The faculty at George Washington Law School begin to make top choices for the new dean of the school this week. According to the GW Hatchet, members of the search committee have kept the candidates confidential during the search for a new dean.
Some 10 candidates for the job have visited campus in April and professors with knowledge of the situation declined to comment.
The faculty of the law school met on Wednesday to discuss the candidates. The faculty will vote soon on their top choices for the next dean. The candidates who win the vote will be sent to University President Steven Knapp and Provost Steven Lerman for a final decision.
Most schools at GW allow a search committee decide who a new dean will be, while the law school holds a full faculty vote. The search committee is made up of 12 members and is chaired by law professor Roger Schechter.
The interim dean for the law school, Gregory Maggs, said at a forum last week that the choice should come within the next month. Maggs is approaching the end of his second tenure as interim dean.
“If you’re thinking about public interest work or the government and you’re going to have to borrow 150,000 dollars for the law school and you already have student loan debt, maybe that’s not such a great idea,” Maggs said at the forum for the Pre-Law Student Association. “But if you find an economical way to go to law school, do it.”
Lerman is also on the search committee for the law school. Lerman said that the new dean will need to decide if the law school should lower its average class size.
“I’ve heard different opinions. I’ve asked this question and different candidates have said different things,” Lerman said. “If the application pool continues to decline, one might need a strategy to figure the law school to be stable at a lower number.”
If you’re trying to find paralegal jobs, click here.