Interim Dean James Douglas and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Nate Friends have left Florida A&M University's College of Law.
Douglas' contract expired Dec. 31, and Friends resigned without indicating why, says FAMU spokeswoman Pam Bryant.
The departures come on the heels of a tumultuous year and three months for the FAMU College of Law in Orlando.
Now, with Douglas' departure, Assistant Dean Ruth Witherspoon takes on the title of interim dean; and Professor Omar Saleem, a former associate dean for academic affairs, assumes the title of interim associate dean for academic affairs, Bryant says.
Meanwhile, a university search committee is seeking a permanent associate dean and dean, she says.
Continue reading: Deans Depart FAMU Law
More Chaos at FAMU Law
Interviews for Law Dean
Low morale and infighting at FAMU Law
Leadership Crisis at FAMU Law
What is going on down there? Why did provost let douglas leave? Nate friends is still in the building!
ReplyDeleteIs Nate still Associate Dean or did he step down as Assoc. Dean as the Orlando Biz Journal reported?
ReplyDeleteNate Friends is totally gone, and does NOT work at the COL anymore. Douglas actually left before Dec. 31. He left right after the last classes ended, before finals. Friends reportedly left because he heard Witherspoon was taking over. Reliable word has it that all 6 of the "Finalists" on the Search Committee's list have been scrapped, and the process will have to start all over. Thanks to FAMU, for wasting $150K to the Hollis Group. They were paid before Cast Hell even had a signed contract with them. Can you say "shady dealings"? Also, Omar Saleem has resumed his role as Dean of Academic Affairs. I can't believe they would let him; he was told to resign once before because he was having to testify before the FL Supreme Court concerning his possible involvement in the Percy Luney ("LuneyGate") scandal involving a $1 Million Endowment chair that had turned into a $100K kickback for a lawyer who did no work, and even was still living in KY. Saleem was also on the noose for plagiarizing PMBR and BarBri questions on our class's Criminal Procedure test, but Luney swept that under the rug before the FL Bar could find out.
ReplyDeleteBarry and FIU have FULL accredidation, where is FAMU's?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/JNNews01.nsf/8c9f13012b96736985256aa900624829/b243b7ad7533ae088525725000748028?OpenDocument
Anon at 1159. Be careful of libel and slander. Go study and pass the bar and MPRE.
ReplyDeleteFAMU Law School WILL NOT get full accreditation until they clean house. The folks at the AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION can read. They are not stupid. Percy Luney was the fall guy. O.K., fine. But, all the other "deans" and faculty and administrators who were fully aware of the problems (in the old buildings the deans and administrators offices were right next to each other and you could literally hear and see everything going on in the "dean's suite")and did absolutely nothing. Anyone who read the transcripts from the proceedings can see that one person alone was not responsible. These deans and administrators and faculty were/are employed by the school and as such have a duty not only to stop but to report wrong doing. Silence is complicity. You can't just collect a paycheck, say nothing and hope the finger does not point to you. After Luney was removed nothing changed because many of the bad actors are still in place. The ABA knows that.
ReplyDeleteAgain,
ReplyDeleteGo study so you can pass the bar and MPRE. Stop slandering Dean Saleem. His internet law seminar was awesome.
I already graduated 2 years ago. Duh I already passed. You should go study. Remember, a defense to that tort is the truth.
ReplyDeleteIf you graduated then your practice must be failing...you have too much time on your hands.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 1L. What exactly is going on and why was Luney the fall guy or was he responsible for all of it? Is this going to affect my being able to graduate? Please help!
ReplyDeleteJust study and stop wasting time on this blog. Knowing what happened to Luney will not help you if you get bad grades.
ReplyDeleteThe dean and top administrators from the Talahassee campus were supposed to meet with the ABA this week. Does anyone know what happened?
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the ABA, especially around the issue of accreditation, no news is bad news. Good news from the ABA means not only a higher level of recognition but $$$$ from major law firms and other institutions. All the schools who had good news in 2006 have made announcements. The FAMU College of Law had only one comment about accreditation...in THE ORLANDO SENTINEL article about BARRY UNIVERSITY's full accreditation a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE know your facts before stating information. Dean Saleem WAS NOT asked to step down. He initially gave his resignation letter back in January of '05, but the President would not accept it and asked him to stay. If you knew anything you would know that Saleem and Luney butted heads CONSTANTLY and he became fed up with everything that was happening in the school administration so he resigned as dean. This is FACT not speculation. Secondly, Luney did MANY MANY shady things that students were not privy to. He WAS NOT, I repeat, WAS NOT a fall guy for anyone. As to the PMBR issue....professors around the country use those questions as exams. If you took Prof. Henslee's Remedies class you would know that. He used the EXACT questions that were in the PMBR books. That is a common practice in the legal education game.
