Ave Maria University School of Law

...has highest Michigan Bar test scores, for a Florida-based institution. Or at least that's what this article would make you believe (Hat tip: FUMARE).

By Healy's logic, I suppose this means that the law school has the "ear" of the Pope, since we are part of the University, and it's provost was a former student of the Pope, and knows him well because he once had a beard, and, nevermind.

My commentary, posted over at FUMARE, is below.


This just shows that the uprooting of AMSOL from Michigan to Florida is in its last phase (at least in the minds of the BOG and Executive Team).And make no mistake - Monaghan, the ET, and the BOG will try to blow up AMSOL in MI just as they did AMC in Michigan.

Those that actually cared about AMC in Michigan were asked to present a plan to the powers that be that would detail how a viable college could remain in MI, even with AMU starting up in FL. A very detailed (and feasible) plan was presented and immediately rejected by Tom Monaghan and the Board, who claimed it was unworkable.However, Tom and Co. could then claim that they asked for input and a viable plan for keeping something intact in MI, but nothing feasible was offered.Earlier this year, Monaghan sent a letter to an AMSOL professor and asked that the faculty come up with a plan to fund AMSOL independently of the Ave Maria Foundtion.

This is a ruse that will be used against the faculty and all those who wish to keep the school in MI and independent of Monaghan, for no matter how good such a plan might be, it will be rejected and used as another reason for the necessity to move AMSOL to FL and reap some "projected" windfall from the Ave Maria Town real estate venture.

It's unnerving to think that AMSOL's Board of Governors have allowed the future of the law school to be completely dependent on "projected" money from a Florida enterprise which is an economic disaster right now.

But luckily the ABA is on the job, and likely wouldn't extend any kind of accreditation to the Florida mess...

Ave Maria Florida venture going broke

The Ave Maria Town and University venture is going broke. But don't take my word for it - this is coming directly from AM town and university officials. Below is a news story from the Naples Daily News, which is currently on the AMT website, and talks about the massive scaling back of the project due to rising building costs. Inside sources reveal that construction costs have ended up being 2 to 3 times original estimates for the AMT and AMU project! Fr. Fessio's appeal letter (reproduced in post below this) paints a bleak economic picture for the university in Florida.
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"When Ave Maria founder Tom Monaghan, who also founded Domino’s Pizza, and Barron Collier Cos. first launched their plans for the site, they thought in grandiose terms. But when building became a reality, they were forced to scale back the project by about 30 percent, said Don Schrotenboer, Ave Maria project director.“The one and only reason is the rising cost of materials and labor,” he said.Schrotenboer said the expanded plans are far from scrapped. Six other buildings are designed and ready for construction as soon as endowments and donations are received to make them possible."
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On the rise
Friday, August 5, 2006
The Naples Daily News

