SELECTING A NEW DEAN WITH FORWARD MOMENTUM
SELECTING A NEW DEAN WITH FORWARD MOMENTUM
BRADLEY MYERS Interim Dean, University of North Dakota School of Law
As most of you know, Brian Pappas stepped down as dean of the University of North Dakota( UND) School of Law effective July 1. During his brief time in North Dakota, Pappas led us through projects designed to prepare the School of Law for significant changes in the way our graduates become licensed, deepen the School of Law’ s connections with SBAND and its members, and broaden the experiential training we provide our students. This will be important as the practice of law goes through some significant demographic and technological changes over the next few years.
I have been at UND for 24 years and I have the obligation, and pleasure, to once again guide the School of Law for the next six months or so until a permanent dean takes over. While this is a challenging time in higher education, I am excited to have this brief opportunity to lead the School of Law.
For my first Gavel column I decided to write about the process by which law school deans are selected and share some of the work we will be doing this year until our new dean takes over.
When a national university looks to fill an upper administrative position, it typically
26 THE GAVEL engages in a broad nationwide search to find a highly qualified individual. This necessitates the naming of a distinguished body of faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders to guide the search. The university named Dr. Maridee Shogren, UND’ s dean of nursing & professional disciplines, to chair our Dean Search Committee. The rest of the committee includes representatives from the School of Law faculty and staff, the UND Foundation, SBAND, and the judiciary.
The committee members could not be more qualified, distinguished, and passionate about legal education in North Dakota. I want to take this opportunity, on behalf of the School of Law, to thank the members of the committee and all the others across the state who contacted the university to express their strong desire to serve. The support and affinity for the School of Law has touched us all.
The university engaged Academic Search to support the committee’ s work. It visited the campus in March and April and talked to as many of the School of Law’ s stakeholders as it could. With the assistance of the consultant, the committee drafted a position description. At the end of April, this description was posted, and the solicitation of applicants began in earnest.
The committee began reviewing the applications it received on Aug. 4( this should not be considered a closing date, and new applications will be received until a new dean is selected). The committee will then select a group of candidates for initial interviews conducted via distance technology at the start of September. Finalists will travel to the university for two days of interviews, meetings, and presentations at the end of September. I should note, under state law only the names of the finalists for the position will be publicly disclosed, i. e., although the committee will be working hard, we will receive little information about their work.
The final action of the committee will be forwarding at least three names to Provost Eric Link for consideration. At that point the committee’ s work ends. The committee will not select the new dean. That decision is solely in the hands of the provost. Provost Link will, however, solicit and consider feedback from anyone who wishes to share advice, information, or perspectives on who the next dean should be.
During this interim time, the School of Law still has quite a bit to do. During its recently concluded session, the legislature generously supported our reimplementation of an Immigration Law Clinic. We have been working hard this summer to identify a faculty member to run this clinic with the expectation that students will be able to start working with clients this fall. Opening a new clinic is a significant undertaking even when we have experienced clinicians already in the building. We will do our very best to justify the legislature’ s decision to invest in the School of Law’ s future.
We have expanded our entering 1L class for this fall. Accommodating more students means offering our first-year classes in two sections rather than just one. While we have tried to identify all the adjustments this new structure will require, faculty, staff, and students will have to be nimble this fall as new challenges present themselves and as we prepare to move this cohort through the remainder of their legal education.
This year, we will also review the way we provide students with experiential learning. America Bar Association( ABA) accreditation standards define experiential learning to include field placements( commonly referred to as externships), clinics, and simulation courses. Currently,