Annette Clark, the dean of St. Louis University’s law school has resigned after only a year on the job in a very public spat with the University president Father Lawrence Biondi. Clark released a letter stating “From the beginning of my deanship, you have evinced hostility toward the law school and its faculty and have treated me dismissively and with disrespect.”
It is not uncommon for law deans to have tense relations with university presidents. Law schools are often cash cows for universities and presidents do not always understand the unique rules and necessities for running a competitive law school. It is uncommon for such a disagreement to be so public and for the tenure of a dean to be so short.
Clark chastises Biondi for “issuing orders and edicts that allowed me virtually no opportunity to exercise the very discretion, judgment and experience for which you and the faculty enthusiastically hired me.”
This apparently include a lack of conferral with the dean and the faculty on the decision to move the law school to a downtown building.
Clark noted “You acquired the building downtown and deemed it to be the new law school building without adequate investigation of its suitability and without any notice or consultation with the law school leadership.” She also cited financial decision made without conferral.
The lack of conferral on the building is particularly egregious if true. There are few more important decisions to the life and functioning of a law school. Presidents usually leave such decisions to the law faculty, though they can exert considerable pressure in the decision-making process. With such major shifts in location often come intense negotiations between the Dean and the President over debt and tuition issues.
Clark will remain on the faculty.
The law school is expected to be relocated by the summer of 2013 in the new 11-story building.
Here is the resignation letter.
Source: St. Louis Dispatch as first seen on ABA Journal.
Idealist, “Biondi owns St. Louis? Nice place. Anything else to recommend it?”
Yes, the Dred Scott courthouse. The original documents in the Dred Scott case. Just that and the arch, I guess.
If that dog had not told me, I would have known nuthing about the President working out over at the Missouri Athletic Club. Most people in Saint Louis know about the all male nude swimming there. Few knew that the President of the SLU who has his own plush pool to swim in would go over to the MAC to frolic.
It is time for the law school to get a divorce from this catolic university and since the all knowing President decided they should move downtown to that high rise– all on his own –then the time is ripe– just as soon as they move in.
I just omitted a provision in my Will which had provided for money to go to that school of law. I dont want the nude swimmer to steal it.
IBD,
No pun intended you say. The “trial separation” was LOL anyway.
I had to separate our itchbay at 12 of my years, crying the whole time as mama would give me hell for letting it happen. A watchdog I was.
Two facts weigh in here. First. The law school raised money which the university has usurped. This means that the law school budget could be better served without the university dipping in. Second. The move downtown to a high rise which is off campus. The move to the downtown neighborhood, off campus, will allow the law school the opportunity to divorce itself from the university and the grasp of this Biondi dictator.
Another point. Biondi is a wierdo. He attends the Missouri Athletic Club (MAC) to go swimming in the nude rather than swim at the plush swimming pool on campus where they make you wear a swim suit. Why do men do the nude all make swimming thing at the MAC one might wonder.
Saint Louis University Law School students, faculty, alumni and givers might wonder where the money went that Biondi absconded with. I hope that none of it went in to nude swimming.
It is time for Saint Louis University Law School to consider a divorce from the University. They really dont benefit from Jesuit priests who know some law from South America and teach ethics. They have not had a Jesuit priest on the law staff or faculty in years. I know that such things are not sanctioned by the Church but perhaps the diddling here justifies a trial separation. No pun intended. I am a dog. We dont speak puns. When you make the move downtown, at the Biondi dictate, then consider moveon.com.
ItchinBay Dog,
You write:
“Why do men do the nude all make swimming thing at the MAC one might wonder” (sic)
Read carefully. Was the “mistake” intentional?
Smile, in all good will! Don’t come dragging reality by its dirty feet into my paradisical world view.
Biondi owns St. Louis? Nice place. Anything else to recommend it? Smart guys who take their licks?
Snart.
