Law dean welcomes new students
The temperature is still over 90 degrees and the cam
pus is quiet. Except, of course, for the law school. We
start classes about 40 days earlier than everyone else
(which, I like to believe, shows the kind of eagerness and
energy our law students have).
For many of you, this is your first time at law school
— and, in many cases, your first time in Eugene and in
Oregon. You've received letters, forms, booklets, cata
logs, syllabi — and now you're reading what may be
think of ourselves as one-of-a-kind. For example, we are
the University's only graduate-level professional school
and the only public law school in the state.
We started in 1884 as the law department of the Uni
versity. But we were independent-minded even then. We
taught in rented rooms in Portland, 100 miles away from
the rest of the University, (It was the same building, in
^act, that now houses the University's Portland Center.)
We were so independent that one dean decided not to fol
low the law department to Eugene in 1915, but turned the
Portland classes into a freestanding school that — much
later — became part of Lewis and Clark College.
We were accredited by the American Bar Association in
1923 — the first year it was possible to do so, and our Law
Review was started in 1921, making it the first student law
journal in the Pacific Northwest and the second oldest in
the West. We were one of the first western schools to join
the Association of American Law Schools in 1919. (We
may be independent, but we're not isolationist.)
GUEST
COMMENTARY
your first edition of the
Oregon Daily Emerald,
our independent campus
paper. Oregonians tend
to be independent, you'll
find. That's true of the
law school as well. We
In fact, our students now come from virtually
every state of the Union, with undergraduate degrees
from over 170 institutions and academic credentials that
rank them in the upper echelon of American law
students. Our faculty members write books that are cited
in courtrooms throughout the United States and that
are used to teach law at numerous other law schools
across the nation.
Our students organize — and still continue to run —
the first public interest environmental law conference in
the world. It's now 22 years old and attracts thousands
each year. Our environmental law clinic was the first in
the country. And we still try to be first, and try to be inde
pendent. We're proud of developing a strong legal writ
ing program very early in the game (you'll be happy we
did). We're proud of our awareness of the growing im
portance of mediation and arbitration in the practice of
law (our dispute resolution student group won the ABA's
inaugural chapter of the year award two years ago). We're
proud that close to half of all Oregon judges are alumni
of the school, as is Oregon's attorney general and one of
our U.S. senators.
Our students are so independent that they demanded
a pro bono program several years ago and helped set it
up. For the past three years, they have donated more vol
unteer hours of legal service than law students at any
other school in the state (for the record — over 11,000
hours in 2003 alone). So you're in good company. This
year we had almost 1900 applicants for 180 places in
our first-year class.
We are delighted to welcome the next class of future
attorneys to the University of Oregon School of Law.
Laird Kirkpatrick is
the Philip H. Knight Dean of the law school.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Mount Hood Wilderness
Expansion should be opposed
Although I have not read the full
text of Sen. Ron Wyden's, D-Ore.,
Mount Hood Wilderness Expansion
proposal, on the surface I am
staunchly opposed to it. This sounds
like another pandering attempt to
communize public lands for the self
serving, urban eco-elite that have in
fested our state for the last 15 years.
This plan doesn't represent true Ore
gonians' values, enhance our lives, or
benefit our economy. This plan
would lock most Oregonians out of
another chunk of public land. Where
will we hunt, fish, tour, work, or en
joy our birthright as Oregonians?
How can we share our woodsman
heritage with our kids? It is not rea
sonable to expect that pedestrian
only access by permit is a viable alter
native to straight National Forest
classification. Please tell Wyden that
you are opposed to the Wilderness
Expansion on Mount Hood.
Tim Pollard
Springfield
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A campus tradition—over 100 years of publication.
o 2004 Football Student
oREGon Ticket Release Dates
Students enrolled for Fall 2004 classes AND paying student incidental fees can pick up
one ticket for each game at the ticket offices located in the EMU or at the Len Casanova
Center.* Student tickets are funded by the ADFC through student incidental fees.
Only 2,500 tickets will be available for the Indiana game - so students should act quickly.
6,100 tickets will be available for the remaining games. Any remaining student tickets will
become available to students for purchase for their friends and family (maximum of four
tickets) beginning Wednesday during the week of the home football game.
*On first day of distribution for each game, tickets will be distributed from the South Ticket building at Autzen Stadium instead of the Casanova Center.
Game Date
September 11, 2004
September 25, 2004
October 2, 2004
October 16, 2004
October 30, 2004
November 13, 2004
Opponent
Indiana
Idaho
Arizona State
Arizona
Washington
UCLA
Release Dates
Monday, August 30
Tuesday, September 7
Monday, September 20
Monday, October 4
Monday, October 18
Monday, November 1
For more information, students should contact the Oregon Athletic
Ticket Office at (541) 346-4461 or the ASUO at (541) 346-3724.