AMY JONES-TIMONEY: Hi. I'm Amy Jones-Timoney
from the University of Kentucky, and today, we're at the College of Law with Interim Dean
Mary Davis. Thank you so much for joining us today.
MARY DAVIS: Oh, it's my absolute pleasure. I'm delighted to welcome you to the law school
and our beautiful new building. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: It is absolutely gorgeous,
as you can see from this video. As we kind of make our way up the stairs and go inside
of this building, tell me a little bit about just the general scope and scale of it.
MARY DAVIS: Well, we had an existing building on this footprint, and in order to stay here,
which we wanted to do, to be on this beautiful part of campus with Memorial Hall, we took
the building down to its very studs and we filled in on a variety of places in order
to expand our footprint. So the essential footprint of the building is the same, but
it is dramatically different in every other way.
We expanded on this side of the building to enhance the courtroom, to make our classrooms
larger, to give us more space, new, exciting different kinds of space. And we reoriented
the building so that our law library is on this side of the building and very accessible.
We also expanded to a new third floor space that would enable to permit us to enhance
the footprint by about another 23%. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: Wow. Well, as we walk into
this courtroom, this is unbelievable. How important is it to have this kind of space,
where students can get that really hands-on training?
MARY DAVIS: We consider this grand courtroom to, in some ways, be the core of our legal
education program. Not all lawyers will litigate. Not all lawyers will have arguments before
the Kentucky Supreme Court. But because of the importance of this institution to the
larger legal community in the state, it's important to have this kind of a space to
welcome our first-year law students. When they sit in this room for orientation,
they begin to appreciate the importance of their position in society as leaders, as people
who will have the trust of their clients. You can work for clients, yes. You can work
for nonprofits. You can be corporate counsel. You can work for a university. There's nothing
that a legal education prevents you from doing. You can do everything. It opens so many doors.
And you can find a place to implement your passion about things. You can make differences
in every walk of life, in every part of our society. It's just an important part of living
and being in a community, to be able to do the kinds of things that lawyers do.
AMY JONES-TIMONEY: I'm sure you spent a lot of time in your law library. There's a brand
new one now. MARY DAVIS: Yes.
AMY JONES-TIMONEY: What makes it so unique? MARY DAVIS: So, for one thing, this law library
is open to the public. We are a government records repository, and it's open to the public
for members of the legal community to come and be able to use and access resources that
they may not have otherwise. But this is a place where people can come and have access
to all of those resources and to study them and learn them and have an opportunity to
think deeply about them. For our students, of course, it's a central place for their
learning. We have programmed this building, this law library, in particular, to have a
variety of groups study spaces. There are quadruple the number of groups study spaces
between this building and the last building. And they all have a variety of technology
so that students can work and do their research and work together. Our students learn collaboratively,
more so than at any time, in legal education. So this Law Library provides an opportunity
for them, thinking broadly about what their issues are that they're studying and it provides
them with an opportunity to experience the culture of the law and be in this amazing
place on our campus. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: Well, let's head upstairs
and explore some more of those collaborative spaces.
MARY DAVIS: Yes. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: The commons area is really
cool. Why was it so important to have a space like that?
MARY DAVIS: I think it's important for people to know that law students stay in the law
building probably 10 to 12 hours a day, if not more, and that's every day. That's for
three years. And it's a very intense experience. And because we are always in the same community,
in the same building all the time, one of the primary things we did in this new building
is to enhance the ability to be in the space comfortably in a way that permits the students
to thrive while they're here every day, all day long, and I think that the students, so
far, seem to be responsive to what we've done. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: Well, here in the classroom,
I know a lot of thought went into the design of this. Tell me a little bit about that.
MARY DAVIS: So, this is one of our large 85-person classrooms. There are four of them. And one
of the things that we do in law school is we have interactive conversation with our
students. It is a Socratic method. Professors do it
a variety of different ways. But this particular classroom permits a person
like me, who likes to get engaged with my students, to walk into the classroom, into
the well, and have an opportunity to engage with Miss Jones and engage with Mr. Brown,
and talk about the cases while they are preparing, thinking, reading.
It also permits them to engage one another. You can see how these classrooms permit the
students to talk to one another when they're engaging in dialogue with me and with themselves,
with one another. And so it gives them an opportunity to really engage in the material
in that way. It's also very technologically advanced. We have a variety of ways of showing
material, sharing material. The students have an opportunity to engage
with that material because of the technology. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: Well, thanks so much for
showing us this classroom. We have one more stop on our tour. We're going to head up to
the third floor. MARY DAVIS: Let's do.
AMY JONES-TIMONEY: We've made our way to the third floor, where I know there are more classrooms
down this hallway, more common space. I know that students who are coming here, they love
the new building, and this is a big part of it. But there are other reasons they're choosing
the UK College of Law, right? MARY DAVIS: Right.
AMY JONES-TIMONEY: What are they like and why are they choosing UK?
MARY DAVIS: So, I think one of the things that really attracts our students to this
college is the close community that we have between faculty and students. That's really
a hallmark of this institution. And we have created that culture with our students, that
community with our students, over decades. I think it's always been true that we are
a student-centered College of Law. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: Looking at this view, it
makes you kind of think about what happens beyond UK's campus, which is so beautiful.
Tell me a little bit about the impact that your graduates are having beyond the borders
of our campus. MARY DAVIS: I'm actually glad you mentioned
the view, because in a way, it provides a story for our own students' futures.
Their opportunities are limitless. I see buildings where graduates of mine are practicing law
right now. I see spaces on this campus where graduates of ours are practicing law right
now, or giving advice or counseling or thinking about the next step in a problem, because
that's what legal education provides for you. And for our students they are doing that at
every level of our communities. They're doing it in small towns in Kentucky.
They're doing it in large cities in Kentucky. They're doing that in large cities across
this country. They're doing it in offices of government and nonprofits and corporate
entities. And they are thinking, all the time, about
where that next opportunity is to serve. Because, really, at the end of the day, lawyers are
public servants. And we, I think, do an excellent job of encouraging our students to think about
their life in the law in that way. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: Is there any last thing
that you would love the rest of campus to know about your college?
MARY DAVIS: Wow. That's a great question. I think that we are a community of intellectuals,
but servants in our intellectual life. We strive for excellence in what we do here.
We have fabulous students. We have a faculty that's really world class, that engages in
scholarship on a variety of subjects, nationally and internationally. I don't think I brag
about my faculty as much as I should, but they're amazing.
I think the larger university campus needs to know that we love being part of this academic
campus. We thrive in the pursuit of what we do here, but we really appreciate being part
of a larger university. I think this view suggests that.
We are energized by what's happening on the university. Writ large, there's so much positive
momentum here at UK. And we are part of that. We want to be a part of that, and we think
we are a great contributor to that. AMY JONES-TIMONEY: Well, thank you so much
for showing us around today. MARY DAVIS: My pleasure. Thank you for coming.
AMY JONES-TIMONEY: If you would like more information about the College of Law, just
visit the website on your screen.