LeRoy Pernel, dean and professor at the University of Northern Illinois (DeKalb) will interview for the top job at the FAMU College of Law on Monday. UNI boast a student enrollment of 25,000 students and Pernell heads a Law program who's bar passage hovers around 80.1 percent, just above Illinois' average state passage rate of 80 percent.
Pernell assumed the deanship of the NIU College of Law in 1997 after serving as Vice Provost of the Office of Minority Affairs at The Ohio State University since 1994 as well as being a professor at OSU since 1975.
Pernell is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, where he received his B.A., and Ohio State University, where he received his J.D. He'll spend Monday, June 11, interviewing with students and faculty at the FAMU College of Law and touring the facilty.
You can learn more about Pernell's background here
Education is not about personal agendas, BMWs, Jaguars or political connections. Complacency and incompetency must go. It is time to AWAKEN and ARISE:
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther King, Jr.
THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
Morehouse College, Atlanta
1948
As I engage in the so-called "bull sessions" around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the "brethren" think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.
It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.
Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.
The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
The late Eugene Talmadge, in my opinion, possessed one of the better minds of Georgia, or even America. Moreover, he wore the Phi Beta Kappa key. By all measuring rods, Mr. Talmadge could think critically and intensively; yet he contends that I am an inferior being. Are those the types of men we call educated?
We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.
If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!
Two things stand out to my about his C.V. One is that he has practiced law and while serving as dean has achieved an 81 percent bar passage rate. Second, he has published a number of works pertaining to law, which shows that he is still engaging this profession.
ReplyDeleteHe was considered for the Stetson position in 2003:
ReplyDeleteStetson University College of Law selects three finalists in dean search
December 23, 2003
Contact: Frank Klim
Executive Director of Communications
(727)562-7889
Gulfport, Fla. - The search for the next dean of the Stetson University College of Law has been narrowed to three candidates.
The finalists are: John T. Berry, Executive Director of the State Bar of Michigan; Darby Dickerson, Interim Dean of the Stetson College of Law and Leroy Pernell, Dean of Northern Illinois University College of Law.
“A number of highly qualified candidates from across the country have applied for this position and the selection process has been very difficult,” said John Cooper, co-chair of the Dean Search Committee.
The committee has been working since its appointment in July 2003 to identify individuals to recommend to President H. Douglas Lee to serve as Dean of Stetson University College of Law and University Vice President. The 12-member committee is comprised of representatives from the faculty, alumni, staff, Board of Overseers and the Student Bar Association.
The three finalists will be brought to campus for interviews in January or February 2004. Events will be planned for faculty, administrators, staff and students to meet with the candidates. Ultimately the recommendations of the faculty and the Dean Search Committee will be forwarded to President Lee for the final selection. President Lee has indicated his desire to have the final selection made so that the new dean will assume his/her position by July 1, 2004.
About the Finalists:
John T. Berry is a 1976 graduate of Stetson University College of Law. He is the Executive Director of the State Bar of Michigan. Berry has served as an Assistant State Attorney prosecuting consumer fraud action in Florida. He has also served in leadership positions in both the Florida Bar and the Arizona State Bar. He also serves as the Chair of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Professionalism. In 2000, he was appointed to serve on the Florida Supreme Court Professionalism Commission. He was the 2001 recipient of the American Bar Association’s Michael Franck Award, the association’s highest award in the field of legal ethics and professionalism. Berry has published prolifically on legal professionalism and has been associated with and taught at a number of law schools.
Dean Darby Dickerson has been Interim Dean of the Stetson University College of Law since May 2003. She graduated from the Vanderbilt Law School in 1988 where she served as Senior Managing Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and as a member of the Moot Court Board. After serving as a law clerk for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, she entered private practice for six years in Dallas, Texas. In 1995, she was named the Outstanding Director of the Texas Young Lawyers Association and also the Outstanding Young Lawyer in Dallas. Dean Dickerson joined the Stetson faculty in 1995. She served as Associate Dean of the Stetson College of Law from 2000-2002 and as Vice Dean of the College of Law from 2002-2003. She has published extensively in the areas of litigation ethics and legal writing and citation.
