication of the Wolf Law Building will occur
on September 8, 2006, and will feature Supreme Court
Justice Stephen Breyer and CU Law alumnus Karen Mathis,
the president of the American Bar Association.
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The total cost of Wolf Law Building is $46.3 million.
Sixty percent of this cost will be paid for by
students. No other known major building on the
Boulder campus or at any other university has
been built with this level of student support.
-
In 1997, Colorado Law students voted to pay $1,000
additional tuition to be dedicated to paying for
a new building.
-
In 2003, Colorado Law students successfully worked
with the student government in creating a $400-per-year
student fee to replace the $21 million that the
legislature rescinded in the wake of Colorado's
fiscal crisis.
-
The fee will provide a total of $100 million for
capital construction on the Boulder campus and
construction of the ATLAS building an addition
to the Business School, a new Fine Arts Building
and information technology infrastructure throughout
the campus.
-
The law school received nearly $18 million in
private gifts, most notably a $3 million donation
from the Wolf family.
-
Twenty
percent of the student fee will go toward financial
aid to help students who would have a hard time
affording increased fees. One percent of the construction
funds will go toward environmentally friendly
features, such as the use of renewable energy
in the buildings.
About
the building
-
At
180,000 square feet, the Wolf Law Building will
enable Colorado Law to grow, recruit top faculty
and promote its nationally recognized centers
and clinical programs.
-
Students
will benefit from a state-of-the-art classroom
environment. Wireless networking, distance learning
capacity, and audio-visual equipment will be available
to facilitate the use of technology.
-
The Wolf Law Building will house two high-tech
courtrooms. The Wittemyer Courtroom will be a
venue for symposia, class meetings, conferences,
court proceedings of state and federal courts
and large gatherings. It will also host actual
sessions of state, federal, and tribal appellate
courts. The Carrigan Teaching Courtroom will be
used for classes, moot court competitions, and
training in litigation. Both will feature leading-edge
videotaping and distance-learning capabilities.
-
The space dedicated to Colorado Law's centers
of excellence, such as the Byron R. White Center
for the Study of Constitutional Law, the Natural
Resources Law Center, the Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications
Program, and the Energy and Environmental Security
Initiative, will double in the new building creating
room for new centers and emerging programs. Space
for clinical programs will grow by 40 percent.
Law journal offices will double and student services
space will expand by nearly 50 percent.
-
The
new law library will be the most comprehensive
and technologically advanced in the 12-state Rocky
Mountain region. Colorado Law will serve as a
center for legal research at a time when many
other law schools are reducing their library investment.
It is also the regional archive for the United
States government (making it the most complete
law library in Colorado.)
-
In keeping with an outstanding national reputation
for environmental law, the Wolf Law building is
being constructed to the exacting standards of the
U.S. Green Building Council's "Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design" (LEED) building certification,
including water conservation (39 percent less indoor
water usage than a conventional building); energy
efficiency (100 percent renewable energy and electricity);
environmentally safe, locally produced materials;
waste recycling (more than 50 percent of construction
waste recycled); indoor air quality control; and
multiple innovations in design.
CUTTING-EDGE
TECHNOLOGY ENHANCES NEW WOLF LAW BUILDING
BOULDER-Gone
are the days of professors simply using a chalk board
and textbook. The new Wolf Law Building at the University
of Colorado will feature cutting-edge technology to
support teaching and research at Colorado Law.
"We
are very proud to now be able to provide our students
and faculty with one of the most technologically advanced
law schools in the country," said Professor Scott
Peppet, the Chair of the Law School's Technology Committee.
"This will provide our students with the best learning
environment and an opportunity for the very best technology
in legal education. It will give our students a great
advantage."
Some
of technology highlights include fully digital courtrooms,
state-of-the-art classrooms with the most advanced
learning technologies, top-tier video conferencing
capabilities for distance learning, internet-based
video recording stations and interview rooms, computer
labs and learning areas throughout the new law library
(which serves as the law library for the entire Rocky
Mountain region) and digital information kiosks throughout
the building.
Justice
Stephen Breyer will dedicate the 183,000 square foot
building on September 8th. The Wolf Law Building will
feature two high-tech courtrooms, 50 percent more
space for law journal offices and law clinics, and
the largest resource collection and most technologically
advanced law library in the twelve-state Rocky Mountain
region.
Also, in keeping with the outstanding national reputation
for environmental law, Colorado Law is striving to
make Wolf Law the first Gold-certified public law
school building in the country under the exacting
standards of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design Certificate (LEED
Certified). That means 39 percent less indoor water
usage than a conventional building, 100 percent renewable
energy electricity, and recycling 90 percent of all
construction waste.
FIRST
LADY LAURA BUSH ACKNOWLEDGES LORENZO TRUJILLO FOR
TRUANCY WORK
School
absences a serious and growing problem; Truancy reaching
thirty percent each day in some communities and 70,000
each day in Colorado
Boulder,
CO --- Truancy is a serious issue of major concern
throughout the United States and one program in Colorado
has gained national attention and recognition by First
Lady Laura Bush.
"We
have a serious and growing problem in the United States
with our children not attending school," said Lorenzo
Trujillo, Assistant Dean of the University of Colorado
Law School and author of a recent study on truancy.