Intertwined steel beams protrude from the muddy ground 100 feet toward the sky, casting an arcing shadow over the future of Collier County’s newest university and town.
Ave Maria University and portions of its surrounding town have transformed from blueprints to being over the course of a few short months.
The 10,000 acres of former wetlands and farm fields situated near Immokalee in eastern Collier now house 5,000 acres of half-finished concrete buildings, water treatment facilities and lakes. The most notable new development on the site is the makings of a 100-foot tall steel-framed oratory, already visible from miles away.
Since the school’s groundbreaking in February, construction has begun on 10 buildings, some of which are near completion.
The university campus is scheduled to open to students next fall. Retail buildings and homes are expected to stagger their openings, beginning next summer.
“We are extremely excited about where we are in the process today, and the cooperation we’ve had from the local government,” said Blake Gable, project manager for Barron Collier Cos.
“We’ve still got a lot of hard work to do in the next eight to 12 months to make this a reality.”
So far, 48 percent of the university and its utilities are completed, including 32 percent of the library, 24 percent of the student activity center, 31 percent of the science, math and technology building and 16 percent of the undergraduate dorms.
Gable said the university buildings are a top priority, and should be completed between May and July 2007. The college, which is modeled after Princeton University in New Jersey, will house about 600 students next year, and about 6,000 at build-out in 2016.
The easiest building to spot on the muddy, equipment-strewn grounds of the future town is the private Catholic K-12 school, which is 89 percent completed.
The oratory, where future students will attend daily Mass and Holy Communion ceremonies, is 29 percent complete. The steel arc will be encased in stone shipped from New Mexico, and should be completed by December 2007.
In a county notorious for its difficult permitting process and behind-schedule developments, how are Ave Maria planners staying on-task?
“I think a project of this magnitude requires the cooperation of everyone involved,” Gable said. “We set a realistic schedule from the beginning, and set reasonable targets to accomplish with top-notch consultants.”
When Ave Maria founder Tom Monaghan, who also founded Domino’s Pizza, and Barron Collier Cos. first launched their plans for the site, they thought in grandiose terms. But when building became a reality, they were forced to scale back the project by about 30 percent, said Don Schrotenboer, Ave Maria project director.
“The one and only reason is the rising cost of materials and labor,” he said.
Schrotenboer said the expanded plans are far from scrapped. Six other buildings are designed and ready for construction as soon as endowments and donations are received to make them possible.
Each of the university buildings will be constructed in styles inspired by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Each school building will be topped with a copper roof.
Rising copper prices put the value of the roofs at more than $4 million, but because copper materials for the school were purchased about three years ago, developers paid a little more than $1 million, Schrotenboer said.
Initial phases of the town center have begun and should be completed next summer or fall. The town center will include a university bookstore, admissions office, coffee shops, clothing stores and other retail and office spaces on about 100,000 square feet.
Eventually, the town will open up to retailers, such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Walgreens.
Although Ave Maria founders can ask retailers to comply with their religious preferences, such as not selling contraceptives or meat on Fridays, legally, they can’t make them, spokesman Rob Falls said.
“Tom (Monaghan) would like this to be as sin-free of a place as possible, but you can’t legislate lifestyles,” Falls said.
About 70 condominiums also will be available next fall in the town center. Once the town is completed, Ave Maria will house about 30,000 residents, including the students.
Recreation areas, including a water park, ball fields and walking trails, also will be completed next fall, Gable said.
The on-site water and wastewater treatment facility, which will hold up to 1.5 million gallons of water, will be up and running in September. The first test sips already have been taken, Gable said.
Developers are already optimistic about beginning the second phase of the project late next year. They received final approvals for the project’s final phase from Army Corps engineers this month.
Tours of the campus are open to students and their adult family members every Friday at 3:30 p.m.
Senior Thomas DeCaro already has taken advantage of the chance to see the permanent home of his future alma mater. The political science major said he plans to take a year off after graduation to work on the new campus next year.
“It was amazing,” DeCaro, 21, said. “I was hopeful I’d get to be able to be there as a senior, but it’s neat to see the foundation.”
Meanwhile, at Ave Maria’s temporary campus in Golden Gate Estates, new students moved into the dorms Thursday and began preparing for their first year of college. About 140 new students will attend school this year, increasing the school’s enrollment to about 420.
DeCaro, a resident assistant at the men’s Canterbury dorm, busied himself Thursday directing freshman to their rooms and answering routine questions about appliances, schedules and university policies.
“So far, everything has gone really well,” he said. “Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, and really getting to know the campus.”
Classes begin at Ave Maria’s temporary campus Monday morning.

Recent AMU appeal letter paints bleak economic picture for future of Florida enterprise

The following is taken from a recent AMU fundraising letter signed by Fr. Fessio. The most pertinent parts are excerpted below, with the full letter following. (All bolds from letter have been added for emphasis)
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"When you add this to the fact that we are presently still a rather small and unaccredited institution a long way trom most population centers in the U.S., with a limited number of majors, it's clear to me that our growth will necessarily be slow over the next few years.

We've also found that many students who are not yet ready for the academic or the spiritual challenges withdraw after they've been here for a semester or two. So it's clear we can't easily solve the problem of recruiting enough students to improve our financial situation by casting a wider net.
I am concerned, however, that there are many students who want to come here but lack the necessary financial resources. It is critical for us that we provide both merit and needs-based scholarships so those students who appreciate and would benefit from the unique education we give here can come.

To that end I'm starting a task force of Regents to raise money precisely for scholarships that will help us increase our enrollment and our retention. Without such a scholarship fund, we are going to incur deficits over the next few years which will be unsustainable."
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1025Commons Circle Naples, FL 34119
www.avemaria.edu www.avemaria.com

October 18, 2006

Dear ---,

The new freshman class has just arrived, and hard as it is for me to comprehend, they seem to be even better prepared and more spiritually engaged than their predecessors.

