Professor Kionka’s recent letter regarding the law school dean selection process implies that it was only after the dean search committee was selected that the law school learned that there was only one candidate for the position. But at the time the committee was selected the faculty had been informally canvassed and only one internal candidate had expressed interest in the position. Professor Kionka further states that the law school subsequently rethought its position with regard to the scope of the dean search. Prior to the faculty meeting where all of this rethinking occurred the faculty was informed that central administration had refused to agree to only an internal search. The law school’s decision to expand the search merely represented central administration’s refusal to accept a one-candidate search.

Professor Kionka asserts that I favored an internal search. At the faculty meeting where the search committee was picked and where it was decided that the law school should pursue only an internal search, I strongly opposed limiting the search to only internal candidates. Instead of recalling the position I took in the faculty meeting, Professor Kionka chooses to rely upon an interview I had given weeks earlier to the DE. In that interview I indicated that there were faculty members on our faculty who warranted serious consideration for the position and stated that it was possible that we could pick a candidate out of the school, instead of going outside. In prior searches, no internal candidate had ever emerged from the process. Unfortunately, none of the faculty members who I had in mind expressed any interest. It is true that at the time of the interview I felt that there were qualified internal candidates on the SIU faculty, but it is a gross distortion of my position for Professor Kionka to assert that I favored limiting the search to only internal candidates. At no time did I tell the DE that the search should be limited to only internal candidates. Nor do I believe that a reasonable person could interpret the interview as expressing that position. I suspect that it is distortions like these that supply the impetus for many lawyer jokes.

Professor, SIU School of Law

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