Dear Berkeley Law Community,
Our Fall semester is more than half done and frankly I don’t think the resumption of in-person classes could have gone much better. We have returned to almost entirely in-person instruction and have had relatively few reported cases of COVID. This is due to everyone’s care and vigilance about wearing masks and taking sensible safety precautions. I am grateful to all for their efforts and for their patience as we have dealt with a myriad of issues in our transition back. I especially want to thank our terrific staff for all of their hard work. Over the next few weeks, we will be arranging and announcing a number of special staff appreciation events.
I have three important announcements that concern the schedule for make-up classes, wonderful new gifts that we just have received for student financial aid, and a transition in our administrative team.
Make-up classes. Our standard time for make-up classes has been Fridays from 1:00-3:00 p.m. When I met with leaders of affinity groups two weeks ago, the leaders of the Muslim Student Union asked if we could change this because it conflicts with Muslim prayers on Fridays, which are from 1:00-2:30. In light of this important request, we will change the standard time for make-up classes to 2:30-4:30 on Fridays and will endeavor to the greatest extent possible to schedule make-ups during that time. I apologize that there will be instances when this is not possible (such as for three-hour make-up classes). I also recognize that this may create conflicts for upper-level students in Friday mini-classes that begin at 3:00 p.m. But our policy always has been that professors cannot require in-person attendance at make-up classes and that all make-up classes must be recorded. Hopefully, this will help alleviate problems that might arise.
Gifts for financial aid. One of my top priorities in fund raising has been to increase financial aid for our students. I thus am delighted to report two wonderful new gifts which we received last week. We received a $2.5 million gift to endow scholarships for Berkeley Law Opportunity Scholarships. It is from a member of our alumni community who wishes to remain anonymous at the present time. It is one of the largest scholarship gifts in Berkeley Law history. And last week we also received a $500,000 gift for scholarships from Mike and Kari De Vries. My enormous thanks to Mary Matheron, Stephanie Deaner, and our development team for their hard work on these important gifts.
Administrative transition. Since 2014, Molly Van Houweling has been our extraordinary Associate Dean for J.D. Curriculum and Teaching. There simply are not enough superlatives to describe her work as Associate Dean or words to express sufficient thanks. Although associate deans generally serve for about three years, Molly has been in this role for seven years. During this time, she has overseen the curriculum as we have increased our students, our faculty, and our course offerings. She was instrumental in helping the faculty transition to online teaching and then back into the classroom. She has worked hard to provide instructional resources and programs on pedagogy for our faculty, especially focused on equity and inclusion in the classroom. In approaching every issue, she above all has focused on what is best for our students and their education and their welfare. In my time at Berkeley Law, she has been an invaluable advisor and colleague.
Molly has decided to complete her service as Associate Dean on June 30, 2022. Although I will terribly miss her in this role, I am delighted that Andrew Bradt will be our new Associate Dean beginning July 1. As everyone knows, Andrew is a superb teacher and is ideally suited to overseeing our J.D. Curriculum and Teaching. I am very grateful to him for taking on this crucial role.
Town Hall. Just a reminder that the Student Town Hall for the Fall semester will be today from 1:00-2:00 p.m. by Zoom. A link will be sent to all students this morning and all, of course, are invited to attend!
I wish everyone and your loved ones good health in these still perilous times. I hope the remainder of the semester is enjoyable and rewarding.
Warmly,
Erwin