REMARKS

Remarks by Vice President Pence to Students at Ave Maria University | Ave Maria, FL
LAW & JUSTICE

Issued on: March 28, 2019

Ave Maria University
Ave Maria, Florida

11:55 A.M. EDT

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Ave Maria University

Ave Maria University (AMU) is a private Catholic university in Ave Maria, Florida. Ave Maria University shares its history with the former Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which was founded in 1998 and closed in 2007. The school was founded by Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza.

In 2016, the enrollment was 1,100, 85 percent of whom were Catholic.

Ave Maria School of Law

Ave Maria School of Law, founded in 1999, is an ABA-accredited Roman Catholic law school, located in Naples, Florida.

Ave Maria School of Law offers a full-time three year Juris Doctor (J.D.) program that complements a traditional legal education based on the Socratic Method with an emphasis on how the law intersects with the Catholic intellectual tradition and natural law philosophy. The curriculum of Ave Maria School of Law includes a three-semester Research, Writing and Advocacy Program as well as several required courses that focus on law and ethics. The school also offers various summer courses. Ave Maria devotes four core classes to the interrelationship between law, ethics, and Catholic moral and social principles.

In July 2018, 58.5% of Ave Maria graduates who took the Florida bar exam for the first time passed, vs. a 67.2% pass rate overall.

According to Ave Maria's ABA-required disclosures, 57.1% of the Class of 2016 found long-term full-time employment where a JD is required.

In 2016, Ave Maria School of Law was sanctioned by the American Bar Association due to lax admissions standards. In February 2018, the ABA announced the lifting of the sanctions following remedial actions by the school.