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Welcome Message from the President
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Changing Of The Guard
One of the frequent criticisms leveled against the Thomas M. Cooley Law School by the American Bar Association in the school’s early days was the notion that we did not have enough faculty governance.
They seemed to feel that I, as president, had too much to say about how the school was being run. Candidly, I thought that strong leadership, whether it was exercised by me or someone else, was a good thing. Faculty members are all very intelligent people. They are often given to pontificating in the classroom. It’s what they do. It’s what they get paid for.
When they do it in a meeting among their colleagues, however, the atmosphere becomes ponderously analytical and frequently indecisive. One commentator wryly noted that the reason faculty meetings become so argumentative is because there is so little at stake.
If I was not a great fan of formal faculty governance, however, I was not indifferent to the opinions of faculty members. Most of our people viewed their vocation as teachers rather than administrators. They were content to leave the administration to the president and the dean. When they did have something to say about governance, I tended to listen.
In the spring of 1982 a small delegation of senior faculty members came to see me. They wanted a new dean. I was surprised. From my perspective, Keith Hey was doing a fine job. The professors who came to see me had no personal complaints against Keith. They liked him well enough as a person and as a colleague.
The gist of their message was that Keith’s primary qualification for the job was the fact that he brought traditional academic credentials to the job; his profile was one that we had all thought to be just what the ABA wanted. In short, the faculty had expected Keith to be the lubricant that would end the friction between Cooley and the American Bar Association.
It had not turned out that way. We were still in the accreditation frying pan.
The delegates who came to see me insisted that they spoke for the majority of the faculty. The faculty, they said, was sick and tired of ABA criticism, and they wanted an academic leader who could more vigorously and, they felt, more effectively speak on their behalf.
It may also have been, although they didn’t actually say so, that they felt I was persona non grata with the accrediting authorities, and that a different voice should be raised on behalf of the school.
The senior faculty members who came to see me were all friends of mine. They were among our very best teachers, and I had the highest respect for them and their judgment. Still, I felt that such an important decision needed more input, so I called a number of other professors to take a reading. I became convinced that the faculty as a whole had lost confidence in Keith, and I told him so.
To his everlasting credit, Keith Hey took the news stoically. He was, and is, a good soldier, and a team player who puts the good of the institution first. Besides, he was and is a fine teacher who enjoys the classroom environment and the opportunities for research that full time teaching affords.
Still, I would not have accepted his resignation if it would have thrust Cooley into a period of lapsed or uncertain academic leadership. I was no fan of the ponderous process of conducting a decanal search. I had seen other law schools stagnate under temporary deans while faculty search committees mulled over lists of candidates for the job.
Fortunately, as I spoke privately with members of the faculty, it became clear that there was a strong sentiment in favor of appointing one of our own people as the next dean. I liked that idea. We were a unique school with a special mission. Naming someone who understood Cooley, what made it work and why it would survive and prosper, was important to me and to the faculty.
And the name that kept coming up was Don LeDuc.
A graduate of Kalamazoo College and the Wayne State University Law School, Don had a successful career in public service before joining Cooley’s faculty. For seven years a member of the Michigan Corrections Commission, Don was also a special attorney in the United States Department of Justice, assigned to the Organized Crime Task Force in Detroit.
I first met Don when, as Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Programs, he funneled federal funds to Michigan courts during my tenure as chief justice. Bob Krinock and I had recruited him over a cocktail in Washington, D.C. during a meeting of the Association of American Law Schools.
On May 15, 1982, the Board of Directors appointed Don LeDuc Dean of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School for a two year term. It would turn out to be an historic choice.
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This Page was last updated on:
08/19/2004