University of Virginia Library

Law Students Approve Copeley Plan

By Mark Pirrung
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

A meeting of some of the members of
the law faculty and 150 law students
Monday convinced those gathered that
the plans for the new Law School on
Copeley Hill are too far advanced to
consider relocation.

The Ad Hoc Committee which issued
a statement Sunday proposing that the
new building be located closer to the
Grounds, heard Professor Neil Alford say
that over $150,000 had already been
spent on plans for construction on
Copeley Hill, and that it was too late to
revise these plans.

It was also noted at the Monday
meeting that reconsideration of the plans
at this late date would introduce dangerous
complications into the state legislature's consideration
of President Shannon's requested
$2.5 million in additional funds for immediate
construction of the new Law School. It was felt
that the legislators might think the School was
having second thoughts about "immediate
construction."

In his request for the $2.5 million before the
Appropriations Committee last month, President
Shannon stressed the urgent need for
additional space at the Law School. Mr. Alford
suggested on Monday that if the Architecture
Committee were to start reconsidering locations
now completion could be delayed up to two
years. Plans for the building have already been
four years in the making.

These persuasive arguments convinced the
Ad Hoc Committee that they were too late
with their objections to the new site. In view of
a pending tight situation in Richmond, the Law
School must have the $2.5 million approved for
undelayed construction, it was noted; and the
meeting adjourned in unanimous support of
present location plans.

Charles Shanor, of the Ad Hoc Committee,
told the Cavalier Daily yesterday that the
Committee had given consideration to sites
such as the amphitheatre parking lot and the
rugby filed below Carr's Hill. Such locations,
although nearer the Grounds, would necessitate
such changes in present drawings that the
$200,000 already spent on plans would be
wasted. The space available on Copeley Hill is
in sharp contrast with the limited areas found
in pockets near the Grounds.

Mr. Shanor agreed with Mr. Alford's feeling
that the quick construction of the new building
and support of the Virginia legislators were of
paramount importance. According to Mr.
Shanor, the problems of alienation of the Law
School from the University will have to be
considered secondary, and be worked out later.
This position represents a sharp change from
the Committee's Sunday stand.

One aspect of the meeting tended to please
the students of the Law School. Mr. Shanor felt
that the faculty present at the meeting were
open to student opinions on further planning of
the building.

Professor Charles Whitebread noted that "it
is not enough today that one student on one
committee be consulted" in order that student
opinion be adequately canvassed. Mr. Shanor
said he expected law students to have a growing
role in any discussions of further planning of
the new construction.