Because I served as Professor Dunham’s advisor in his grievance against the dean of the law school, I read with special interest Professor Kionka’s view (Letter to the Editor, Feb. 5) of the outcome of that case. Professor Dunham’s grievance challenged the validity of the law school’s hiring procedures. The challenge proceeded along several fundamental fronts, and the Judicial Review Board that heard the evidence sustained our position in all significant aspects of the grievance. That is why the panel concluded that the law school’s procedures were seriously flawed at all levels, and that is why the panel’s report states that the school should take immediate steps to remedy these flaws.

Professor Kionka tries to dismiss the panel’s conclusion as a difference of opinion about the merits of various faculty candidates. But this is like saying there was a difference of opinion between Mike Tyson and the jury that convicted him. It was the job of the JRB panel to evaluate the evidence supporting Professor Dunham’s grievance. The panel found that no one from the (hiring committee) could provide satisfactory explanations for the committee’s failure to interview Asian and Native American candidates whose credentials were superior to those of the candidates interviewed. Because of this lack of explanation, the JRB panel took the position that the hiring committee should interview one of these superior minority candidates before filling the slot for which she was qualified.

The panel also recommended reforms of the hiring procedures. One that was that appropriate Asian and Native American bar associations to which the school sends position announcements. This recommendation got nowhere with a task force appointed by the dean to review his own hiring procedures. Contrary to the import of Professor Kionka’s letter, Professor Dunham had no obligation to persuade the task force (or hiring committee) to embrace the panel’s recommendation. As chair of the task force, Professor Kionka should have done that. To this day, the law school hiring committee has failed to comply with this and a number of other recommendation made by the JRB panel.

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SIU School of Law, professor