Few key points: If you look at Ms. Clark’s educational background and work experience, then you should be shaking your head, wondering how she got selected in the first place (in other words, she was never a dean of a law school….I thought faculty, staff, and students wanted someone who had dean experience….SLU keeps hiring people who use the institution as a place to get experience and then they leave…they need to change this practice or image of SLU)…. Second, not a good move on Ms. Clark to make this so public….it is all over the local news channels…..not a good move if she looking to go elsewhere……furthermore, after she made these announcements, she decides to stay on board with the university as a law professor (or maybe she is looking to leave)!!!…..Doesn’t she know that the university president holds the keys to your tenure, raises, research funds, and promotional opportunities?? Who is going to hire her as an administrator of anything in Saint Louis???…Father Biondi owns this town…Finally, to giver her some support, Ms. Clark didnt do her homework on Father Biondi….how many administrators and faculy members have fled or stepped down from their position at SLU, since 2000, and why…….Father Biondi has been ‘reigning’ over SLU since 1987……She should have done her homework….and did what certain other administrators or faculty members have done: Bite your tongue….take your licks….(for a few years)….get the experience….and move on……
Lotta,
Here comes a scurrilous (to some) one:
One can raise lots of cash when you are peddling choir
boys. And a little afterhand blackmail helps with those who purchased the services.
LBJ is said to have gotten Warren to change his mind the same way.
Apparently a 1 million $ transfer of funds was a major point of contention also:
“In August of 2012, Biondi was again at the center of controversy when the Dean of the School of Law, Dr. Annette Clark, resigned in protest of Biondi’s unilateral transfer of over $1,000,000 from the law school to “The President’s Opportunity Fund” and Biondi’s discretionary account.[9]
Other reasons cited by Dr. Clark include Biondi’s refusal to meet with an American Bar Association accreditation team and Biondi’s acquisition and selection of an off-campus building to serve as the new law school building “without adequate investigation of its suitability and without any notice or consultation with the law school leadership.” [10] While not denying Dr. Clark’s allegations, Biondi and other SLU administrators contested her version of facts and argued that they had intended to fire Dr. Clark before her resignation.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Biondi
From the Wiki article Biondi seems to be a sterling fundraiser and has expanded the school’s footprint in St. Louis dramatically.
Her resignation letter is here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/102367564/SLU-Law-Dean-Annette-E-Clark-Resignation-Letter-8-8-12
Many good answers.
I’ll hang on Nicks and say they see themselves as conduits between god and the choirboys.
Otherwise busy dispensing god’s will. And we know what god can do, particularly with a helping hand.
Imagine my surprise when I read that a priest with no background as an attorney, law professor or law school administration would “decide” where the school is going to move to without discussing it with the head of the law school! Wow. What happens if the building is not sufficient for the school’s needs? Usually Jesuits have a little more common sense.
As a life-long St Louis resident and having attended said university I can tell you that all Presidents past and present of St Louis U are treated like very SPECIAL people and almost always get their own way here.
Like all US Senators look into the mirror and envision themselves being President, priests look in the mirror and see themselves as Pope.
yes, been there, don’t that. did the job successfully for 7-8 years. regime change. suddenly those who didn’t have a clue wanted to micro-manage in ways that compromised the integrity of the job. time to leave.
Mike….. I am thinking the same thing….. How dare a woman expect to be treated as an equal….. Needless to say with respect….. Priest……Woman….. Not a chance…….
I bet he’s never understood the story of Ruth…..
Um…..is it possible that the Dean being a woman and the President being a priest had something to do with the lack of respect? I’m just saying…………..
I’ll second that, Frankly. Been there, done that, walked away. Not being able to do the job you’re hired to do (and it’s usually because of some bullshit political reason involving people involved in their own pissing contest) is just as stressful as not having a job at all. Maybe more so.
I have had jobs where I was hired & then not allowed to do the job. They are not worth it, good for her. Even if the move was the right thing to do & the building a huge upgrade, doing it without the input of the faculty and leadership of the law school is stupid, short-sighted and highly dismissive
This usually happens when theocracy clashes with reason. Calling somebody “Father” for most of his adult life makes you think you actually are.