The State Bar Association of North Dakota Fall 2013 Gavel Magazine | Page 8

FROM THE
DEAN

Kathryn Rand

Dean, UND School of Law

Planning for the future:
The Law School Building Project
With North Dakota’s historic investment in the future of the UND School of
Law and the legal profession in our state,
we’ve spent our Fall semester knee-deep
in building design planning. The design
process has required our entire law school
community, with help from our bench and
bar, to envision a UND School of Law for
the 21st century. As I write this in October,
we are only through the first significant
steps; by the time you read this, we will be
working to translate the design programming into construction plans. (Please
check our building project web page
(http://law.und.edu/build/) for the latest
updates.)
• UND President Kelley appointed a
Building Planning Committee, cochaired by Professor Paul LeBel, former
Dean and former Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, and myself.
President Kelley charged the Committee
with responsibility for leading the various phases of the building project, as well
as for ensuring effective coordination,
implementation, and communication
throughout the project.
Additionally, the Committee benefits from the input of several advisors,
including several UND employees with
specific areas of expertise, as well as representatives of our state bench and bar—
• Gerald W. VandeWalle, Chief Justice,
North Dakota Supreme Court

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• Nancy Morris, Attorney, Erik R.
Johnson & Associates, Ltd., Fargo, N.D.
and State Bar Association of North
Dakota President, 2013-14
• William Guy, Attorney, Fredrikson &
Byron, P.A., Fargo, N.D.
• Levi Andrist, Attorney, Vogel Law
Firm, Bismarck, N.D.
• The School of Law implemented an
innovative Design Focus Team structure.
The intent is to have a structure for the
Committee’s work that is effective, efficient, and inclusive, and toward that end,
the President endorsed the concept of
Design Focus Teams to serve as liaisons
with stakeholders within the School of
Law community and with the Building
Planning Committee.
The purpose of the Design Focus
Teams is to ensure that (a) the design
phase of the building project is as fully
participatory and informed as possible,
and (b) information is accessible to and
shared widely within the School of Law
community. The Design Focus Teams
liaison with their designated stakeholders
within the School of Law community and
with the Building Planning Committee.
Each Team has a Team Leader who
serves on the Building Planning Committee and is charged with coordinating
the Team’s work. Each Team facilitates
robust and informed input of and communication with their designated stakeholders during the planning process,
with the goal of maximizing opportunities for stakeholders to provide perspectives, insights, needs, and requests to
inform the architectural design process.
The Teams also work together to
provide opportunities for design input to
every member of the School of Law community and to encourage collaborative
input among stakeholders. The Design
Focus Team areas are Student Life & Student Experience, with focus on student
study and work space, student experience
of operational and educational space,
student services, including Student Life,
Admissions & Records, Career Services,

Law Library, etc., and student co-curricular and extra-curricular organizations;
Faculty & Educational Program, with
focus on the first-year and upper-level
curriculum, experiential learning and
skills instruction, academic and cocurricular programs, faculty resources
and workspace, and classrooms and
other educational space; Administrative & Support Services, with focus on
administrative space, staff resources and
workspace, team-based and collaborative environments, and special programs
space; and Law Library/Information
Technology & Services, with focus on
law library services and space, instructional technology and distance learning,
student, staff, and faculty technology
and information resources, and public
information resources.
• We selected an architectural team.
The University appointed an Agency Selection Committee pursuant to state law
(ND Century Code 48-01.2; ND Century
Code 54-44.7; SBHE Policy 902.5) to
solicit proposals to provide architectural
services for the law school building project. The selection committee interviewed
three architect firms and recommended
that the University employ ICON Architectural Group of Grand Forks, ND,
in partnership with SHW Group as the
architects. SHW Group has extensive law
school design experience and has worked
with law schools at Washburn University, Wayne State University, Texas Tech
University, Michigan State University,
and others.
• The design planning process is underway. Each of our Design Focus Teams
gathered input and information to assist
in the design process, and we surveyed
our entire law school community for
their opinions and ideas. Our architectural team, with representatives from
both ICON and SHW Group, conducted
two design workshops at the School of
Law, one in September and another in
October. During the workshops, we held
focus group meetings, brainstorming

The Gavel Fall 2013