Distinguished Guests
On Friday, I was pleased to be able to welcome some very distinguished guests to King Hall and the UC Davis campus: Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye ’84 was here to deliver a talk to the Class of 2013, and Yeoryios Apallas ’72 visited King Hall with Bernard Orsi, a trustee of the Paul and Lydia Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation and one of the Law School’s most generous supporters.
The Kalmanovitz Foundation gave $1 million to name the Paul and Lydia Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom as well as $150,000 to name the Kalmanovitz Seminar Room, but until last week Mr. Orsi had not been to King Hall to see these remarkable facilities. Yeoryios Apallas, a dedicated alum who helped to facilitate the Kalmanovitz Foundation gifts, brought him to King Hall for a tour of the new east wing, and it was a pleasure to meet and talk with them both about the extraordinary impact these gifts have had.
We stopped by the Kalmanovitz Courtroom, and Mr. Orsi remarked that Paul and Lydia Kalmanovitz would have been proud to have their names attached to such a wonderful facility. I told him about how the new courtroom has enabled us to host events such as the sole debate between last year’s California’s Attorney General candidates, the Swearing-In Ceremony for our Class of 2010, numerous lectures and panel discussions, and very soon, a session of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. We’re also looking forward to hosting a formal dedication of the Courtroom, which is being planned for October.
We went by the Kalmanovitz Seminar Room, and I talked with Mr. Orsi about some of the challenges we face with regard to rising student fees and our continued ability to ensure that King Hall remains accessible to deserving students of all backgrounds. Most of all, I tried to convey just how much the Kalmanovitz Courtroom and Seminar Room have meant to everyone in the King Hall community. The newly expanded King Hall is boosting faculty, student, and staff morale and raising the Law School’s profile in countless ways, and all of this would not have been possible without the generous gifts from the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation. Thank you, once again, Mr. Orsi!
After the tour, I was able to introduce our guests to Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye, who had once again generously volunteered her time to speak with our students. Her visit drew coverage from the Davis Enterprise, and their article included a nice photo of the Chief Justice, Yeoryios Apallas, Bernard Orsi, and me. Here is a link to that article: