The State Bar Association of North Dakota Fall 2015 Gavel Magazine | Page 20

UND SCHOOL OF LAW
NEW AND IMPROVED
construction equipment. And there was a
really big hole in the ground.

K AT H R Y N R . L . R A N D
Dean, University of North Dakota
School of Law
On October 9, the School of Law held a
Formal Dedication and Ribbon Cutting
ceremony to celebrate the completion of
the law school building project. Speakers
at the event included Lt. Governor Drew
Wrigley, Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle,
State Board of Higher Education Chair
Kathleen Neset, State Representative (and
third-year student) Kylie Oversen, and
University President Robert Kelley. I made
the following remarks at the ceremony:

And today, just one year later, we are
holding a ceremony to mark the successful
completion of a new and improved law
school—this dedication and ribbon cutting
ceremony.
And although we are almost in the exact
same location, we are in a very different
place.

Today, we are in a much, much better place.
A better place for our students, a better place
for the legal profession, a better place for our
law school community, and a better place for
the people of North Dakota. Because we are
North Dakota’s law school.
And what we’ve accomplished in just one
year for future generations of attorneys
who will serve future generations of North
Dakotans, . . . well, you can see it in the
beautiful building behind me.

Exactly one year ago, we held a ceremony to
mark the beginning of construction on the
law school—a brick laying ceremony.
We were almost in this exact place—almost,
but not quite. We were across the street, on
the front lawn of the library, overlooking this
area.
And exactly one year ago, this area where
we all are now, looked very different. There
was a huge Construction Engineers trailer,
with that great “Laying down the law, one
brick at a time” slogan. There was a chain
link fence surrounding the law school and
declaring it off limits as a construction site.
There were signs saying that the law school’s
operations were now located in multiple
buildings elsewhere on campus. There was
20

THE GAVEL

Dean Kathryn Rand spoke about the enormous debt of gratitude the UND School of Law
owes to the many people who helped make the new building possible.