Hyatt Student Activities Fund

The Hyatt Student Activities Fund provides student organizations and individual students with full or partial funding to bring in outside speakers and support student-planned symposia or conferences. The fund was endowed by Wayne S. Hyatt (VULS ’68; VU ‘65) and his late wife, Amanda M. Hyatt (VU BA ’67, MA ’74), to support student-initiated programs that enrich the intellectual content of student activities at Vanderbilt University Law School.

Past programs have included:

A lecture by Mayor Karl Dean (JD '81) recounting the many rewards of his 25-year career in public service.
A lecture featuring Professor Bernard Freamon, who discussed the topic of "The Islamic Law of War: Imagined or Real?"
A lecture on the Securities and Exchange Commission, featuring SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who is a distinguished VULS alumnus (JD '83)
A forum, “Got Birth Control,” addressing the legal issues surrounding some pharmacists refusal to fill prescriptions for certain types of birth control for religious reasons
An event addressing the national struggle to legalize gay marriage, featuring Jack Senterfitt, senior staff attorney in the regional office of Lambda Legal and distinguished VULS alumnus (JD '74)
"Adventures in International Arbitration," a lecture by Francisco Balduzzi, International Legal Consultant with Fulbright & Jaworski
"Security in the Americas,” a panel addressing hemispheric security sponsored by the law school’s Latin American Law Society, which featured attorneys representing the foreign service bureaus of Nicaragua and El Salvador
A lecture by Ambassador Rita D. Hayes, Deputy General of the World Intellectual Property Association
A presentation by Abrar Hussain, a Silicon Valley-based alumnus who specializes in international and intellectual property law and transactions
A lecture by University of Maryland law professor Taunya Lovell Banks on the legal case of Elizabeth Key, a slave in the Virginia colony who sued for her freedom in 1655
A lecture on animal law issues delivered by attorney and animal law specialist Adam Karp

Students and student organizations may submit proposals, which must include a detailed budget, to Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Julie Sandine.

About Fund Sponsors Wayne S. Hyatt and Amanda G. Hyatt

A leading lawyer who specializes in representing master-planned communities and their developers, Wayne S. Hyatt is chairman of Hyatt & Stubblefield, an Atlanta-based law firm. He is the author of 12 leading books on legal issues relating to planned communities, condominium association law and community associations throughout his career. His practice extends beyond property law into the field of local government through private neighborhood associations, addressing issues such as representative government, rights and responsibilities of neighbors, freedom of expression, and the environment. Hyatt has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the Vanderbilt, Emory and University of Georgia law schools. He was named a distinguished alumnus of Vanderbilt Law School in 2003 and received the Law School’s distinguished service award in 1996.

Before her death in 2001, Amanda G. Hyatt – who earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics at Vanderbilt – spent 25 years in public service, serving as chair of the Governor's Welfare Reform Task Force for the state of Georgia, the Council for Competitive Georgia and the Georgia Council on Vocational Education. She was a founder of the Regional Leadership Institute, represented Douglas County, Ga., on the Atlanta Regional Commission, and helped to develop the Douglas County campus of the Carroll Technical Institute.