Dean Leroy Pernell has served as the Dean of Northern Illinois University College of Law since 1997. Dean Pernell graduated from the Ohio State Law School in 1974. Prior to teaching law, Dean Pernell practiced with the Columbus Legal Aid and Defender Society. He served as a Professor at the law school at Ohio State from 1975 and as Vice Provost of the Office of Minority Affairs at the Ohio State University from 1994, until being appointed the Dean at the University of Northern Illinois. In 1988, he served as a visiting scholar at Columbia University School of Law. He has written law review articles in the areas of criminal procedure, juvenile justice, personal injury and sports law
Leroy Pernell is obviously well qualified to be dean at the law school. So what? There are dozens of people qualified to lead the law school. The problem is not with qualificationS, the problem is with accountability. Once someone is hired, are they being held to a high standard, any standard? Do they have to show improvements? If promised improvements are not made, then what? If they can keep their jobs just by playing politics, we will be right back to where we started. It's simple: before anybody gets the job, he/she must make a number of promises that must coincide with what we need done (read, Ammons) and he must be held accountable. This should also go for Dr. Ammons. The board must hold him accountable. It is high time that we stop associating personal success with real success. Don't tell me someone was President, Dean or Provost--That's nice. Tell me what they have done in their jobs. It looks like Pernell kept up with the bar passage rate in his state--good. It also looks that he is interested in minority education--also good. BUT PLEASE, LET US DEMAND THAT HE OR WHOMEVER IS PICKED DELIVERS.
ReplyDeleteWE HAVE GOT TO RAISE THE BAR. DR. HICKS, PRESIDENT OF UCF, WAS TOLD BY HIS BOARD LAST YEAR, HE HAD TO RAISE ABOUT $100 MILLION. HE RAISED $350 MILLION. SURE WHITE FOLKS HAVE MORE MONEY TO DONATE. AGAIN, SO WHAT? THE POINT IS THAT WE SHOULD HAVE RAISED WHAT WAS WITHIN OUR CAPACITY.
It's Dr. HITT at UCF. Who are the other candidates for the Dean position?
ReplyDeleteHe looks like a beaver...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteHe looks like a beaver...
6/09/2007 3:44 PM
To the person who made the "beaver" comment, I must say that you are so ignorant. Didn't your mama tell you that you do not always say or write the first thing that comes to your mind.
an evil beaver?
ReplyDeleteThis is a statement of desparation. Pernell was one of four candidates to have been interviewed last August, but he wasn't able to make it, given that the interviews were being conducted at the start of the academic year. This could mean that there isn't a new search, but just a hope that Pernell can swoop in from the sky and save the day.
ReplyDeleteWell, good luck on that. Maybe he'll still be interested after his interview, but discretion is a good part of success. Why would he want to risk coming here with all the accreditation and even competance issues that abound, when except for the weather he would be much better off just staying where he is? If he wants to be a law dean in Orlando, he would do well to wait until the ABA denys full accreditaion to us, the state shuts us down, and UCF gets the building and a mandate to organize a new law school.
When the law school goes up in smoke, there will plenty of blame to go around, but a lot of it falls on interim president Castell and her provost, now both long gone, who at a time when a new dean could have made a difference had three competant candidates for the dean's job, and who couldn't see a way to hire one.
Thank you for the correction--It is Dr. Hitt. There are many reasons why Pernell would take the job: (1) money, they could offer him a lot more than he is making now, (2) challenge with possible glory--he might be able to pull this off--remember the ABA has other options than just deny accreditation, it could continue the temporary status until FAMU gets its act in order, (3) Pernell has been trying to leave his school for a while now, he has applied for several deanships, (4) his career is not really at stake, if FAMU shuts down, it will take a little while, even if UCF gets the law school, they probably would keep him in some fashion if he did a decent job or he can easily get another job, (5) here's a good one, believe it or not, he might care about black institutions, etc...
