In 1989,was sweeping the United States and

the World. America had a new president, George

Herbert Walker Bush. In Europe, the Berlin Wall, long

a symbol of the Cold War, opened to the West, spurring

the reunification of Germany.

Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center were also

undergoing dynamic change. Father Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., was the

incoming president of the University. And after six productive years, Law

Center Dean Robert Pitofsky was leaving his deanship on a high note,

having overseen the design, funding, and construction of the new Edward

Bennett Williams Law Library. The west side of McDonough Hall was also

being extended to include a cafeteria and space for additional clinics. As

Pitofsky returned to the faculty, Judy Areen, then 44, became the first

woman dean of the Law Center, as well as the first woman to serve as an

executive vice president of Georgetown University.

Fifteen years later,

as Areen prepares to step down and make the customary transition back to teaching, it is the right
time to look at how the Law Center has changed.

Today, with a different George Bush in the White House, John J. DeGioia is the 48th president of the University. At the Law Center, where two buildings stood, now there are five, including the Bernard S. and Sarah M. Gewirz Student Center, the Eric E. Hotung International Law Center Building, and the new Sport and Fitness Center. Inviting green space has replaced two city streets, and a campus has been carved out of –and integrated into – the Capital City.
     While the campus building boom is visible from the curb, more subtle but equally important changes have enhanced the quality of education and student life. The faculty has grown dramatically in both size and reputation. More than 350 courses and seminars make the Law Center’s curriculum the most comprehensive in the nation. Georgetown is attracting the country’s top applicants. The school’s tradition of public service, tied to its Jesuit roots, has been reinvigorated. The alumni have become an integral part of the Law Center, contributing innovative ideas, expertise, and time. And an experienced team of administrators focuses on each department’s goals as a means of fulfilling Georgetown’s larger mission of educating the whole person, in mind, body, and spirit.
      As Judge Mary Lupo (L’74) says, Georgetown University Law Center is “no longer just a dayhop place.”

It is a community.