Commentary
| Publication year | 2008 |
| Citation | Vol. 31 No. 04 |
Good morning, everyone. I am Peter Alexander from Southern Illinois, and I realized that I have two things in common with Professor Rennard Strickland, who preceded me today.(fn1) First, Rennard is one of my predecessor deans at Southern Illinois University. Second, like Rennard, I hated law school. I hated everything about law school; I hated the way we did it, the people who did it, and the people with whom I did it. I just hated everything about it. However, during the last week of my third year, one of my professors, Judy Brown, came to me and said, "I see you doing this someday." I thought she was absolutely crazy. So, if some of you think you will never be a dean, or would hate to be a dean, do not dismiss it, because you never know. There are a lot of people who will give you helpful tips and encouragement. Think about the things that people are saying to you because you are here and you are interested. Your colleagues probably have told you that you should be here and you should be doing this. I want to encourage you to do it because, even if you think you cannot or should not do it, or would hate to do it, there might be a school out there for you. That is really the taking off point for me.
The school I am at happens to be my undergraduate alma mater. I had the most wonderful four years of my life as an undergrad at Southern Illinois University; I loved it so much that I graduated in three years. I ran for student body president as a third-year student, and I won. The interim university president at that time was a man named Hiram Lesar.(fn2) Hiram was the interim president, but he was best known for being founding dean of the school of law. He was also my mentor.
When the deanship at Southern Illinois became available, many of my colleagues encouraged me to think about doing it. I went through the process, and I think a couple of things helped me. I loved the school; I loved the experience. My mentor was the founding dean of the law school, and it just all fit; I thought I was uniquely situated for the position. Through the process, I kept saying that I am applying for one job, at one school, and it is my school. That was my theme throughout. If you can find a connection with the school you are applying to and stay on message, people will begin to talk to one another about that throughout your interview process. By the time I got to the later groups, they all said that they realized I was coming back home to my alma mater and that it was wonderful. The message precedes the messenger after a while. The provost at the time said he would like the law school to be more integrated into the life of the university. It was perceived as being on the fringe, different and apathetic towards getting involved. There were little things that irked the...
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