Lawrence Estrada, 3L

Editor-in-Chief

Joshua Moskovitz, 2L

Executive Editor

Glen Parker, 2L

Associate Editor

In the spring of 2008, Dean David Rudenstine announced that he would be stepping down as Dean of the Cardozo School of Law at the end of the 2009 academic year. Since the announcement, few details have emerged regarding the search for Dean Rudenstine’s successor. Despite the lack of updates, the hunt for the new dean is on, and Cardozo board members, faculty, and a select group of students have been meeting with potential candidates.

The process of looking for a new dean began last year with the appointment of a dean search committee tasked with the responsibility of screening and evaluating the pool of applicants. For the first time in a dean search at Cardozo, a student was appointed to the committee. Dean Rudenstine asked a third-year student, Jonathan Rohr, to attend the screening meetings along with alumni, board members, administrators, and faculty.

Following these meetings, the committee selected candidates for a “callback” day at Cardozo. To meet and evaluate the candidates, Rohr said he selected a small group of students who participated in a variety of student organizations and who had a wide range of career goals. He said the student group met with the candidates and reported their opinions back to the faculty members on the faculty committee. According to Rohr, the student committee functioned essentially as a “test group,” tasked with evaluating each candidate’s interaction with the student body.

Yeshiva and Cardozo officials separately explained the criteria for selecting the student representative to head the student committee. Professor Stewart Sterk, a member of the faculty committee evaluating the candidates, stated that Yeshiva University President Richard Joel selected the student representative as a member of the search committee. “I do not know on what basis the president made that selection,” he added.

President Joel’s office, however, contends that the student was “recommended by the law school administration.” Also unclear is why Yeshiva and Cardozo officials did not open the dean search process to the student body as a whole.

Neighboring law schools have been more forthcoming in their plight to fill what is arguably the most important position in any school administration. For example, St. John’s School of Law began searching for a replacement after its former dean passed away in January.

Like Cardozo’s process, the candidates were subjected to interviews and screening by a dean search committee and an informal student committee formed by St. John’s SBA President Peter Ryan. Initially, the process of finding a dean did not include student participation, but the members of the faculty council were amenable to student involvement when Ryan suggested it. “Our degree follows us throughout our career,” Ryan said, “we have a vested interest in the future of our school.”

After meeting with the professor organizing the search, Ryan chose the make-up of the Student Dean Search Committee: the editors-in-chief of the school’s five journals, the directors of their Moot Court and Mock Trial programs, and himself.

In addition to meeting with the faculty and student committees, the candidates gave a one-hour presentation and question-and-answer session, which was open to the entire St. John’s community. At the end of each day, the school held a reception where students, faculty, alumni, and administrators could informally chat with the candidate.

“Anyone who attends the public presentation can submit an evaluation form to the Dean Search Committee,” Ryan noted, “and the eight students on our committee submit our own version of the evaluation forms.” The form had roughly a dozen criteria upon which to rank the candidates as well as a section for comments. President Joel remarked that he was unfamiliar with St. John’s approach, but said that Cardozo’s “search committee consists of a wide range of constituencies.”

Pace University School of Law also recently conducted a dean search. Stephanie Chow, Pace’s SBA President, told The Cardozo Jurist that the SBA President was involved in the initial interviews. She said that after they narrowed the field to three candidates, each one spent a day on campus, which included lunch with a group of ten or so students, including the SBA President and Vice President, as well as a few other SBA members, the Law Review Editor-in-Chief, and other students “who were very involved in student organizations.”

Cardozo’s position is not unique among legal institutions. According to a National Law Journal article, 27 law schools across the country were searching for new top administrators as of February 2009. The difficulty in finding capable individuals to assume the position is compounded by the economic crisis, which inhibits one of the major roles of all law school deans: fundraising.

“Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view,” said Professor Melanie Leslie, another member of the dean search committee, “a large part of what a dean does now is to raise funds to support the growth and expansion of the law school.” Prof. Leslie added that the new dean will “have to develop some original, creative strategies for an economy in free fall.”

As of mid-March, the choice has been narrowed down to four individuals, though the school has not disclosed their identities. Prof. Sterk stated that six had originally been brought to the school to meet with Cardozo board members and faculty, but two had since withdrawn. The Cardozo Jurist attempted to verify these numbers with President Joel, but his office replied that he was “not at liberty to disclose that information.”

Prof. Leslie hopes that the replacement will be a “visionary” that “sets a tone for the school and can connect with students well and keep relationships with students going after they graduate.” In addition, the new dean should “be someone who understands what it is that academics do and can appreciate and evaluate strong academic work.”

Prof. Sterk noted that the committee is concentrating on individuals who have worked in law schools. “There’s a steep learning curve for what it is that really makes a law school successful,” Sterk said, “so we haven’t typically been looking for practitioners who don’t have a relationship with law schools.”

The ultimate decision rests with President Joel, who will select, negotiate with, and hire the new dean. “After the search committee has made its recommendation,” a representative with President Joel’s office said in an e-mail, “he will make his decision conferring with the cabinet.” After making its recommendation, the search committee will have to wait for Joel’s decision. “That is a process we cannot predict,” said Prof. Leslie, “but they hope to have something within the next couple months.” At that point, Cardozo students won’t be the only ones in the dark.