September 29, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The New York University School of Law has received five pledges of $10-million or more to kick off the public phase of its capital campaign, announced on September 19. The gifts are among $165-million already raised for the campaign, which seeks to bring in $400-million by the end of 2009.
Rita Hauser, president of the Hauser Foundation, and her husband, Gustave, founder of Hauser Communications, made the largest pledge, $19-million. Ms. Hauser is a 1959 graduate of the law school and a trustee, and Mr. Hauser earned a master’s of law degree from the school in 1957.
Jay Furman, Dwight D. Opperman, Anthony Welters, and Leonard Wilf, who are also trustees of the university, made pledges of $10-million each. Mr. Furman is a 1971 graduate and a principal of RD Management Corporation, a real-estate company. Mr. Opperman is a retired chief executive officer of West Publishing, and Mr. Wilf, who received his master’s of law degree in 1977, is president of Garden Homes. Mr. Welters, who made the gift with his wife, Beatrice, is a 1977 graduate and chief executive officer of AmeriChoice Corporation, a health-care company.
The law school said it will use the money to recruit faculty members, expand financial aid, support the school’s legal-research centers, and increase the assistance it provides to students who enter public service. The campaign will allow it to offer larger stipends to students who take unpaid summer jobs at nonprofit groups, as well as help to pay off their loans. Graduates who spend 10 years working in public service will not have to repay any of their law-school loans, said Richard Revesz, dean of the law school.
“One of the hallmarks of our law school is a commitment to making public-service careers viable for students who have that calling,” says Mr. Revesz. “That’s one of the ways we identify ourselves as an institution, and I wanted the campaign to help make some of those gains permanent by providing support in perpetuity.”
