dropped to only 62 students , much smaller than our historical target numbers for new law students . By fall 2019 , with aid from the momentum created by the additional legislative appropriation and strong efforts by our recruiting team at UND Law , we had advanced our enrollment numbers to welcome 84 new 1L students . And in fall 2020 , despite all of the uncertainties and upheavals caused by the COVID-19 pandemic , we successfully recruited 82 new 1L law students to enroll as the Class of 2023 . To date , we are well along the way to exceeding those excellent enrollment figures , with our seat deposits currently at 90 for the Class of 2024 , and also in continuing our recent upward trends in high academic credentials and greater racial and ethnic diversity among our new law students .
• In addition , we have made very positive strides forward in the area of bar passage rates for our graduates . In July 2019 , our first-time North Dakota July bar exam pass rate climbed to 84 percent , up from 75 percent in July 2018 . In July 2020 , even with the added challenges for studying for an inperson bar exam in the midst of a pandemic , our graduates again admirably rose to the occasion and succeeded on North Dakota ’ s bar exam with a first-time pass rate of 87 %.
• With the expert advice and excellent efforts of the UND Alumni Association & Foundation ( UND AA & F ), especially Vice President of Development Mike Mannausau and the School of Law ’ s Director of Development Tom Dosch , we have had two years of record-high fundraising for the School of Law . These outstanding fundraising successes include numerous endowment contributions , planned gifts , and individual donations in support of our program of legal education and our students . In the 2019-2020 cycle , we utilized a $ 250,000 state matching grant to help us raise $ 500,000 in endowment donations to provide sustained funding for clinical legal education and energy law faculty support .
I am grateful to our alumni and friends who have provided such dedicated financial support for the School of Law , including for new endowments and planned gifts that will pay great dividends for decades to come . We are also pleased the North Dakota Legislative Assembly provided a new $ 250,000 state match to help us raise more funds for faculty recruitment and retention and clinical legal education programs at the UND School of Law . I will be working closely with Tom and the entire UND AA & F team to raise the funds needed to fully secure the state match dollars by the time I complete my deanship next June .
As I reflect back on my tenure as dean , the most special single moment and greatest honor for me occurred at the UND celebration of Justice VandeWalle at the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum in Bismarck in February 2020 . At this celebration , I announced the renaming in his honor of our third-floor courtroom , a space distinctively rich in its history and traditions . We are actively working on renovation plans to be completed in spring 2022 . The renovation , in part , will include updated technology and an ADA-compliant , accessible jury box ; but it will retain the traditional feel and connection between our past , present , and future that makes it such a unique and special place in our School of Law . It will be an honor to host in-person events there again in the coming academic year .
As I conclude , I would like to take this opportunity to address certain legal , ethical , and educational principles that I consider it to be critically important for us to protect at UND and the School of Law in the times ahead , particularly as I begin to plan for my return to teaching , speaking , and writing as a member of our UND Law faculty in the fall of 2022 . In my May announcement ,
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I made a purposeful and significant decision to underscore the paramount importance of robust protection for freedom of speech and free exercise of religion among our nation ’ s lawyers , law professors , and law students . See A Tribute to Justice Antonin Scalia , 92 N . D . L . REV . 1 , 15-18 ( 2016 ); Expressing Conscience with Candor : Saint Thomas More and First Freedoms in the Legal Profession , 42 HARV . J . L . & PUB . POL ’ Y 173 ( 2019 ). To create and sustain a flourishing , genuinely inclusive , and truly equitable and just academic community , it is essential that sound and ideologically even-handed principles of academic freedom are not only clearly declared as foundational concepts , but also are respected in reality and upheld in practice at UND and the School of Law .
Considering many factors , including ongoing and troubling developments in our national social and academic culture , I believe it is essential that I now state this clearly and without reservation : in returning to our faculty , I possess the right and will assert and exercise my freedom to speak and write candidly and openly about my views on the law , society , and public policy , including views that dissent from those currently dominant in our nation ’ s legal academic subculture , where intolerance toward those who embrace traditional or conservative values , beliefs , and convictions has been on the rise . In particular , in recent years , a vicious “ cancel culture ” that seeks to silence or demand reprisals of various kinds against those with whom one disagrees has chillingly been infecting the American legal academy , and is sadly reflected by reported episodes in 2020 and 2021 involving faculty and students at multiple law schools in all
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