In a previous letter, I commented on law professor Darrell Dunham’s charges concerning the law school’s hiring procedures. I would like to respond as well to his charges concerning the law school dean search.

Professor Dunham claims that the law school attempted to engage in only an internal search knowing that there would be only one candidate for the position. The fact is that any number of faculty members could have stepped forward as candidates if they so desired. Moreover, many faculty felt that there was at least one internal candidate that they were prepared to support for the position, and that in a time of limited resources an external search would have been unnecessarily costly (note that many, if not most, of the present SIUC deans were selected via internal searches). However, after consulting with various groups law students, law alumni, friends in the legal profession and various SIUC officials the faculty reversed its position and voted to recommend an external search. Therefore, it is difficult to understand Professor Dunham’s point. Moreover, when the faculty initially voted to conduct an internal search, Professor Dunham was quoted in the Daily Egyptian as favoring an internal search.

Professor Dunham notes that only one internal candidate emerged and he was not a tenured faculty member. The issue, however, is not whether the candidate was already a tenured faculty member but whether he was qualified to be dean. That issue was not reached because the candidate withdrew prior to interviews, but most faculty members felt he was well qualified to be considered for the position.

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Professor Dunham implies racial bias by stating that the law school attempted to limit the search even though it was informed that an external minority candidate had shown interest in the position. Whether anyone outside the law school minority or otherwise was interested in the position was irrelevant to the faculty’s initial preference for an internal search. Moreover, any implication of bias is groundless. As a member of the dean search committee, I can report that the applicants and nominees included women and minorities, all of whom were given full consideration.

SIU School of Law, professor