Jesuit Law School Dean Signs Scathing Resignation Letter
blog.cardinalnewmansociety.org/2012/08/09/jesuit-law-school-dean-signs-scathing-resignation-letter/
The Dean of a Jesuit law school resigned Wednesday with a scathing resignation letter that called into question the integrity and honesty of the institution.
Saint Louis University told Insider Higher Ed that the dean was able to resign only because she had avoided a meeting Wednesday at which she was to have been fired.
“It is the ultimate irony that a Jesuit university would operate so far outside the bounds of common decency, collegiality, professionalism and integrity,” Annette E. Clark, the resigning dean, wrote in her resignation letter. “I simply cannot be part of, and I assure you I will not be complicit with, an administration that can’t be trusted to act honestly.”
Clark, who had only been in the job for about a year, accused the president of the college Fr. Lawrence Biondi of taking law school money and using it for general university purposes, contrary to agreements made with the law school. Specifically, she said the university removed $800,000 from funds that were to go towards preparing a new building to house the law school and she said the university “unilaterally” took $260,000 that was to have been used for faculty research stipends during the summer.
Clark said in a letter that she would remain at the law school as a tenured professor while searching for a position as a Dean elsewhere.
Father Biondi has written his own strong letter explaining the situation and announcing personal injury attorney Thomas Q. Keefe Jr. as interim dean for the school for the 2012-13 academic year, while the school searches for a permanent replacement.
You can read the entire resignation letter at Above the Law: abovethelaw.com/2012/08/law-school-dean-blasts-university-in-passionate-resignation-letter/2/
As a former student of SLU.not of its Law School, I am interested. I am also always suspicious of any letters from anyone about any topic when the background and context are not provided. Each of us is human enough to wish to edit, redact and spin things our way. Therefore I would prefer to see those and decide.