Kentucky Lawyer, 1991

Dean's Report Dean RUlheford B Campbell Each year. the beginning of classes is a hectic lished the Wendell H. Ford Professorship of ings and provide more hands-on experiences for time for all of us at the law school. Although I Law. It is now our largest professorship and has our students. always look forward to thereturn of the students an endowment of nearly $200,000. Problems such as these are always present and the. opportunity to get back into the class- Our support was not limited to professor- in a law school, however, and should not deflect room, the blizzard of paperwork and the myriad ships, however. Joel Williamson, a 1970 gradu- us from the realization that the law school is of problems that surface during those firstccuple ate of the College of Law, made a $50,000 cash headed in the right direction and is making real of months often seem oppressive. gift to the law school, and we used that to progress in the quality of its program. So, whenToddEberlesendsmeagentle (or, establish the Joel Williamson Scholarship Food. Foundations are the key to quality improve- truthfully. a not so gentle) reminder that my We made our first award from that endowment ments in any law school. A law school that has letter for the Kentucky Lawver is due, I always in April of this year. and Brett Todd is our first a fme faculty, a fine student body. a fine library groan. As Ibegin to prepare to write my letter, Joel Williamson Scholar here at the law school. and supportive alumni is by definition a fme however, my spirits rise, since this letter gives In addition to all of this, we received liter- institution. Glitz does not a great law school me the opportunity to reflect a bit on our situa- ally hundreds of gifts from friends and alumni. make. We understand thatattheCollegeofLaw tion at the law school and consider the progress Without these gifts, our success would not have and are focusing our energies on foundations. we made over the last year. been so great last year. We believe it is paying off. Today. as I consider on our situation and the During the last academic year, we made a events of the last academic year. I am aware of major commitment to strengthen our develop- the difficulties that we face. Notwithstanding, I ment capability and now have hired our first, am proud of what the law school has been able full-time Director of Development. Debbie to accomplish and exceedingly optimistic about Wells. Debbie is originally from Muhlenberg where' we are going. In fact, all this makes me County and has extensive development experi- feel so\good that it almost compensates for all of ence. This is a major resource commitment for the silly reports that I have to fill out and the us, but it is an essential foundation for the law useless information I ain required to supply to school as we move toward the twenty-first cen- KENTUCKY LAWYER the federal government, state, University. Lex- tury. Kentucky Lawyer is published twice each year by Ihe ington Campus, AALS, ABA, KBA, LSAT, Other good things happened to the law school University of Kentucky College of Law, Lexington, Ken- NALP, CHE, ETC. (l am lying, of course; not tucky. Our purpose is to provide a source of information during the last year. Our 1991 entering class has for alwnni, friends and others interested inthe law school's even our progress can remove the pall of depres- the best credentials of any class we have ever past, present and future as well as to offer a forwn for the sion that falls from such oppressive bureaucratic taken. Our median LSAT score for that class legal community to comment on substantive, practical or demands). jumped by two points to a 38. In addition, we philosophical aspects of the law. Criticism or compliments During 1990, we set an all time record (and received additional support for our library. Our are welcome. Editor: Todd B. Eberle a big record) for our fund raising. As you may faculty salaries continued to become morecom- AssL Editor. David T. Miller have heard. we raised approximately $670,000. petitive. Our teaching is rock solid, and our Composition: M. Charlene Montgomery This was nearly twice as much as we have ever faculty is productive. Photographer. Todd B. Eberle raised before. In the course of this, we estab- All of this is not to imply that the College of Student Advisor: Bryan N. West lished three new professorships at the law school. Law is without problems. We are constantly The Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs Professorship was struggling to make sense of our exceedingly established as a result of an $85,000 gift to the tight budget. We need additional funding for law school by wyatt, Tarrant & Combs. Also, our library. We are nervous about the job market we completed the second year of our Ashland for law students. We may be facing budgetary Oil Challenge by establishing a second Ashland shortfalls in the next year or so. We need THE COYER Oil Professorship of Law. Finally, we estab- additional faculty to expand our course offer- Portrait ofW. T. Lafferty as displayed at the College afLaw. Reflections This issue's "Reflections" offers afascinaiing accowu State College to a State University, and to secure during the meeting and had a satisfactory talk a/the origins of the University o[KenJudcyCoilege of such additional fmancial aid as might be neces- with him in the hope of reconciling all the Law. It was authored 1Jy the College of Law's first sary to promote the new educational enterprise. differences between the schools. I at once pro- Dean, W.T. Lafferty of Cynthiana, Kentucky, dates At the outset it was apparent to the Legislative vided for a dining at our home in Cynthiana, at back 10 1904 and was originally publish£d in the Committee that the name Kentucky should be which President Roark was guest of honor, and January 1923 issue of tke Ken/weltY Law lQUl1141 to which I invited several prominent educators I (Volume XI, Number2). You need not recall the times attached to the name of the State University, and and the everus. The names, places and institutions are that it would be necessary to have some kind of could easily reach, including Professor Milford familiar to all who have passed through or been understanding with the other university located White, who was then head of the normal school associated with the law school. / commend it 10 you. in Lexington, operating under the name of Ken- connected with the State College. President tucky University, a name it had held about forty Roark had been head of this normal school Editor years, it being the university to which the State before the creation of the two separate normal College had formerly been anached. I had now schools. During the evening we talked of the The Founding of the College of Law become a sectarian institution and we felt that possibilities of an educational uplift in Ken- of the University of Kentucky some understanding could be reached whereby tucky and I discovered the additional evidence it might be induced to drop the name Kentucky that should we go to the Legislature without a By W. T. Lafferty in favor of the State University to be created. conunon understanding, the existing feeling The Executive Committee of State College was between the schools would mean absolute fail- In 1904, I was made a member of the Board of called together to consider this question, and ure and a compromise was hardly to be ex- Trustees of the State College of Kentucky, and Col. Cassius M. Clay of Paris, who was amem- pected. Next day, in another conference with at the same time was made a member of the her of the denomination supporting that institu- President Roark, I suggested that our three com- Executive Conunittee appointed by the Board of tion, and myself, also a member of that denomi- mittees meet together at an early date and ascer- Trustees. My duties as a member of the Execu- nation as well as a member of the Board of tain whether or not an understanding on mutual tive Conunittee called me from my home in Trustees of the Bible College connected with lines could be reached. He agreed that the effort Cynthiana to the seat of the College at Lexing- that university, were appointed a conunittee to was advisable and I arranged for a meeting in ton, about once each month. As I had received take up negotiations with a like conuninee ap- Louisville, at which most of the members of the my education at that college while it was a part pointed by its Board of Trustees, leading up to an three conunittees were present. A preliminary of Kentucky University, the work soon became understanding as to the question of name. After understanding was reached and I was made fascinating and I could see that an opportunity repeated meetings an agreement was reached. chairman of the joint comminee. We agreed that was offered for building up a great educational Kentucky University, for a reasonable consid- we would jointly visit the State College and each institution out of what had been begun as a State eration, gave up the name Kentucky, and re- of the two normal schools, and as nearly as College after its separation from Kentucky Uni- assumed the name provided in her original char- possible sum up the needs of each.

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