“Three, two, one, sold!” cried the auctioneer, bringing down his three-foot-tall gold-colored gavel. An original piece of art by Arizonan painter Ed Mell had just gone for $5000, and the school was that much closer to being able to provide aid to its students.
The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law raised nearly $100,000 in live and silent auctions at the Gold N’ Gavel reception on Friday, which includes amounts raised through the sale of tickets and direct financial contributions.
While the college receives state funding for its core operations, it relies on donations and fundraising at events like this one to provide scholarships to its students.
Two of these students, Mary Sulakmani and Adam Gorski, were awarded the 2019 Gold N’ Gavel Scholarships and honored at the event.
“It’s crazy. Every day I can wake up and know that I don’t have to worry about going somewhere and working because I have the scholarship,” Gorski said. “I can take as much time as I need to study and just not have to worry about it. It’s awesome.”
Over the last seven years, Gold N’ Gavel events have raised more than $600,000. According to a statement by Douglas Sylvester, Dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, the events along with other charitable donations were able to provide scholarships for every incoming law student in 2018.
This year’s theme was “Thanks,” and much of the night was spent thanking those who gave their time and money to support the law school.
“What we wanted to do was highlight some of the law firms that over the last 47 to 50 years have hired the most of our grads,” Sylvester said. “Many have helped our students at every level from mentoring to externships, to scholarships and hiring, and so again we say thanks to those law firms.”
Roslyn O. Silver, Senior United States District Judge and a professor of constitutional law at the Sandra Day O’ Connor College of Law, received the 2019 Alumni Service award.
“[She] has not only been a tremendous champion of the law school, but a true pioneer, leading the way for future graduates,” Sylvester said. “Just like Justice O’Connor, who we talk about as this historical figure of firsts, Justice Silver has a number of firsts as well, including being the first woman appointed to the Arizona District of the U.S District Court, and the first woman to become Chief Justice of the District Court.”
Along with granting Silver the award, the college created a professorship in her name, the Honorable Roslyn O. Silver Professorship, which will be held by Dr. Linda Demaine. This is the first professorship the school has ever made in honor of an alumna.
“What [my parents] did was scrape every penny together to provide us the education that we had dreamed for, and that might be available to us in a variety of different schools,” Silver said. “I’m glad that I’ve been able to give back to the school that does that for others.”
Contact the reporter at mrpatto2@asu.edu.
Editor’s note: the amount of money the event raised was updated with statistics provided by the event organizers.
