I've just heard that Roger Dennis, the founding dean of Drexel Law School — and before that provost at Rutgers University and dean of Rutgers-Camden Law — is retiring as dean of Drexel Law. This comes as surprising news to me because Roger has loomed large in my life for so long. Going back to my time in practice I remember some of the partners I worked for at Skadden, Arps talking about their friend Roger, who had been an associate in the antitrust department. When I went into teaching Roger was already dean at Rutgers-Camden and on his way to becoming Provost. Cribbing now a little from the Drexel press release:
Provost M. Brian Blake, PhD, announced that Roger Dennis, founding dean of the Thomas R. Kline School of Law, will retire next year. Dennis has agreed to stay on through the end of the 2016-17 academic year while the University undertakes a national search for his replacement.
Dennis joined the law school during its inaugural academic year, 2006-07. He led the school through the American Bar Association accreditation process in the shortest amount of time possible, resulting in full accreditation in 2011. Dennis also was instrumental in building connections with the Philadelphia legal community, including the relationship that led to noted trial attorney Thomas R. Kline making the largest gift in Drexel history to the school that now bears his name.
“Through one of the most tumultuous times in legal education, Roger has remained the driving force behind [this] innovative and successful institution,” wrote Blake. “As a new provost this year, I am fortunate to benefit from Roger’s expertise as a former provost himself, in addition to his many contributions to our scholarly programs in the Kline School of Law and across [Drexel].”
When Drexel was opening I heard about how fortunate they were to recruit Roger as their dean. In addition to being a friend of this blog and a fellow lover of monuments and courthouses, Roger is a person with immense energy and enthusiasm and talent as an educator, lawyer, and administrator. I had the pleasure of serving on an ABA inspection team he chaired a few years back and saw how masterfully he dealt with a variety of constituents, from the central administration to the faculty and students. I know the entire Drexel community has been lucky to have his talents. He has guided the construction of the school, literally and figuratively. Drexel had built an outstanding faculty (and hired many others who've gone on to great careers elsewhere), been a leader in experiential learning, renovated a beautiful building, and generated impressive fundraising. I'm sure there will be a lot of talk of Roger's legacy for Drexel and I know he'll be missed.
I worked for Roger for five years at Drexel. To say he was well regarded would be like saying Superman is kind of strong.
Congratulations on a wonderful career!
Not to take anything away from this particular individual, but, in general, does a Dean typically get involved with faculty appointments (committee, etc.) to the extent we can truly say, other than as a sort of honorary homage, that a Dean "builds" a law faculty? (Perhaps, lateral recruitment a bit, but to what extent this influences the overall faculty composition seems sort of marginal.)
You mention that construction of a building. Yes, indeed, Deans often have an edifice complex. But, a Dean doesn't build a building. He/she helps to raise money to build a building and promotes the building of a building. Sort of like Donald Trump, except the Dean doesn't get to put his name on it.
Again, not to comment on this individual particularly, but how many Deans are actually leaders in "experiential learning." The law academy loves its jargon and slogans and topics de jour, and this is now a big throw away line to try to describe almost anything that involves actually doing something as a student other than taking a final. Most of what it touted as "new and shiny" has been done for years. Not by most Deans, though.
And then we come back to renovating buildings and raising money.
Let's stipulate Deans are often popular (at least with some part of the faculty and at least for a while), and these days are often chosen for a number of other reasons (e.g., see the reaction to the picture of the new Dean at BYU in these pages).
Deans are expected to represent the law school and raise money. The other typical accolades thrown their way ring hollow and almost amount to dam.ing the Dean with faint praise.
Though, once again, one is sure that Roger Dennis was a fine Dean and deserves praise in every respect and for one, I have no reason to doubt this in any respect.
We can praise someone for their great work in building the most recently constructed law school in Philadelphia if we can assume such an additional law school was needed in that vicinity.
"Deans often have an edifice complex."
Okay, this pun wins.
Deans are pretty cool. Dean Martin landed a crippled airliner.