It's official: George Mason's law school to take name of the late Justice Scalia
Justice Antonin Scalia.
Sidestepping a controversy over whether the law school at George Mason University should be renamed in honor of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a move linked to $30 million in donations, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia on Tuesday voted unanimously to leave the question up to George Mason University’s board of visitors.
The voice vote Tuesday by the state council was based on legal advice from the state attorney general’s office that adopting Scalia’s name is an honorary measure which doesn’t affect the law school’s mission, programming or enrollment in any way that implicates the authority of SCHEV, the council said.
Hence, the issue was left up to the university’s board of visitors, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The board of visitors already voted at the end of March to OK the name change. The official name will be the Antonin Scalia School of Law, but a university spokeswoman told the Times-Dispatch that signage and “second reference” would use the name Antonin Scalia Law School to avoid an awkward acronym.
Some of those who had objected said that Scalia was a polarizing figure, others expressed concern about conflicts of interest and the the impact of the donations on the law school curriculum. The university faculty senate passed resolutions asking for the name change to be delayed, while the law school faculty publicly supported the change. An anonymous donor is contributing $20 million, and another $10 million is coming from the Charles Koch Foundation. One stipulation of the donations was that if the current law dean, Henry N. Butler, were to be replaced, the donors must be notified.
In exchange for about 57 full scholarships to entering students over the next five years, the law school is to add 12 faculty and three staff members, plus establish two new centers, the Times-Dispatch reports. One of the centers will focus on “liberty and law.” The other will focus on the “administrative state.”
After the SCHEV announced their decision, Butler showed reporters his new vanity license plate: “SCALIA”.
“We’re in the doldrums right now and we want to bust out in a big way,” he told reporters.