ReplyDeleteAs for the issues of what is going on right now at the law school. First of all, Friends did not leave because Witherspoon was going to be the interim Dean. He was pissed as hell that he was being replaced by Saleem and just couldn't take it anymore and quit. As for Douglas, he knew his last day was going to be Dec. 31st way before the decision to place Witherspoon and Saleem in their respective spots.
As for the accredidation issue, ask Douglas and Friends why FAMU almost missed out on a critical ABA meeting in South Florida. If FAMU had not responded to the ABA, FAMU would have had to start completely over with the accreedidation process.
There is so much drama that is going on at the law school. I do hope that one day soon they will get it together and make the school what it should already be...one of the greatest legal education institutions in the country.
Wow I am scared. Some of my classmates are talking about transferring out to FIU or out of state schools. I am worried about accredidation. They told us at orientation to not worry and I am worrying because I will be starting my second year next year and if I am going to leave I have to make a decision now. I heard that the 3L current class had numerous transfers. is that true? When are we going to hear about accredidation or are they going to keep us in the dark until it's too late? I love FAMu but I don't want to be stuck with a JD and not be able to sit for the bar! I would rather transfer. I mean I am here to be an attorney, not just give the school all of my money for nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line remains that any person in administration, faculty or in a dean's position who was aware of any alleged "shady" dealings by anyone employed by the law school should have reported it IMMEDIATELY to Tallahassee and the appropriate authorities instead of using information to make power plays and prolong the infighting. This is an institution where ethics should matter. Silence in the face of a wrong results in disaster.
ReplyDeleteThe question still remains whether there was a meeting with the ABA recently and what the outcome was. Everyone knows that not being fully accredited is a dangerous position. Anyone with sense should be afraid of it. That includes students, who might not graduate from an accredited school. That includes faculty and staff, who would get fired when the school goes out of business, as it must under the state law that created it, if it does not become fully accredited. That includes the central administration in Talahassee. And that includes the whole FAMU community, because while the law school was taken from us by racism in the sixties, we will have lost it ourselves this time through incompetence.
ReplyDeleteSo is there a faculty member or a staff member who knows what happened out there? What happened at that meeting?
The ABA is pretty organized. Site visits are not "secret." Those who are not familiar with the accreditation process should visit the ABA web site @ http://www.abanet.org/legaled/accreditation/sitevisit/acvisits.html
ReplyDeleteKNOWLEDGE AND THE PURPOSEFUL APPLICATION THEREOF IS POWER!
Transfers can't happen unless the student has a 3.0 grade point average. The ABA issue can be solved if the faculty supports the school instead of coming into class and making negative "get outta here as fast as you can" speeches. All of the dead weight is leaving and that is a good thing. And... could we please get our facts right about the interim deans. Both of them worked hard to get the provisional status of the school. Luney and Douglas were incompetent, insecure, and selfish. They cared nothing about getting the COL off to a good start. Friends was also incompetent at making a simple class schedule!
ReplyDeleteWow, I wonder what student flunky is carrying water for Omar Saleem on this blog?
ReplyDeleteStop hiding who is the dead weight?
ReplyDeleteThe only person carrying water for Saleem is himself! I bet he goes on here 3x a day waiting for someone to trash him (an inevitability for such an incompetent person) and then he just defends himself, and then makes belive he's a student by putting in words like "I liked his class" or "His class was great" so everyone thinks he has a bunch of supportive followers.
ReplyDeleteAs to the dead weight, most of the founding faculty is the dead weight! Go publish something, you bunch of lazy punks. Help the law school stay accredited so my class can sit for the bar exam!
Saleem is busy working and trying to make this COL a place of enlightened learning. Just as he's done all these years under lazy deans. You're gonna soon be an attorney- you should check your facts. Saleem is published quite a bit (Georgetown and Columbia liked his writing & put him in their law journals) He is cited in over 50 articles in his areas of expertise, so much until he part of the syllabus in many of Internet Law and Environmental Law classes in law schools across the country. He's good enough to teach law in China and Spain, and the Rockefeller Foundation liked him. He is obviously the only available and competent faculty to take care of business in this critical moment. With close friends at many law schools, he could go elsewhere. Why dontcha go and check him out on Lexis Nexis - just search: O-m-a-r S-a-l-e-e-m?
ReplyDeleteAnon @1/15/2007 10:27 AM is not Omar Saleem. Believe it! He has much more important matters he's tending to.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 1027
ReplyDeleteYou are either 1. Mr. Miller, or 2 a student. Saleem must have done a good job of telling you about all the issues of the school. Did he tell you why:
He is constantly mean too Professors Abrams and Bernier.
