Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Personal Announcement
I write to announce my resignation as Dean of Wayne State University Law School, effective at the end of May 2008.
For family reasons, I must return to Washington, D.C. Many of you know that my wife, Carol Izumi, has health issues which have recently worsened. Carol has resigned her position as Associate Dean at another law school because of these issues. For some time now, we have been considering alternative arrangements in our professional lives.
I have scheduled my departure for the end of the 2007-08 academic year to ensure that I am able to oversee the many initiatives we have underway and to facilitate an effective transition. In particular, I would like to make further progress on the fundraising for the Damon J. Keith Classroom Building & Center for Civil Rights. In addition, as Dean I bear ultimate responsibility for the recent setback we have experienced with our rankings. The faculty and the administration have already developed an action plan to address it, and I intend to implement it expeditiously and effectively. By all objective measurements, this development should be temporary.
I appreciate more than I can express the many individuals with whom I have had the honor of working: talented and dedicated faculty, administrators, librarians, and staff, along with numerous active alumni and students. I look forward to continuing to work with everyone during an important year. Thank you very much.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Employment Statistics
I am pleased to report on our significant progress in placement of students and reporting of data. As I have previously discussed, the information about the Wayne State University Law School class of 2005 and its employment was not accurate. We have made a preliminary determination that for the class of 2006, as measured 9 months after graduation, our graduates reported almost 89% employment with 97% of them completing the survey. Although the raw data have been reported to NALP already and will be reported to the ABA (which requires the same data as submitted to NALP), this analysis was performed in-house with the best information accessible at this time and it is not the official NALP conclusion that will be forthcoming in about six weeks.
As a consequence, under the formula used for US News rankings, we will show at least 86% employment. This figure is comparable with our typical rates, and it confirms that the 2005 data (used in the most recent rankings) are the result of administrative errors.
I would like to thank Ms. Krystal Gardner, Assistant Dean for Career Services, and Mr. Ricardo Villarosa, Director of Student Life, for their excellent work in analyzing the date. It remains crucial for us to maintain high rates of placement as well as reporting of data, and we ask that all recent graduates complete the survey about their employment when they are given the opportunity to do so.
Thank you.
