Columbia Law School (CLS) has announced that it received a $17.5 million commitment from alumna Alia Tutor.

The largest single commitment in the school’s history will help fund the reimagining of the law library, which will create space for individual and group study, incorporate state-of-the-art technology, and increase capacity for students by up to 70 percent. Tutor graduated from Columbia Law in 2000, following her grandfather Sidney (1926) and great-grandfather Moses (1897). She is also president of the Alia Tutor Family Foundation.

“It’s difficult to put into words, but certainly ‘humbling’ and ‘gratifying’ come to mind when I consider how integral and meaningful CLS has been in my—and my family’s—life,” said Tutor. “When this beautiful new library opens, it won’t only be my name I see. It will be my grandmother’s, my mother’s and father’s, my grandfather’s, my great-grandfather’s names. This project will evoke the contributions of my entire family and everyone who touched my life, from childhood through my time as a student, all the way up to the present. It’s an unbelievable feeling of pride, for which I am extremely thankful. And, hopefully, my children will feel the same way one day, as will future generations.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/peterspiro)