The visit of the Arkansas Bar Association Law School Committee began at 9:00 in the morning. The Law School Committee visits both law schools to catch up on what is happening and to provide feedback to the administration of both schools. The committee visits with different faculty members and staff, talks with students, and gives us their impression on how things are going and what we might do better. I began the morning with a law school update. Susan Schell talked about our Career Services area and her ideas for the future and the status of our hiring. She also shared the most recent statistics with the Committee.
After that, Prof. Karen Koch talked about the development of a new course “Animal Law” to be taught this summer and how it was a natural fit with our agricultural law program and center, as well as with the College of Agriculture. Mike Mullane shared with the Committee the various clinical offerings we have and the new faculty members joining us in the clinic area; Steve Sheppard shared information about his scholarship; Tim Tarvin talked about and demonstrated Legal e-Source; Susan Williams talked about the pro bono program and its development; and, Carl Circo shared information about the Habitat for Humanity Wills Project. Editors of each of our three journals: Suzanne Clark (Arkansas Law Review), Jennifer Fiser (Journal of Food Law & Policy), and Robert Depper (Journal of Islamic Law & Culture) gave presentations to the committee, then they had lunch with students.
After lunch, Chancellor-Elect Dave Gearhart came and spoke with them
about his vision for the University and the most recent developments on campus. In closing remarks, I shared with them an update on the various ways in which we are reaching out to touch alums. For example, we had the networking event (which many of them attended), the 50+ year reunion, the e-Blast (e-newsletter we send out), the blog, the updated website, and the fact that we send out birthday cards and Valentine cards (when both husband and wife are our alums). I talked about the fact that we will be sending out an e-Blast for specific important alerts that we want to get to our alumni and also the fact that we’re thinking about being more strategic about our alumni magazine
They gave me their feedback and shared concerns raised by the students. There were concerns about career services specifically that we reach out to smaller firms and to larger firms. Another concern was that the wireless internet is not as dependable as it should be. There were comments about the registration this year. Students suggested we make it clearer which classes would be helpful to prepare for a practice in certain areas of law. We’re going to look at that as well as perhaps videotaping the registration presentation given by Assistant Dean Rhonda Adams so that if students are unable to attend they can view that presentation later. We are grateful to the members of the Law School Committee who take time out of their busy professional lives to come see and be with us, and to share with us their ideas, thoughts and concerns about the law school. Thank you very much. We look forward to seeing them officially again next year, or before that at upcoming law school events. My special thanks to David Whitaker, the Chair of the Committee, who helped coordinate the timing of the committee’s visit.
While the Law School Committee was with our students, I attended the lunch time presentation of Prof.Krotoszynski. He spoke on the topic “how to integrate diversity into public schools after the Court’s recent pronouncements on the legitimacy of diversity as a basis for integration.” It was a really interesting topic and because of the size of the group, we were able to have a pretty rigorous discussion and exchange. He has a wonderful, wicked sense of humor in addition to his intellect. Thanks to Prof. Dodson for hosting him. I hope he enjoyed his visit to Fayetteville
After we wrapped up with the Law School Committee visit it was time to hit the road to Little Rock in preparation for a visit to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff on Saturday for the “Choose Law” program given by the Arkansas Bar Association Young Lawyers Section. On the way there I stopped over in Little Rock where I would connect with Prof. Don Judges who was flying in from a meeting. We would drive the next morning to UAPB
Nancecy 