Disrespected Professor Friends.
Failed to do the work necessary to teach Street Law.
Failed to work with Professor Friends to ensure that the schedule was ready. Now evening students have lost classes.
To ANON that wrote: He's good enough to teach law in China and Spain.
ReplyDeleteFirst, going to China was something that he paid to do. Well for a few thousand dollars, you, too, can participate in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Foundation's "People to People Ambassador's Program" (headed by Eisenhower's granddaughter Mary). It's a simple process: You are "invited to complete and submit your registration and deposit to secure your position among the delegation." However, be fair warned though that "space is limited and registrations will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis." For $3,497.00 the "esteemed" Founding Faculty member (and you, too) can "participate" in this October's (2006) Professional Delegation to The People’s Republic of China.
As for Spain, that was a summer abroad program with St. Thomas, for which he was FIRED.
Plus, current faculty have scoffed his "street law" clinic. The students wrote in their reports that they were the ones who actually did the legwork setting it up and Saleem didn't do anything.
Prof. Lundy Langston are you mad or a woman scorned? You too, paid to go to China. And why are you plagiarizing this blog? Do you think we would forget the quote "Well for a few thousand dollars, you, too, can participate in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Foundation's "People to People Ambassador's Program" (headed by Eisenhower's granddaughter Mary). It's a simple process: You are "invited to complete and submit your registration and deposit to secure your position among the delegation." However, be fair warned though that "space is limited and registrations will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis." For $3,497.00 the "esteemed" Founding Faculty member (and you, too) can "participate" in this October's (2006) Professional Delegation to The People’s Republic of China"? The quote was once made in reference to you and your questionable overrated and overstated academic background! Why not go and publish something that's worth reading. This time don't cite Jet magazine (and for that matter Ebony or Vibe either)
ReplyDeleteOh yeah ... you should pick up a law book on Property. Scary thought. And by the way show up in the right classroom the next time.
To Anon at 1/15/2007 1:40 PM
ReplyDeleteCheck your facts or ask the director at St. Thomas Univ. about the reputation of prof. Omar Saleem. Or how bout asking the administration at FIU or Barry. Believe it... Saleem can return to his old place of employment. Unlike Langston (is all of the Saleem bashing you?) and Bernier et. al. who are academic vagabonds who came to FAMU COL under a cloud.
To the above anon,
ReplyDeleteWhat about the street clinic? I don't care about other law schools think about Saleem.
What about the street law clinic at FAMU that has a reputation amongst the students for being a sham class. Are you one of the groupies who listens to his false diatribes about Langston?
On the day we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is rather sad to watch many of the people he gave his life for, and who are now benefiting from his sacrifice (as students and employees of a College of Law at FAMU) do everything in their power to destroy the very type of institution that has the potention to propel the causes of equal rights, human rights and justice for all!
ReplyDeleteWe all need to check the "CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER."
Want to save the school? Bring back Nate Friends!
ReplyDeleteIf all of this negative energy were to be put toward actually supporting the school we might achieve accreditation. It is a shame that this blog (which is available to any firm, potential student, or possible grant provider) does not provide a substantial amount of positive information about our school.
ReplyDeleteLook around at the beautiful facility that we have. Go to the library and appreciate the amount of research material that is available. Take advantage of the professors office hours that other law schools often lack. Finally, take the time to actually reflect why you decided to attend law school and provide a few suggestions or volunteer your time in an effort to reach accreditation.
When your done with everything stated above, remember that you still have to study. Where are you going to find the time to complain then?
If all of this negative energy were actually put towards achieving accreditation the ABA would have granted it this past December. Students, faculty and anyone else who posts here are sharing their comments with local law firms, potential students, and those who are providing or may provide donations to the school. These are the exact people that we are depending on to help the school succeed. Take a moment to appreciate what is around you.
ReplyDeleteLook at the beautiful facility that we have. Visit the library and use the vast amount of research materials that are available. Stop by to see your professor during their office hours for those hard to understand issues of law. Finally, take the time to give a few useful suggestions toward receiving accreditation.
When you are finished with all of the above, remember that you still have to study. Being so busy, there should be no time to complain about the shortcomings of others.
So, the solution is to think happy thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThere is a valid concern about the future of the law school. If it doesn't get accredited, then by law it will pass out of existence.
What is needed is not for students to ignore the quality of their education or the performance of their professors (though a lot of what we read on this blog is just plain nit picking). What is needed is for the school's faculty and the administration in Talahassee and Orlando to get their acts together, solve the problems the ABA has with the school, and communicate that information to the students and to all the interested parties.
