Dear Friends, At the University Convocation, marking the beginning of the new academic year for our university community, President Julie Sullivan beautifully reflected on our identity as a Jesuit university, and our enduring commitment to accompanying our students in the creation of a hope-filled future.

In that same spirit, the School of Law has launched its pathbreaking Pledge Scholarship, which advances our shared Impact 2030 goal to ensure that all talented students will be given the opportunity to pursue an exceptional Santa Clara legal education, regardless of their financial circumstances. The Pledge is a bold, innovative, mission-aligned, and strategic initiative to attract and enroll highly credentialed incoming students who might otherwise be deterred from attending law school by the new caps on federal loans for professional and graduate education. Every student who is admitted into next fall’s J.D. class and deposits by our standard April 15th deadline will receive a Pledge Scholarship, which will enable them to cover their entire cost of tuition within the newly imposed limits on federally-guaranteed loans.

The Pledge incarnates our Mission. It embodies who we are–a Jesuit law school deeply dedicated to ensuring access to a transformative legal education; our context–confronting serious challenges to opportunity for all highly-qualified law students; and our Camino (our path forward)–working together to design innovative ways of promoting inclusive excellence, the rule of law, democratic values, and the future of justice.

I want to thank our entire community—faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, friends, and campus partners—for making this scholarship a reality for future Santa Clara Law students and the clients and communities that they are called to serve.

With warm regards and tremendous gratitude,

Michael J. Kaufman
Dean and Professor of Law
Santa Clara University School of Law