Thursday, April 7, 2016

Law Dean Double Penetration

When people say that law deans screw their students, the question shouldn't be whether the drilling should stop, but rather, "why not have a gangbang?"  Worked for my first marriage.  Sort-of.

In any event, Inside Higher Education has this fun article about law schools doubling the number of people who get to sit on the throne of awesomeness:
[M]ore law schools are starting to see the benefits -- beyond short-term logistical convenience -- of having two people fill the role.
...
For some schools, the model can mean an increase in productivity. Two deans can travel to twice as many places, make twice as many phone calls, speak with twice as many prospective students.

And with the right chemistry, they could also feel less isolated. The ability to speak freely with someone -- who knows exactly what the other is going through -- can be one of the model’s biggest upsides.
The article focuses mostly on Case Western, where it's apparently taken two people to fill the gaping chasm left by Larry Mitchell's departure.  The role - perhaps due to the lingering pheromones left in the carpet - has brought them closer together.  Now they carpool and "[o]n the weekends, they take long walks in a park by their houses."  They view running a large professional school like being married parents.  I recall paying my parents $40k a year for the privilege of being their child, don't you?

And don't worry; it's not like both get paid a full dean's salary.  The satisfaction of taking a traditional leadership role and turning into a neutered bureaucratic committee while finding new ways to shove more people into administration is satisfaction enough.

A medical dean at the end of the article says, "I'm having a hard time grasping what the benefits would be."  That's why thinking like a lawyer is such a huge advantage.  We can come up with all sorts of back-formed logic to justify our making a single leadership position over-complicated and virtually brag about it in a national publication.

It would be really something, though, if we could try this double penetration of law deans at ASSOL.

1 comment:

  1. Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance KingApril 7, 2016 at 12:24 PM

    I have said it before on these forums and on the Faculty Lounge Blog. Law Schools are strikingly similar to the old General Motors Corporation, now General Motors Company. Much to much over capacity, a mediocre product, hubris and redundant, flat footed management. My 97 Grand Am with the Quad 4 is like a law graduate with $150K in debt who can't find a full time, long term legal gig....an absolute money pit and disaster.

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