Dean Michael J. Kaufman
Dear Members of the Santa Clara Law Community,
As we pass the midpoint of this extraordinary fall semester, we have a wonderful chance to engage in collective reflection. Our students, staff, and faculty continue to demonstrate remarkable flexibility and perseverance in overcoming our shifting challenges. We are all focused on helping our students prepare for their mid-term exams, a very important opportunity to provide a formative assessment of their progress. We also have an opportunity to assess our own progress in achieving the ambitious goals that we have set forth.
Fortunately, our overall institutional “report card” is a positive one. As I have shared with you in previous messages, I believe that Santa Clara Law can and will realize a very bright future by building upon its distinctive strengths. Our efforts to identify and articulate these authentic strengths are going very well. Every two weeks, we have been inviting our students, staff, and faculty to reflect on at least one of those strengths. We have also been sharing these concepts with members of our volunteer boards and other alumni in smaller group settings. With the exceptional feedback we have received to date, we’ve already been able to refine our articulation, framing, and understanding of Santa Clara Law’s highly nuanced distinctive strengths. After we incorporate our community’s excellent feedback, we will share a complete list of these agreed-upon distinctive strengths and invite further feedback from all of our alumni, esteemed donors, and important partners.
From a foundation reinforced by a shared appreciation for our distinctive strengths, we will build together a long term strategic vision for Santa Clara Law, one that will embrace and enhance those strengths, one that will best serve the needs of our students, one that will anticipate trends in legal education and equip us to adapt to other industry changes not yet known, one that will advance our values and principles, and one that will enable Santa Clara Law to be a pillar to the University and a beacon for legal education.
When this year commenced, we committed to Rising Together. We admitted one of the most diverse classes in the Law School’s history and improved the competitive standing of the incoming class. We overcame the latest challenges presented by an ongoing pandemic in order to return to in-person instruction. We improved the organization and breadth of our student-wellness offerings, illustrating our unique dedication to the concept of cura personalis, educating the whole person. Although there is always more work to be done, these are concrete examples of the ways in which we are truly Rising Together.
Finally, tomorrow is our Law School Reunion. I look forward to visiting with all alumni in attendance and happy to answer any questions you may have about this month’s Rising Together post.
With warm regards and tremendous gratitude,