The professors I have spoken to have uniformly said that this freshman class is the best they've taught. And I can say that attendance at Mass, Divine Office, and evening Rosary has gottena big boost- and it was already extraordinarily high.

But let me just give you a couple of brief glimpses of the many experiences I've had that give me so much consolation.

On an evening of orientation, I met a mother and father and their two children who were both coming to Ave Maria. I asked them about themselves and they said, "We're unconfirmed Catholics." I assumed they meant that they were recent converts but had not yet received the Sacrament of Confirmation.

I spoke to them at greater length and in our conversation it turned out that the husband had been first a Jehovah's Witness, then a Southern Baptist, but he had then read and prayed himself and his whole family into the Catholic Church.

The mother began telling me about how she thought the most beautiful thing in the world was the Consecrated Host when the priest raised it up after the Consecration. And as she told me, she began to get tears in her eyes. A few days later on two mornings in a row, I noticed that the daughter of this family came up to Communion with her hands crossed across her breast as a sign she wanted only a blessing and not to receive Communion. I doubted very much that she had serious sin on her soul, but I do know people who are very serious about their faith and sometimes become over scrupulous and don't want to receive Communion because they "failed in charity" or some such thing.
So, that evening when I saw her at Evening Prayer, I called her aside and asked her about this. She began to tear up and told me, "But Father, I can't receive Communion. I'm not a Catholic yet." Then I realized that "unconfirmed Catholics" meant that they had made the commitment to enter the Church but had not yet actually been received into the Church. So we talked about getting instruction for her and making it possible for her to receive Our Lord.

The beauty of soul that shone through this young women's face was touching. At one of the same Masses, I noticed a student who received Communion with particular devotion. And, while it takes me a while to get to know the students and distinguish one trom another, she resembled a student who graduated last year and who just recently entered a religious order of women. So I recognized her that evening at the barbecue while she was standing in line. I went up to her and asked her her name and where she was from. It turned out that she is trom a distant province of Canada, so I asked her why she had come so far.

She said that the turning point for her was reading Joseph Pearce's book on Oscar Wilde. I was stunned. Joseph Pearce is our Writer-in-Residence. He's an extraordinarily gifted author. But he's written books on J.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Hilaire Belloc, and G.K. Chesterton. If a high school student had read one of these I'd still have been surprised, because they are works of serious scholarship. But for a woman of her age to have been reading such a serious book on a very profound modem poet with a complicated life story was an amazement to me.

In subsequent conversations, she began to talk about Oscar Wilde's poetry. I was a bit embarrassed because she clearly knew much more about it than I do. I think you can see why my enthusiasm for Ave Maria is unabated and in fact growing. We have a campus full of students like these. Since this is a letter to you as our triend and supporter, I don't mind telling you about a particular problem which this creates.

Because our reputation for academic excellence (average SAT scores for incoming freshman have gone from 1119 to 1140 to 1200 to 1218) and very vibrant spiritual life on campus, the number of academically qualified students mature enough in their faith to respond to what we have to offer here is relatively small. When you add this to the fact that we are presently still a rather small and unaccredited institution a long way trom most population centers in the U.S., with a limited number of majors, it's clear to me that our growth will necessarily be slow over the next few years.

We've also found that many students who are not yet ready for the academic or the spiritual challenges withdraw after they've been here for a semester or two. So it's clear we can't easily solve the problem of recruiting enough students to improve our financial situation by casting a wider net.
I am concerned, however, that there are many students who want to come here but lack the necessary financial resources. It is critical for us that we provide both merit and needs-based scholarships so those students who appreciate and would benefit from the unique education we give here can come.

To that end I'm starting a task force of Regents to raise money precisely for scholarships that will help us increase our enrollment and our retention. Without such a scholarship fund, we are going to incur deficits over the next few years which will be unsustainable. So please help us continue to realize this wonderful vision.

Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
Provost

P.S. As with many problems in a new institution, the need for "extra" scholarship funding to cover a probable "added" deficit has crept up on us. It isn't that we did not plan for it. But as a situation unfolds, the problem (or sometimes even crisis) becomes crystal clear. Your generosity is requested, --. And deeply appreciated.