Fayetteville : UA law school dean praised as a good fit
Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Cynthia Nance will take the helm of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville School of Law as the school approaches an intensive accreditation review and completes an $ 11 million expansion.
Effective July 1, Nance will become the first female and the first black to hold the position of dean at the law school. Her two-year appointment comes after a nationwide search failed to produce an ideal candidate, said Bob Smith, UA provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.
“I think it shows the growth of the university to not only appoint a woman as dean, but also a woman of color,” said Leon Jones Jr., who graduated Saturday from the law school.
As president of the Black Law Students Association, Jones met with Nance on a weekly basis. He describes her as a “natural leader,” who is always available and willing to help students.
Outside the university, Nance has an international reputation as an expert in labor law and a leader in the legal and academic communities, UA Chancellor John A. White said in a statement released Tuesday.
“I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of the law school under professor Nance’s leadership,” he said.
The university began its dean search following the death of Dean Richard B. “Dick” Atkinson in August 2005. UA law professor Howard W. Brill has served as interim dean for the past nine months.
The search committee interviewed eight candidates from across the country and brought two to Fayetteville for interviews this spring. While both had strengths, neither candidate received overwhelming support from the faculty, Smith said.
“We were looking for someone who could come and be a good fit for us, such as Dean Atkinson was,” said search committee member Herb Cihak, law professor and director of the UA law library. “I don’t think we felt the people that came in would send us in the same direction.” Instead of immediately starting another labor-intensive search, the committee asked for internal nominations and selected Nance from among three candidates. University officials declined to identify the other candidates.
Nance will serve with the help of associate deans Lonnie Beard, a UA law professor since 1983 and former associate dean for academic affairs, and Judith Kilpatrick, a professor at the school since 1994.
Nance’s salary will be $ 170, 000 a year, about a 21 percent increase over her current salary. Brill, a UA distinguished faculty member who has been at UA since 1975, has a salary of $ 175, 005. Atkinson’s salary was $ 175, 000 his third year as dean.
Smith said the two-year appointment was intended to give someone from the university the opportunity to step into an administrative role and possibly become a strong candidate for long-term consideration when a new national search begins in fall 2007. It also puts someone familiar with the university in place to lead the law school through accreditation reviews by the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools this fall.
The law school underwent its last accreditation review in 1999. Cihak, chair of the faculty selfstudy committee, said the law school has been preparing for the reviews since January 2005. His committee is compiling a 200-plus page report detailing every facet of the law school, to be reviewed by the associations before they visit the campus for their own threeday investigation in November.
“It’s a real intensive process for us,” he said.
Nance will also see the law school through completion of the 50, 000-square-foot expansion of Waterman Hall and Robert A. Leflar Law Center. G. David Gearhart, vice chancellor for university advancement, said UA still has to raise $ 2 million to finish the $ 11 million project scheduled for completion this fall.
“Having her assistance will be crucial,” Gearhart said.
Nance, who joined the law school in 1994, said she plans to continue Atkinson’s legacy by helping the law school grow and increase the number of minority students. She said she plans to get out and tell the story of the law school, highlighting the work being done by both faculty and students.
“People don’t realize what a gem we have here,” Nance said.
Nance, who specializes in labor and employment law, last year was named the Arkansas Bar Association’s Outstanding Lawyer-Citizen. She serves on several academic and professional boards and committees including the National Advisory Committee for the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. Smith said UA has received accolades from around the country for Nance’s appointment.
Nance said she is honored to be named as the first black dean of the law school.
“I’m really grateful to the six pioneers that opened the door so many years ago,” she said, referring to the six blacks who integrated UA between 1948 and 1951.
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