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Our next Jeffrey Award recipient has devoted the last 35 years of her professional life to the University of Texas and she shows no signs of slowing down. While getting involved in virtually every complex, touchy, vexing, and impossible problem confronting the University, she has somehow found time to become a sage advisor to our College as well. We are speaking, of course, of Ms. Patti Ohlendorf, U.T.’s vice-president for legal affairs.
As many of you know, four years ago we established the University of Texas Film Institute to provide students with hands-on, real-world experience with independent feature films that have commercial potential. The Institute, overseen by Professor Tom Schatz, built a unique partnership with Burnt Orange Productions, a private, for-profit company that employed U.T. students to work on every stage of production, including filming, editing, set props, costumes, casting, publicity, accounting and office management. To date, more than 200 graduate and undergraduate students have worked on four films, and seventy-seven percent of them are now employed in the film industry.
Patti provided critical legal support and insight for this pioneering endeavor, an endeavor that ate up hundreds of her working hours. In addition to her sharp legal mind, however, Patti brings a special sensitivity to her work. Her approachability, her tact, her work ethic, and her forthrightness make her a person one instinctively trusts.
We would not be in the filmmaking business today if it weren’t for Patti Ohlendorff. She has been our never-failing guide during this complex and labor-intensive project. Patti’s intellectual curiosity and her wicked sense of humor have buoyed us up on a thousand occasions. Please join me in thanking Patti for her boundless energy and her fierce dedication to this university.