Irvine, Calif., law school gets new name, offers first class full tuition scholarships
October 22, 2008
LOS ANGELES — The new law school at the University of California, Irvine has dropped its original name, the Donald Bren School of Law, and plans to offer full tuition scholarships to students who enroll in the school's first semester in fall 2009.
Donald Bren, the billionaire chairman of the Irvine Co., a real estate firm, gave $20 million to the law school last year. Bren is a major donor to the University of California, Irvine, having supported the university's endowment; the school of information and computer sciences, which is named after him; and the school of the arts, which is named after his late stepmother.
In an e-mailed statement, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky wrote: "We are deeply grateful for the Bren gift, but it was decided between the chancellor and Mr. Bren that our name should be parallel to other UC schools."
John Christensen, a spokesman at the Irvine Co., said the school requested the change and Bren accommodated that request. He said part of the reason to drop the name was to avoid confusion with other schools that are named after Bren on the campus of UC Irvine.
The move comes as the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, recently reduced the prominence of its Boalt Hall name.
It also comes as UC Irvine School of Law, which began accepting applications for enrollment a month ago, plans to offer full tuition scholarships to its first class, which is anticipated to be about 60 students, said Charles Cannon, assistant dean of development and external affairs at the law school.
Originally, the school, which will focus on public interest law, had planned to offer full tuition scholarships to about half that class; but, in an effort to lure high-quality students and compete with other top 20 law schools, UC Irvine School of Law has expanded that program, he said. While the law school has not yet determined the cost of its tuition, each scholarship is anticipated to be about $100,000, given an estimated rate of about $33,000 per year, Cannon said.
He said that UC Irvine School of Law, which is actively fundraising for the scholarships, has raised more than one third of the roughly $6 million needed to provide full tuition for each student. But he said the school currently has at least 10 more gifts in line for scholarships. "People in the community see it as an investment," he said.
In recent years, some top universities, such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford, have announced plans to provide free tuition to students whose families earn less than $45,000 to $60,000. This year, Harvard Law School announced that it would forgive the third year of tuition for students who commit to spending five years in public service after graduation.
Most Popular Headlines
- Top ABA staffers exit amid reorganization
- Daschle departing Alston for DLA Piper
- Unanimous 7th Circuit finds mezuzah removal worth a lawsuit
- Obama shakes up counsel's office
- Employers unsure about medical marijuana
- The 2009 NLJ 250
- New approaches to law firm recruitment
- Hasan case to test military justice system
- 'He had the ability to do anything'
- No quiet time for new justice
