W&M Law School Dean Hails ‘Tremendous Boost’

WILLIAMSBURG -- The Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary received a tremendous boost Wednesday with the governor\u27s request to the General Assembly for an expanded facility and a $500,000 pledge from its alumni for support. D. Wayne O\u27Bryan of Richmond, president of the law school association, told a kickoff meeting in Richmond of the association\u27s 1974 annual fund campaign that the voluntary $500,000 pledge would be payable over the next 10 years. He indicated the pledge was made on the assumption that the General Assembly will appropriate the $4,850,000 necessary to construct a modern facility for the school of law. The pledge of private support for the school is being made, O\u27Bryan emphasized, to help assure the continuing excellence of the instructional program during this expansion. Last year the law alumni contributed about $50,000 to the school, more than double the goal of its first fund drive. Gov. Linwood Holton in his address to the opening session of the Virginia General Assembly made a special comment\u27 on his request for funds for the expansion. Earlier, Holton had voiced strong support of Virginia\u27s two state-support law schools at the University of Virginia and William and Mary and noted Wednesday in his address that expansion in Williamsburg would allow for an additional 150 law students and would cost well below the $12 million estimated sum for initial financing of a third state law school. Dean James P. Whyte of the law school commented via telephone from Atlanta that the two announcements Wednesday give more than a significant boost, they give a tremendous boost to our law school efforts. I personally am deeply grateful for the governor\u27s confidence in the law school and will do everything in our power to deserve that confidence in the years ahead