ReplyDeleteTo the beaver comment: Levity has its place but we are in so much shit that we are not able to laugh.
To anon. at 9.37. I am in agreement with most of what you say except for one error. ABA decision after October visit is final approval - there is no such status as you suggest for time to correct any shortcomings or failures. It makes perfect sense to say 'hey, we recognize the problems and are working on them' this can't and won't fly with the ABA. We have used up ALL of the available time for the approval process and there is no possibility for an extension. This alone is what makes the selection of the next dean so important. There is no time available for someone to come in from the outside and get to know the place/players/problems and then formulate a plan for action and then implement that plan. But a change is clearly needed. Witherspoon is only going to hide and pray that the lord will take care....can you imagine the ABA's response to that? Don't forget she left a car in her parking spot so no one would know she was away - do we want that mentality in a dean? She has nothing to contribute here as a leader.
ReplyDeleteThis really is the time to be honest with ourselves - in the face of this enormous challenge the question is 'how do we save the institution?' not how can I grab some power. Jobs, future careers and reputations on are the line for the students, faculty and staff. Be very suspicious of the cheering for Pernell - what is in it for the cheerleaders...an assoc. deanship perhaps? Many other law schools have rejected his applications for deanships and we should not jump simply because he has a pulse. He seems to really, really want to go to any law school that will take him.
Pernell boasts a high bar passage rate...the students at his institution are VERY different. Higher GPA, LSATs, socio-econ. class, etc. It is an unfair comparison to hope that he could impact the bar passage rate at FAMU.
When Pernell is interviewed, will someone ask how he would specifically address the media re Dawson debacle, Luney, Cunningham and hopefully no others. How about the selection of his admin. team. How would he prioritize the needs of the SOL, ever been through an accreditation process - and was it a challenging one. What about the hiring of Profs - does he value scholarship? Would he be willing to remove incompetent/un/underqualified,? Swiftly?
This is the last chance and final yard. I am affraid that if the next dean is not a good choice there will be a mass exodus and only a few to turn out the lights when the honorable mission of the SOL dies.
I don't think anyone is "cheerleading" for Pernell. I do believe that the situation is so dismal that no matter who showed up they student's left behind have no choice but to hope for a turnaround. It ain't called a Hail Mary for nothing.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that there is some intelligence on the horizon. I hope he cleans up the house. Vickie Dawson ain't the only faculty chick suffering from ignoritis. The grand diva Lundy Langston got several questionable articles--one of them cites JET magazine ya'll! Check out this title & tell me whats wrong- "Sweep Searches – The Rights of the Community, and the Guarantees of the Fourth and First Amendments: Moms of the Chicago Public Housing Complex, Revisit Your Civil and Constitutional Rights and Save Your Babies." What the heck?!
ReplyDeleteWhy hate on Langston b/c you just jealous that she is about to exit the COL & head to China as a visiting scholar
ReplyDeleteoops!my bad. it's not true, langston ain't going to China, but you sho is jealous!
ReplyDeleteNope, Langston isn't going to China, her hubby Omar Saleem is going to teach there for one year.
ReplyDeletethere aren't anymore candidates? I got an uneasy feelimg about him. Or maybe Im just a tad biased when I don't see an HBCU listed on the resume but yet you want to work for one. Go figure. Kind pf like when I see certain ones bragging about that ivey league school they attended but go knocking on the door at FAM or other HBCUs for a job.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 6/11/2007 11:33 AM Omar Saleem is Langston's baby daddy--not her hubby.Keep the facts straight.
ReplyDeleteSo who are you? Langston's competition? Saleem's real woman?
