King Hall Community Celebrates
(Flickr album here)
At Celebrating King Hall, on March 8 at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the King Hall community gathered to honor the school’s accomplishments and enjoy a festive evening. In particular, the UC Davis School of Law bestowed the Distinguished Teaching Award and Distinguished Alumnus Award, and recognized scholarship recipients and donors.
“I have the best students in the world,” said Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor William S. Dodge in a heartfelt speech accepting the UC Davis School of Law’s Distinguished Teaching Award. “Our students are smart, they are enthusiastic, and they’re diverse,” Dodge continued. “I not only get to teach in the classroom. I also get to learn,” he added.
Introducing Dodge, his fellow Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law Ashutosh Bhagwat said, “What really makes a great teacher is caring about others and, in particular, caring about your students. What I’ve learned over two decades of friendship is that Bill cares about people a lot.”
Dodge specializes in international law, international transactions, and international dispute resolution. He taught at UC Hastings College of the Law for 20 years before joining the UC Davis faculty in 2015. A graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, he clerked for Judge William A. Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It’s a great privilege to be able to teach on a faculty of such gifted teachers,” said Dodge.
The event also honored 2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award winner Gary Solis ’71. “It’s true that I have much to thank King Hall for. For past gifts, for present advantages, and for future opportunities,” said Solis, accepting his award.
Solis is recognized as one of the nation’s foremost experts on the law of armed conflict. He has taught at the London School of Economics & Political Science, Georgetown University Law Center, George Washington University Law School, and the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he headed the law of war program for six years. He also wrote the bestselling textbook, The Law of Armed Conflict.
Before his academic career, Solis served in the Marine Corps for 26 years, as a company commander in Vietnam and later as a judge advocate and military judge. In his acceptance speech, Solis told the story of how he came to King Hall. In 1967, he was serving in Vietnam when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the back of his vehicle and miraculously failed to detonate. He looked at the grenade lying in the road behind him and decided it was time to go to law school.
Solis also recounted the story of his father, who came to the United States illegally but was later able to legalize his status and prosper as an American citizen. Solis expressed his pride in the work of the Immigration Law Clinic.
Introducing Solis, King Hall Alumni Association President Kim Lucia ’09 thanked Solis both for his service as a marine and for his support of King Hall students. Solis and Charlie McClain ’71 jointly funded a scholarship for veterans at King Hall. Lucia also pointed out that Solis, who is on the alumni board, lives on the east coast now, but still makes frequent trips to Davis to support students.
Dean Kevin R. Johnson began the evening by highlighting some of the School of Law’s recent accomplishments. This academic year, King Hall launched the First Generation Advocates program and the Aoki Water Justice Clinic. The school recruited its most diverse student body: 54% students of color and 58% women.
Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity and Professor of Law Raquel Aldana, Acting Professor of Law Shayak Sarkar, and Director of the Water Justice Clinic Camille Pannu joined the faculty. Career Services increased students’ employment opportunities. And King Hall donors gave nearly two million dollars and funded more than fifty scholarships.
Aaron Bonner ’19, winner of the Dean’s Merit Scholarship and Sue R. Wilkins Scholarship, spoke on behalf of King Hall scholarship recipients. As a child, Bonner learned the value of hard work from his mother, who worked three jobs to feed her family. She taught him, “Son, if you work hard in school, you won’t have to work this hard in life.”
At King Hall, Bonner found “a supportive community, one that lifts you up when things get tough.” As a UC Davis undergraduate, Bonner graduated from the King Hall Outreach Program (KHOP). He decided he would “learn how to use the law to help improve struggling communities.”
Bonner told the crowd, “I owe all my success to the people who supported me and the people who encouraged me along the way. People like my hardworking mom, my amazing family, my mentors, coaches and friends. And, of course, this list would not be complete if it did not include you all, the King Hall community. So let’s celebrate!”
(Flickr photo album here)