The School of Law is pleased to report that alumni support has surged for a second straight year. Since December, nearly 200 alumni participated in an end-of-year fundraising drive, providing over $35,000 in support for summer public interest fellowships, the School of Law/Jubilee Immigration Project and student scholarships. Contributors came from all “eras” and incarnations of the School, from the earliest Antioch School of Law classes to recent grads.

The breadth of this support plus another alum’s anonymous annual $21,000 donation covering full tuition for both an in-state and out of state activist student, allowed Dean Shelley Broderick to highlight alumni support of the School in her presentation to the American Bar Association at the end of January.

The 200 participants in the year-end drive is more than number of alumni (195) who donated over the entire year between October 1, 2001 and October 1, 2002—which represented a doubling. There is every reason to believe we can double alumni participation again this year!

One of the highlights of this year's effort was a series of generous challenge donations by members of the Class of 1998 that were touched off by a $650 student challenge to match contributions by recent graduates! ‘98ers Brian Leslie, Melissa Willett and Ernesto Torres Almodovar have pledged $550, $1100 and $5,000 dollars respectively (See the e-mail correspondence below!)

Another highlight was a last-minute challenge made by an alumna - career-long legal services attorney Olive Clarke, from New York City who challenged her classmates and alumni generally with a $1,500 donation!

The 2002 year-end effort was touched off by a $1,500 challenge grant from Carolyn Waller, '77, in support of our Immigration Law Project; a $1,500 matching grant from DCSL Foundation Board Vice-Chair Daniel Solomon, a $1,000 match by Joe Libertelli, '85, a $500 match for scholarship donations by Dean Broderick (MAT, '82); a $500 challenge by Walter Gordon, '76; and a $300 challenge to classmates by Paul Raizk, '96. Paul Kratchman, '86, challenged his classmates with a $100 donation, Prof. Jim Gray challenged the Class of '93 to match a $200 donation.

In order to encourage Antioch School of Law graduates to support UDC-DCSL, the School of Law solicited statements of support by Antioch law alumni. Thirty alumni responded and their words were featured in e-mails and in a mailing to all Antioch School of Law alumni - which included The Advocate. This extra effort made a clear difference to many, as evidenced both by the increase in donors and donations, as well as by the wonderful notes alumni sent along with their checks and/or pledges.

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