{"id":229627,"date":"2025-05-05T15:34:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T19:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=229627"},"modified":"2025-05-05T15:38:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T19:38:34","slug":"uconn-law-graduate-honored-for-generosity-and-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/05\/uconn-law-graduate-honored-for-generosity-and-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Law Graduate Honored for Generosity and Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reading Room in William F. Starr Hall is considered the heart of the UConn Law campus, a place where the school community often gathers. So, it is fitting that the room is now named after Stuart F. Smith \u201980, in honor of his extraordinary generosity and enduring impact on the law school.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s special event demonstrates our deep appreciation for Stuart\u2019s exceptional generosity, through which he has shared his time, his talent, and his treasure to help build upon a legacy of excellence here at the Law School,\u201d said UConn Law Dean Eboni S. Nelson during a dedication ceremony on April 21. \u201cStuart\u2019s remarkable support has had and will continue to have a profound impact on our law school community for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stuart F. Smith ’80<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Smith established the Stuart Smith 1980 Dean\u2019s Discretionary Fund in 2024 to support the ambitious goals of faculty, staff, and students. The previous year, he made a gift to create the Stuart F. Smith 1980 Teaching Fellowship<\/a>, a two-year program that prepares aspiring law professors to enter the legal academy.<\/p>\n

“The Fellowship has given me the chance to be part of the intellectually vibrant, collegial, and supportive UConn Law faculty, where I\u2019ve received valuable mentorship and feedback on my research and writing,\u201d says Visiting Assistant Professor Gaurav Mukherjee, the inaugural Stuart F. Smith Teaching Fellow. \u201cI\u2019ve had the opportunity to teach courses on the intersections of human rights, education law, and constitutional change \u2014 topics that are especially urgent today. I\u2019m deeply grateful to Mr. Smith for his principled vision, steadfast support, and commitment to excellence in legal education.”<\/p>\n

\"A
Stuart F. Smith ’80 and UConn School of Law Dean Eboni S. Nelson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to his philanthropic support, Smith has shared his expertise and his personal and professional journeys with students, such as members of the Business and Transactional Law Society, to help them achieve their career goals.<\/p>\n

Smith attended the dedication and was surrounded by family and friends there to celebrate with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the Law School, I\u2019ve gotten a lot more than I\u2019ve given,\u201d he said. \u201cMy most important \u2018grade\u2019 was my first year of law school because of the friendships I built and what I learned. And it\u2019s such a privilege to be part of the community. So, I say, thank you, I\u2019m really humbled by this. It\u2019s very moving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In addition to his philanthropic support, Stuart F. Smith ’80 has shared his expertise and his personal and professional journeys with students to help them achieve their career goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":229629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1857],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2651],"class_list":["post-229627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-law"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-10 16:30:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229627"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229850,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229627\/revisions\/229850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/229629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229627"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=229627"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=229627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}