"70,000 students were out of school every day in Colorado
alone in 2002 and more than two-thirds of all school
absences nationwide were non-illness-related with
absence rates reaching 30 percent each day in some
communities. Truancy has monumental social ramifications
and is one of the first and best indicators of academic
failure, suspension, expulsion, delinquency and later
adult crime."
The
study was acknowledged by First Lady Laura Bush in
a letter to Dean Trujillo, stating: "President Bush
and I are grateful to educators and leaders like you
who are taking positive steps to intervene before
young people have strayed too far form their connections
to school and community. Over and over, the difference
in the lives of our youth is made by the personal
intervention of someone who shows them-not tells them,
shows them- that they matter and that they have what
it takes to succeed. The President and I admire you
for your good work." First Lady Laura Bush has devoted
substantial efforts to improving the potential future
of at-risk youths has directed national attention
to truancy in the schools as one factor of at-risk
youth.
Dean
Trujillo spent five years implementing a truancy reduction
project in Adams County Public Schools that provided
tremendous quantifiable results to help keep kids
in school. Project staff worked with Adams County
courts and numerous intervention agencies, such as
social services, mental health agencies, in-school
counselors, day treatment programs, individual tutoring,
Saturday classes, parenting classes, and drug and
alcohol treatment programs to keep kids in school.
A
comprehensive research study about the project was
published in the University of California Journal
of Juvenile Law and Policy this year: School Truancy:
A Case Study of a Successful Truancy Reduction Model
in the Public Schools, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 69-95.
The study presents details about the model, economic
impact, and success results. This past year, the University
of Colorado Law School implemented a new Juvenile
Law Clinic that works with schools and the courts
in matters of dependency and neglect and truancy.
As the CU Law School dedicates its new building on
September 8th, 2006, the new Clinic, in collaboration
with the Juvenile and Family Law Program, will have
a new center of operations from where to provide these
essential services to keep kids in school.
COLORADO
LAW MAKES HISTORY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
National
Bar Magazine Editorial
By: David Getches Dean, University of Colorado School
of Law
The
University of Colorado Law School will make history
with the dedication of the new Wolf Law Building on
the Boulder campus in September. Never before have
students of an entire campus voted to tax themselves
for construction of a new law school building.
Justice
Stephen Breyer will dedicate the 183,000 square foot
building on September 8th. The Wolf Law Building will
feature state-of-the-art classrooms, two high-tech
courtrooms, 50 percent more space for law journal
offices and law clinics and the largest resource collection
and most technologically advanced law library in the
twelve-state Rocky Mountain region.
In
keeping with the outstanding national reputation for
environmental law, Colorado Law is striving to make
Wolf Law the first Gold-certified public law school
building in the country under the exacting standards
of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design Certificate (LEED
Certified). That means 39 percent less indoor water
usage than a conventional building, 100 percent renewable
energy electricity, and recycling 90 percent of all
construction waste.
Since
the school's founding in 1892 Colorado Law has developed
a tradition of excellence that will be enhanced with
the new Wolf Law Building.
The journey to a new home began in 1995 when an American
Bar Association report found the Fleming Law Building
inadequate. By 1998, a plan was assembled and approved
by the Board of Regents for a new building.
That
is when the alumni network and private donors stepped
up. The seminal moment in the birth of the new building
and the inspiration to break ground came from a $3
million donation from Marvin and Judi Wolf, Erving,
and Joyce Wolf and Elaine Wolf in honor of Leon and
Dora Wolf.
The
Colorado Commission on Higher Education approved the
law school's proposal for the building and over $20
million was committed to the project. Law students
voted overwhelmingly for an annual $1,000 tuition
increase to help fund the project and private fundraising
began in earnest to finance the remaining balance.
Groundbreaking
was scheduled for May 2002. At the time, Colorado's
budget was in a tailspin fueled by the TABOR amendment
to the state constitution, which restricted state
expenditures. Legislative appropriations were abruptly
rescinded as the state plunged into a financial crisis.
In 2002, all capital construction funding ground to
a halt and all of higher education, not just the law
school, was suffering badly from major cuts.
Seven
years after its original report, finding the law school's
facilities inadequate, the ABA came calling again.
In 2003, the ABA Accreditation Committee not only
found Colorado Law in noncompliance because of the
condition of its facilities, but it also threatened
to take action.
In
the fall of 2004, after months of intense negotiating
within CU student government, campus leaders took
the fee to a vote of the entire student body. The
proposal resoundingly passed a capital development
fee to fund the state's share of the law building
and three other projects on the Boulder campus. Every
student will pay $400 per year and this will produce
over $100 million in capital investment on the CU
campus Construction on the Wolf Law Building began
in January 2005 with $21 million from student funds.
Private
donors also invested heavily in support of the effort.
They raised nearly $13 million towards the total cost
of $46 million. The building was completed this month
and the Law School is completing its move before classes
begin on August 27, 2006.
The
tradition of excellence at CU Law will thrive in this
magnificent building. Wolf Law provides a new home
that will continue to produce scholars who shape the
nation and the world. It is a building worthy of the
ideas and learning that will take place within its
walls.
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