ReplyDeletewhy don't we stop talking about the trash and who slept with who in 1992 or 1993 (ie. saleem & langsgton) the law school is in dire need of leadership. i think that Pernell is a good choice. he's been in higher ed for over 30 years that should be a good thing
ReplyDeleteWhy should you care who the professors are sleeping with or have slept with as long as it's not your husband or wife. So what if he's her baby daddy is your daddy really your daddy or just your mothers husband? Hater
ReplyDeletemy daddy is my mama's husband. what about you. sound like your mama don't have a husband but she got you. what's your real last name?
ReplyDelete3:24--Just because a person has thirty or more years in higher education does not mean that they are the right fit for an institution. Years help, but they should not be (and of course, I know that they aren't) the defining arbiter of who's qualified to do what.Think "Castell Bryant." GirlF had more than forty years in higher ed (I know. I know. She was a JUCO administrator). But she had a wealth of higher ed experiences, just not at the four-year institutional level.
ReplyDeleteJeez!the man has headed Northern Illinois together since the 90s.Stetson obviously thought that he could fit there. FAMU ought to be grateful that he is interested in fixing the mess over at the COL.the only naysayers are the girlfriends and baby mamas who aren't fit to teach a dog how to sit much less the law.
ReplyDeleteWonder how his interview went
ReplyDeleteAs long as the appointed person is capable of getting FAMU's signature school out of its rut, who heads it is not important. Like the previous blogger said, as much as the university's problems have been splayed across the nation's newspapers, we oughts to be shouting for joy that someone of the man's caliber is even willing to set foot on the danggone campus. I say let LeRoy Pernell (or whomever) come first. I'm sure, as always, we'll find something insignificant to start criticizing him about. Just give the man one minute of respite, then let the attacks begin. Goodness gracious.
ReplyDeleteHis interview went absolutely great. He was clearly in charge and hit a lot of home runs. The guy is clearly capable. No one is questioning that. He has a lot of experience, appears to have a good personality, appears to want to be at FAMU, and has a great command of the ABA, legal educations and the issues facing the COL. He is also committed to minority education. It also looks he will not take any crap from people.
ReplyDeleteThe key is the following: (1) he must be given the tools to do the job and (2) he must be held accountable.
And therein lies the problem...until the administration in Tallahassee gives the tools to Orlando and start holding EVERYONE (including those in Tallahassee) accountable absolutely nothing will change. Tallahassee MUST put accountable folks in place and permit the autonomy and functionability that is required for an ABA qualified school that surpasses bare minimum.
ReplyDeletehallelujah!does this mean that all of the baby mamas, the kept women and girlfriends will soon exit (eg Langston, VD, Bullock)? these women do a disservice to the legal profession. they have no business in lives of young impressionable women who will soon be a part of the legal profession. we must end the message of these so called feminists who in actuality are hoochies with a JD (and we wonder how they got their degrees)
ReplyDeleteDon't worry things like that usually play itself out.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Once people are held accountable, the light will be shone on them and those that need to go will leave or will be forced to leave. Those that are willing to adjust and start making a contribution will thrive.
ReplyDeleteNo, this does not mean that the "baby mamas", the "kept women" etc.. will leave. This only means that if WE ARE LUCKY (AND LORD IF YOU ARE READING THIS BLOG, WE NEED IT), the new dean will make everyone accountable. Thus, if a baby mama starts being accountable and starts making a contribution, such baby mama may well stay and even thrive. You can't make this a vendetta because if people are evaluated based on politics, we will be right back where we started.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, people at the COL do not want to be evaluated on merits. They sense that Pernel will do this. This is why this blog has been quiet about him. They do not like that shit (honest evaluations), regardless of what they say (publicly or otherwise). They are much more in their element tearing each other down.
$300,000 for bar exam prep courses for minorities vetoed
ReplyDeleteA $300,000 appropriation to pay for minority law school graduates to take bar exam preparation courses has been vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist.
The money would have reestablished part of a program that ran from 1994 until a few years ago to assist minority law students. The broader program, which the legislature stopped funding in 2002 (about the time it approved new law schools for Florida A&M and Florida International universities), paid for pre-law and law school scholarships for minorities, and then for bar exam preparation courses for minority law school graduates.
