It was a GOOD week for turning things around, after Ave Maria School of Law reported it would acquire its North Naples campus and launch a $3.2 million capital campaign thanks to an anonymous $1 million gift.
The good news came one week after it was reported that the private school was the only law school to be placed on the Department of Education’s Heightened Cash Monitoring list, meaning federal aid could be restricted.
The law school had been renting the campus from the university for the past six years. The savings in rental expense will free up funds for scholarships, new academic initiatives, campus infrastructure improvements and faculty development. The campus purchase also provides for naming opportunities on campus.
“It is a classic win-win situation with the law school being able to own its own campus and the university being able to sell an asset that it never intended to hold on to long term,” said Thomas Monaghan, Chairman of the Board and founder of Ave Maria School of Law. “Our mission to create a national Catholic law school with a fidelity to faith and reason has taken root in Naples and I am pleased to say is flourishing. We are very grateful to our million dollar benefactor for his generosity in helping us raise $1.175 million towards our goal of $3.2 million for our capital campaign.”
Monaghan, who founded Domino’s Pizza, funded the start-up of Ave Maria School of Law in 1999. The campus was originally in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It moved to Naples, Florida in 2009 so it could be located near the larger university, which Monaghan founded in 2006.
The school also reported that 83 percent of its graduates passed the February bar exam on the first try, exceeing the statewide average passing rate of 64.3 percent.
