The deanship.

• Author: Peters, Ellen Ash
• Position: Eugene V. Rostow, Yale Law School - Testimonial

Others of his admirers have eloquently described the breadth and depth of Eugene V. Rostow's achievements during his long and distinguished legal career. My Tribute will instead focus briefly on "Gene the Dean," which is how I first came to know him.

Three aspects of the Rostow deanship in its initial years stand out. One was his leadership in reshaping Yale's educational mission. A second was his commitment to rebuilding faculty collegiality. The third was his understanding and support of new members of the faculty.

The most important of his educational reforms, launched in 1956 early in his deanship, was the first-term program. The proposition that new lawyers-to-be could best be acculturated to their new discipline in a small group of sixteen now seems self-evident because it is an idea that has been widely accepted throughout the American law school community. At the time of its initiation, however, the first-term small group program was a remarkable departure from the then-standard law school setting of classes of seventy-five or more students. The small group built on Yale's great strength as a small school to make Yale the most admired and respected law school in the country today.

The small group setting was designed to encourage students to take an active role in their legal education from its very outset. Dramatically less intimidating than a large classroom, the small group was a supportive environment for the exploration of a new discipline and a new vocabulary. It was a safe place for the exchange of views about any and all of the issues raised by contracts, torts, civil procedure, or constitutional law. It taught students to value the contributions of their classmates in the shared struggle to make sense of this arcane new world. It empowered each of them to ask what needed to be asked and to answer what needed to be answered, sustained by the understanding that each in turn would sometimes hit the nail on the head and sometimes miss something of significance.

From the point of view of faculty members, especially those who were assuming a professorial role for the first time, the small group was as much a learning experience as a teaching experience. Somewhat to my surprise, however, even when I was a seasoned campaigner with tenure, a small group continued to offer new challenges, for the group and for me, every time I was fortunate enough to have such an assignment. The small group always educated me and enhanced my pleasure at watching budding lawyers grow with enthusiasm for their chosen profession and with confidence that they could cope.

The small group served several discrete purposes. For many students, it was the foundation for the formation of study groups. It provided linkage with skills training in research and writing. It revealed that the case celebrated in your casebook might never again be cited for its holding. (1) The supervision of...