Introduction

• Publication year: 2008
• Citation: Vol. 31 No. 04

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND LAW REVIEWVolume 31, No. 4SUMMER 2008

INTRODUCTION

Encouraging Diversity in Law School Deanships

Kellye Y. Testy(fn*)

A former law school dean recently shared a helpful tip: in the legal academy, a "secret" is something that you tell just one person at a time. The intended lesson was, of course, that too few things are kept secret. That may be, but the opposite is also true. Under his helpful definition, there also may be too many secrets in the legal academy. This symposium explores one such area, focusing upon something that has too often been told to "one person at a time": the pathway to becoming a law school dean.

This symposium, and the conference that was the basis for it, sought to encourage more diversity in law school deanships by making explicit the role of the dean, how to become a decanal candidate, and how to succeed both in a dean search and in the dean's job. The connection between intentionally disseminating information on career pathways and encouraging diversity in those careers is now well understood.(fn1) Without such intentionality, mentoring and career development advice tends to get passed on informally only to those few people with whom one is closest, making it much more likely that new holders of the position will be demographically similar to the former ones. Historically, the pathway to deaning has taken place very much in this more network-reliant, "clubby" way. As a result, while the persons holding law deanships today comprise an ever-more diverse group, much progress remains yet to be made.(fn2)

To encourage that progress, Seattle University School of Law and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT)-sharing as they do strong commitments to academic excellence, diversity, and justice-co-organized this inaugural conference, which was held at Seattle University School of Law on September 28-29, 2007. The conference will be held every two years, with the next one slated for Seattle in late September of 2009.(fn3) While the conference itself was well-attended and a great success, the organizers decided that our goals of broad dissemination would be best served if the learning generated at the conference was published so that those who were not in attendance could likewise profit from it. This symposium issue is the result.

In...