The UCLA School of Law announced a $1.5 million gift that will establish the Pete Kameron Endowed Chair in Law, an honor to be given to a legal scholar whose work impacts music, entertainment or international property law.
The Shapiro Family Charitable Foundation dedicated the financial commitment to the law school in honor of Pete Kameron, a philanthropist and music industry figure.
“Pete Kameron is a legendary figure in the entertainment business,” said Donna Colin, director of major gifts for the law school. “He has had an extraordinarily long and rich career in the music business and played a number of different roles over the years.”
An accomplished player in the entertainment industry for 65 years, according to a statement, Pete Kameron is a music publisher, artists’ manager, television producer, record company executive, concert and theater producer, and film score supervisor.
He was also one of the founders of LA Weekly newspaper and LA Style magazine.
Ralph Shapiro and Kameron were close friends, Colin said, and the two men established the Pete Kameron Scholarship Fund for the law school together when Shapiro expressed interest in sharing his good fortune.
Financial support for a chair position is valued highly by the School of Law, Colin said.
“An endowed chair is one of the highest esteems given to a scholar,” Colin said. “A chair is a title reflecting a professor’s honors, teaching and stature in the academic community.”
This is not the first significant donation to the university from the Shapiro family.
“Shirley and Ralph Shapiro are among the university’s most stalwart supporters,” Colin said. “They have been supportive all over campus, and there are umpteenth institutions across UCLA that have benefited from their generosity.”
They also established the Gait Analysis Laboratory at UCLA Medical Center, according to the statement.
The Shapiros have a personal connection with UCLA because it is their alma mater, Colin said.
Ralph Shapiro also graduated from the law school.
Colin said the school is appreciative of the donation, as administrators strive to bolster the school’s faculty as much as possible.
“We are trying to build our faculty, and one way of doing this is to say, “˜If you come, you’ll have this chair,'” she said.
“A chair is very valuable to any place on campus, because it allows you to either attract new faculty members or make it more appealing for current faculty to stay.”
Faculty accolades impress potential students in addition to the faculty members.
“When I was applying to law schools, certain schools were ranked No. 1 according to faculty, and having a professor with some sort of distinguished award might improve such a school’s faculty ranking,” said Danielle Gerson, president of the Pre-law Society.
Receiving an honor such as the Pete Kameron chair may contribute to a school’s reputation, adding to student interest, said Elizabeth Evans, a fourth-year economics student.
The School of Law hopes students and faculty alike will notice the addition of honorable positions, Colin said, and it hopes to fit in with UCLA’s five-year Ensuring Academic Excellence Initiative.
The initiative was launched in June 2004, and it sets to raise $100 million to fund 100 new endowed chairs for faculty across campus, according to the statement. It also aims to generate $250 million in private commitments, specifically for the recruitment and retention of excelling faculty and graduate students.
For the most part, the Pete Kameron chair is given with the intention of recruiting and retaining highly esteemed scholars for the School of Law and for UCLA in general, Colin said, and the School of Law is pleased to work with UCLA to accomplish its goals.