Veritas, Vol. 40, No. 05, February 1998

              Veritas
February 1998
Volume 40 • Number 5
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
Law school downsizes for success
T'	oo many lawyers, too few
jobs. The large number of law school graduates competing for a limited number of jobs in the United States has prompted the School of Law to dramatically downsize its student enrollment to help ensure that its graduates will be more successful in todays highly competitive legal marketplace.
By reducing the total size of its enrollment by approximately one-third over the next three years, the school hopes to boost its overall student quality and significantly enhance its national reputation by accepting only the top applicants into its program. University officials say that elevating the selectivity and reputation of the School of Law will equate to more job offers for its graduates.
“Employment opportunities are limited for todays lawyers, and this plan will significandy improve the job opportunities for our students,” says Samuel C. Thompson, Jr., dean of the School of Law, which is the largest in the state of Florida. “Based on our research, the magnitude of these cuts is virtually unprecedented among American law schools.”
Currendy, the national supply/ demand index for new lawyers is 1.24,
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Samuel C. Thompson, Jr., dean of the School of Law.
meaning there are 1.24 new law graduates for every one job opening. The job outlook in South Florida is far worse than the national average with more than three law graduates competing for every job opening.
“The University of Miami School of Law has long been highly regarded among national law schools,” says President Edward T. Foote II, who is himself a former law school dean.
“This downsizing will only make the program stronger and more successful.”
To achieve its goal, the University plans on limiting next years entering law school class to approximately 325
students, compared to the 465 students enrolled in the schools day and evening programs this year. During the next three years, the juris doctorate enrollment will shrink from a total of approximately 1,350 students to around 975-
Although millions of dollars in tuition revenue will be lost, University administrators and law school faculty are both highly supportive of the move. The faculty has even voted to place a cap on their salaries for the next three years and dramatically reduce the amount of summer research grants, summer teaching salaries, and travel allowances they receive to help offset the lost tuition dollars. Dean Thompson has also pledged not to accept a salary increase next year and place a cap on any salary increases he receives for the following two years.
“What Dean Thompson and the faculty at the University of Miami School of Law have done in downsizing the school is both courageous and farsighted,” says John Sexton, president of
the American Association of Law Schools and dean of New York University School of Law. “I am particularly impressed with the faculty’s willingness to make tangible and significant financial sacrifices for the good of the students and the school’s future. The University of Miami has been an outstanding center for the study Th ¡S dOWfl-of law; these moves will make it better.”
Dean
Thompson emphasizes that while admission into the law school will continue to be based primarily upon academic achievements
and LSAT scores, the faculty believes strongly in the importance of maintaining a diverse student body. The law school’s first-year enrollment currently is 65 percent non-Hispanic white,
20 percent Hispanic, 10 percent African-American, 4 percent Asian, and 1 percent Native American— making it one of the most diverse law schools in the United States.
sizing will only make the program
stronger and more
successful.
New dean helps School of International Studies soar
Recently charged with the transformation of the Graduate School of International Studies into the School of International Studies by incorporating undergraduates into the fold, Dean Roger Edward Kanet has taken off running.
“While the school was in the process of being reorganized, and the former Graduate School of International Studies had been abolished, I realized that I was the dean of nothing,” he laughs. Hardly. With a curriculum vitae 22 pages long, full of fellowships and research grants, five prestigious degrees, and a lengthy list of publications in several languages, Kanet is undoubtedly the right person for the job.
For the last 24 years, Kanet was at the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. From 1989 until August of 1997, he served as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of international programs and studies. A leading authority on the politics of Russia, the other Soviet successor states, and Eastern Europe, he continued to teach political science, though most of his university effort was in administering programs at Illinois.
“I acted as the university gadfly, encouraging people to strengthen programs and cooperate across units,” he
explains. Among his many achievements were the successful negotiations of two different funded research collaborations between European institutions and the University of Illinois.
As chief administrator of the School of International Studies,
Kanet will double the faculty over the next two or three years.
The transfer of the Department of Geography to the school will be a large part of that increase, along with the addition of several key faculty positions. “We hired a very distinguished major economist from the World Bank to start in the fall,” says Kanet, who himself will teach political science. “We are also currently recruiting for a junior-level economist, a new position also to be held jointly with economics.”
In January, the search began for an international political economist with a special focus on institutions such as the European Union and the World Bank. “We’re interested in specializations, because they are extraordinarily important in preparing students for potential jobs,” says Kanet. “If a company wants to operate successfully in a global trading environment, it’s got to have expertise in these areas.”
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Roger Kanet, dean of the School of International Studies, has every confidence that the new school will attract significant student interest.
Kanet stresses that the new school is not trying to replicate what’s being done in economics, political science, history, or any other department. “Rather, for these programs to work effectively, there has to be collaboration,” says Kanet.
Before Kanet’s arrival, a revision of the professional master’s program was already underway, formalizing areas of concentration, such as environmental studies, business, public health, or Latin
American regional studies. “We’re trying to put together packages for students in a particular career area,” says Kanet.
Dean Kanet will help ensure that strong programs are developed and maintained, and that the undergraduate program flourishes. There are currently about 100 students in the program as administered by Arts and Sciences. “My hope is that within the next five years we can double that number,” says Kanet. “And over the next decade, UM should have upwards of 500 or more students who see international studies as a valuable, challenging, and important major.”
Dean Kanet strongly feels that students majoring in international studies should have an extended overseas experience and might mandate either a minimum semester study abroad or internship. “The problems involved are costs, which means it’s extraordinarily important that we find funding to provide scholarship support for undergraduates related to overseas experiences,” says Kanet.
Because the undergraduate program is now associated with a freestanding school, its visibility is expected to increase significantly. “It will be an interdisciplinary program that will command great support as the center-piece of a school’s reason for existing.”