As chair of the law school’s Faculty Hiring Procedures Task Force, I would like to respond to Professor Dunham’s undisputed facts.

Professor Dunham states that a Judicial Review Board panel found the law school’s hiring procedure’s seriously flawed at all levels. He fails to mention that the panel did not sustain his grievance. It did recommend that the law school modify certain aspects of its hiring procedures. In response, the law school appointed a task force which completely revised these procedures. Upon review by the University’s affirmative action office and by the Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs, the new procedures were described as very thorough and, for the most part, quite satisfactory. Recommended changes were addressed, and the final draft was approved by the faculty on May 9, 1995, and later by the affirmative action office. The law school has been operating under these new procedures.

Professor Dunham states that minority applicants who appeared to have better records than white males interviewed by the law school were not given interviews. Actually, the panel found that some Asian and Native American candidates had credentials that appear superior to those of some candidates who were interviewed. However, no determination was ever made that the interview decision was improperly made. There may have been a difference of opinion between the panel and the committee as to the applicant’s qualifications. In fact, the panel specifically found no pattern of racial discrimination.

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Professor Dunham charges that the law school ignored a number of the panel’s recommendations. Untrue. The task force specifically addressed every single recommendation. In every case, either the recommendation was adopted or it was determined that the procedures as amended adequately addressed the issue in some other way. Specifically, he incorrectly charge that we ignored the recommendation that a copy of the law school’s hiring ad be sent to Asian and American Indian law associations. The new procedures specifically provide that position announcements be sent to appropriate minority, women, and other interested legal associations and groups. The Personnel Committee shall maintain a file of such associations for this purpose. If there are groups that Professor Dunham feels have been left out of this list, he can furnish their names and addresses.