DeanWuBlog

Accomplishments

It has been wonderful returning to my hometown of Detroit to serve as Dean of Wayne State University Law School. As I prepare for a final year of service, I thought I would write to you about the positive developments that have transformed the institution during my tenure.

Most importantly, we continue to welcome a talented and diverse group of students. Following passage of Proposal 2, the faculty deliberated the issue of admissions and unanimously adopted a new policy. With the dual goals of ensuring we remain true to a mission of offering access to higher education and the justice system as well as complying with the mandate of the law, we consider not only an applicant's standardized test scores and undergraduate grades as predictors of success in the J.D. program but also his/her entire background.

Yet it also is crucial to support our students as they enter the profession. Our Dean's Scholars program, which provides 50% to 100% tuition for up to three years, has allowed us to recruit approximately 30 individuals each year whose academic credentials are, on average, the highest in our history. The new Ziemba Scholars program, endowed by the largest single gift ever made for the benefit of our students, will support those pursuing public interest careers. The generosity of the late Carl Ziemba (class of 1948) is matched by his distinguished career in appellate litigation. His gift of more than $3 million will establish an independent trust that is expected to award at least $150,000 per year to deserving individuals.

Our faculty has become stronger, too. During the past three years, we have hired 10 new tenured/tenure-track faculty, in areas ranging from corporate and tax to health policy and intellectual property to family law and international law, along with a new clinical professor, new legal research and writing instructor, and two visiting professors. Their expertise enhances the educational experience as well as our national reputation.

The design process has begun for the new Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. With $16 million raised in the Wayne First capital campaign toward a $30 million goal, we look forward to groundbreaking for an addition that will symbolize in bricks and mortar our place as a top public urban law school. Named for our LL.M. alumnus, the Honorable Damon J. Keith, a jurist and civic leader of outstanding reputation both in Detroit and throughout the nation, the Center will be one of only a handful of such programs in the United States. Our students, along with the bench and the bar and the community at large, will benefit from the substantive programming offered by the Center. Just this summer, we announced the endowment of the Damon J. Keith Visiting Professor position. Thanks to the generosity of donors who share Judge Keith's commitment to equality before the law, a different scholar will come each year to present an advanced course on the subject.

Meanwhile, our graduates continue to dominate the bench and the bar in the Detroit metropolitan area and throughout the state of Michigan. The latest survey of alumni shows that 90% of the class of 2006 is employed or continuing their education on a full-time basis.

In this context, I would like to ensure you are aware of our error – for which I take personal responsibility – in preparing employment data for the class of 2005, which was used for the last US News survey. We used a survey instrument that did not correspond to the NALP and ABA standards, and we also did not perform enough follow-up. As a consequence, our employment rates appeared much lower than they certainly were in fact, based on prior years and for the class 2006. Our ranking thus was affected adversely. We trust that those familiar with our academic strengths will understand that the ranking does not accurately reflect those strengths.

As you know, we have announced a dean search. If you or those whom you know are interested in this opportunity, please encourage them to apply; the website for the search is http://www.law.wayne.edu/Faculty/Dean_Search_Committee%20.html. I look forward to continuing to work together to address higher education policy issues. Best wishes.