THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 27, 1996 TAG: 9601270224
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ADAM BERNSTEIN CAMPUS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Faculty and staff members at the University of Virginia Law School have given more than $1 million to the school's capital campaign, the largest collective faculty donation in the university's history.
The law school hopes to raise $75 million as part of a universitywide campaign to raise $750 million by the turn of the century. Law school officials said 89 faculty and staff members have contributed a total of $1.06 million.
``They believe in the law school,'' dean Robert E. Scott said. ``It sounds hokey, but it's true.''
Eight-six percent of the law school's faculty donated money. The average salary for a full-time faculty member at the law school is $112,500.
The law school has raised $60.8 million so far. It will go toward areas such as buildings, professorships and financial aid. The university as a whole has raised $380 million, as of Dec. 30, said Bob Sweeney, vice president for development.
Daniel J. Meador, who retired in 1994 after 31 years teaching at the law school, gave 230 acres of his Fluvanna County property to the Law School Foundation. The land, worth $72,000, will help create a lecture series about the relationship between law and religion. ``My main motivation was to fill what I saw as a void in the law school's total program,'' he said.
Meador said faculty donations would also help encourage more giving by alumni.
Scott agreed: ``It occurred to me that our faculty is a specially invested group in the institution. It would be hard to invite others to contribute if we did not ask our faculty to do the same thing.''
Two donations make up about half of the total. A former law school librarian, Frances Farmer, who died in 1993, willed her entire estate, worth $250,000, to the school. Her money will go toward enlarging the library.
A second donation of $250,000, made last month by a current faculty member, who wishes to remain anonymous, will endow a professorship.
Excluding those two donations, the average donation was $6,300.
``I am more pleased with the overall participation,'' Scott said. ``The two very large gifts are of great satisfaction, but not everyone has $250,000 to give.''
Dick Merrill, a law professor who served as dean from 1980 to 1988, said it is significant that less than one-third of the school's faculty members graduated from U.Va.
The professors ``have alumni allegiances to other institutions, which are also in the business of trying to get contributions,'' he said. ``They felt the tug from alma mater, and I have no notion of how they responded to that, but being appealed to by their school and yet contributing to the school at which they work is pretty remarkable.''
Sweeney also lauded the participation of 24 staff members, such as secretaries. ``We've always been very encouraged that although their salaries have been good but lower than the faculty and administrators', they've come through with money gifts (that are) very high, commensurate with their salary.''
With the exception of the law school and the Darden Business School, which has raised $763,455 from its professors so far, faculty fund-raising has not started in the other colleges, U.Va. officials said. by CNB