If people knew what was going on, they could order their lives instead of doing what they are doing now, which is engaging in a lot of uninformed guesswork and then gossiping about it on this blog and elsewhere.
Remember, student complaints will not be the death of the school, either literally or figuratively. Inaction by the powers that be will be. (Oh, yeah. When are we geting a new dean anyway?)
Da Rattler,
ReplyDeleteWhat's the inside scoop on today's meeting between Provost (I'll get back to you...never) Debra Austin and Permanent Interim President (Life's like a wagon...don't drag your feet) CB? I hear that the ABA is not too happy with the state of things at the law school and that CB put the blame on the "divided" faculty. Things have really fallen off since Nate Friends left. And why is it taking so long to find a dean? Bring back Nate Friends!!!
Ok, so maybe the happy thoughts are a little far out there. At least it is better than some of the things that have been said on the blogs.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the administration maybe we can get them to use some type of calendering system. Then they can keep up with the things that they are required to do and actually do them. Attorneys use varios programs such as jurist or amicus to keep track of things. Maybe the technology department can help them with that.
Then, there is the technology department. Tallahassee will not let go of the reins so that the system can be up and running properly. If Tallahassee will let IT here do their jobs we might actually have the free printers from Lexis and Westlaw up and running as they used to be.
We also have the need for more administrative assistance. We can start with providing Ms. Washington with more help. The ABA requires that student grades be provided within 30 days from when the exam was taken. She cannot enter the grades and complete registration concurrently.
Positively, the administration has hired a new financial aid representative, Ms. Murphy. She seems to be very nice and competent in her area. This is greatly appreciated. Personally, she was able to take care of one of my own financial aid issues within 24 hours.
Lastly, we all know that there needs to be a permanent Dean. I am happy to see Dean Witherspoon taking the helm right now, supported by Dean Saleem and Motley (sp?). I will support each of these individuals in thier efforts to obtain accreditation for us. When we do finally get a permanent Dean, the timing of which is unknown, I will support the new Dean.
Therefore, I suggest that the COL hire more personel for administration purposes; Tallahassee ease up the reins; and that we all support the Dean whether temporary or permanent.
I have offered a few suggestions without the petty name calling. Whether any of the suggestions will actually help I do not know. Are these all things that many have said over and over again, yes. Let's just hope that someone actually puts some of this into action.
An active and productive student body is good for any academic institution. On the other hand, many of the things being discussed as problems in 2007 at the law school were issues in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, etc. There is a "people" problem at the school...people who are not effectively doing their jobs. The problems with grades being late and incorrect, registration being a mess, incomplete schedules and booklists, faculty fighting to the detriment of the school and other "ABA important" issues existed when there were few students and even fewer faculty on campus. People who are incompetent or refuse to perform their job does not need "help." First, those who are hindering the progress of the school by not doing the jobs they are paid to do must be removed (as most people who don't do their jobs are).
ReplyDeletekeep it poppin! bring back nate friends.
ReplyDeleteI am one of the professors that have made mistakes on my grades. It is not the Registrar's Office.
ReplyDeleteGrades are late because faculty and adjuncts are not turning them in on time to the Registrar's Office.
The Deans are responsible for incomplete schedules and the schedule of classes. The booklist is Mrs. Leonard's responsibility.
The Registrar is not the problem at the law school. Two people are not enough in the Registrar's Office. Help is needed before one of them finds another job.
Anon @ 3/02/2007 12:05 AM, are you serious? Lord, have mercy!
ReplyDeleteWhen is the latest that FAMU COL can appoint a dean for ABA accredition? I thought we need a permanent dean to meet the ABA requirements.
ReplyDeleteDoes UCF want to take over FAMU COL? If so, would weloss provisional accreditation and have to start all over?
ReplyDeleteI'm coming down for a faculty job interview shortly. I'm a little leary after reading the blogs. Any advice?
ReplyDeleteRUN, unless you are willing to put up with ANYTHING to teach!
ReplyDeleteNate Friends is a cool guy. I had him for property and I honestly enjoyed having him...when he was not at a dentist appointment. HOWEVER, I don't think he chose the best time to leave. I hope his reason for leaving was legitimate and not some General Hospital/Days of our Lives business. There are lots of people seeking, striving, and working together for success at FAMU. Both of these deans leaving in the middle of the year is a lot to swallow. Yes, there may have been problems but its hard to justify abandoning a student body that looks up to you. Especially in the middle of the school year. Anyhow, i'm looking forward to the rest of my journey here at FAMU. Go Rattlers!
ReplyDeleteThere have been few, if any, cases of any faculty abandoning FAMU. Most only left when the were pushed, shoved, given no other option or their "contract expired" and was not renewed.
ReplyDelete