The program was part of an effort to boost the number of minority lawyers in Florida, in the wake of surveys that showed they were underrepresented in the legal community. The bar exam preparation part of the program was in response to a study that suggested minorities — frequently because of economic pressures — were less likely to sign up for the preparation courses shown to help applicants pass the bar exam.
Rep. Yolly Roberson, D-North Miami Beach, said the $300,000 appropriation was inserted into the budget during the House-Senate conference on the 2007-08 spending plan. She said the money would pay for exam preparation from the BAR/BRI exam preparation service, which pledged to provide dollar-for-dollar matching services.
“I thought it was a great program. This program was very effective,” Roberson said of the former exam preparation program.
“We just have to start working on it this summer and make sure it is reinstated next year. . . .
“I’m disappointed but I’m hopeful I’ll have a chance to speak with the governor about the program [before next year],” she added.
[Updated: 06-06-2007 ]
Anybody who doesn't know how to navigate Florida's neo-confederate "power structure" won't get a dime's worth of support from the Bar, the Legislature, the private donor sector,or the BOT.
ReplyDeleteStatewide relevance and credibility is hard to achieve during the vulnerable first years of a Dean's tenure if he/she is from out-of-state.
And,friend-raising and fundraising (the lifelines) are at least as important as bar passage rates at this stage of the school's fragile present.
That's true, plus the school has burned many bridges not only with the political and civic powers that be, but also with Alumni. Maybe they thought the legislature really cared and would fund them forever as to continued to get little actual or political return.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 6/14/2007 6:37 PM
ReplyDeleteThis has nothing to do with "in-state" v. "out-of-state". The COL shot itself in the foot. UF, FSU, FIU have non natives who do the job they were hired to do. FAMU was plagued early on by incestuous behavior from its three deans. The Fla leg & BOT are supportive of academics that promote the healthy education of the state's citizens.
Langston is that you? your use of the term "so called" betrays you because that's the term you used in that jacked up- "so called"- article you wrote on Hurricane Katrina. SPTimes should have got a hand on that! Why you not writing or something? Oh I forgot YOU CAN'T WRITE! And stop trying to get some street cred by associating yourself with Saleem. You know that he ain't doing you. You bite off him enough. What established career do you have Langston? You ran away from every job because they put you on blast! Word on the street is that you ain't wrote nothing worth publishing ever. NOVA busted you up about that "so called" article you wrote that cited JET magazine. Girl, you know that your baby daddy wrote all of your articles. So what's your next topic? AI: How to get on Maury Povich with your baby's daddy? Really what's all the fascination with AI in Fam Law. You spent way too much time on it. Are we telling our business?
ReplyDelete3:26-
ReplyDeleteEuropeans easily settle into the existing networks, Africans don't. They are easily victimized by platitudes delivered by those who have sinister attitudes.COL's future will be politically determined in the next 3 years. Tragically, while that's going on, they ain't focusing on education. Its all about relevance and power; and tragically, there are "Crabs"" among us. Academics, for the moment, must give way to Warriors
Langston- established career? Well check out the comments on a earlier RN Low morale and infighting at FAMU law (THurs Sept 28, 2006:
ReplyDeletehttp://rattlernation.blogspot.com/2006/09/low-morale-and-infighting-at-famu-law.html
Talk about strecthing the truth. Langston hasn't established nothing but her reputation as a overrated scatterbrained airhead.
Come on Langston you are suffering from delusional tendencies. You aren't important and you know it. And ... "ignorant educated people"- that's a bit oxymoronic. Sorry about the big word. Need a definition and a spelling, heh? O-X-Y (not I)-M-O-R-O-N-I-C. Sort of like your "so called" academic work --- a combination of contradictory or incongruous words.
ReplyDeleteYou mean "oxymoronic"--a combination of contradictory or incongruous words like LAW PROFESSOR LUNDY LANGSTON. Don't you have to understand a subject before you try to teach it?
ReplyDelete