Susanah Mead, IU-Indy's interim dean, has informed the students that Chancellor Bantz has selected the members of the Dean Search Committee, and that he hopes that it will have "final candidates" selected by the end of next semester.

The committee's members are:

- Roger Schmenner, Executive Associate Dean of the Kelley School of Business (Chair)
- Brent Dickson, Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court and 1968 graduate of the law school
- Lacy Johnson, Partner at Ice Miller and 1981 graduate of the law school
- Angela Sanchez, Current student
- Andy Klein, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor
- Paul Cox, Professor
- Dan Cole, Professor
- Fran Hardy, Professor
- Maria Lopez, Professor

...

I only have a few matters to add:

1. Dean Mead has explained to the Dean's Student Advisory Board the reason for the delay in selecting a committee: the law school and IUPUI were reluctant to conduct a dean search so soon after conducting one a few years ago for Dean Anthony Tarr.

2. The reason I didn't post earlier on the dean search is that I was given no access or information that could have shed any light on the topic. I am working to rectify the situation to gain greater access to pertinent information. I'll elaborate on my efforts to this regard, as progress is made.

3. Any contention that our law school is academically underneath IU and therefore should not be referred to as "the IUPUI School of Law" or similar name is somewhat hollow considering some of the recent decisions made in regards to the law school. IUPUI's Chancellor Bantz and its Vice Chancellor Plater have guided the rules concerning our tenure policy, ethics hearings, and now the dean search.

I figured that a brief reprieve from seriousness was in due order:

Video of deposition that gets out of hand... way out of hand...



[warning: this clip contains mildly bad language, severe machismo, extremely bad lawyering, and a near physical altercation. While I write this as a warning, I realize it will only induce additional people to view the link :-) ]

...

Of course, while funny, this video may also be quite instructive for any of us ever in a position to take a deposition in the future: don't do ANY of the things these lawyers did.

On Tuesday night the new SBA Executive Board and representatives were installed, and I had the opportunity to discuss with the new President, Matthew Morgan, the direction he sees the SBA leadership taking next year.

"The group this year did a very good job fixing the internals, so the possibility for creating positive change for the student body next year is here now," said Morgan.

He then outlined a three-fold approach to next year's SBA agenda: continuing the quality programming of the past, ensuring better communication with and dissemination of information from the SBA and the law school to the students, and building a good foundation for the future.

Citing his experience as student body president at Purdue during his undergrad tenure, Morgan says he would like to emulate the transparency of that school's student government and administration. To this end, Morgan hopes to create a Student Bar Association website where the different student organizations could go to easily add their upcoming events and activities. Student could then go to this website and automatically add any of these events to their Microsoft Outlook with a simple click of the mouse.

This website, as he envisions it, could serve to reduce volume on the student listserv, promote more visibility of student group websites, and give students an easy forum to communicate their concerns with the SBA.

Regarding his eye towards the future, Morgan states that his "top priority" is to establish a rankings committee in the fall. The committee, initially comprised of just students, would perform comparison benchmarking with IU-Indy's peer schools (geographically, academically, etc.). Then in the spring, "we would have something to take to the administration" with the hope of adding faculty to the committee.

On a final note, Morgan says he would like to see increased participation in the SBA from the several student groups, with them working together for the common good of the school and the students.

If you're from central Indiana by now you've seen the pictures of the Regions Bank building (formally the INB and Union Planters Building) devastated by heavy storms Sunday night. Windows on at least 10 of the 37 floors were blown out by heavy winds. The Indianapolis Bar Association President, the Honorable Cynthia Ayers, sent out this email to IBA members.

************************
Regions Bank building damage causes need for office space

Due to weekend storm damage, the Regions Bank building downtown is closed today and for an indefinite period of time, affecting more than a dozen Indianapolis law firms, as well as the Indiana State Bar Association. If you have available office space the attorneys from these displaced law firms can use, please contact the Indianapolis Bar Association at iba@indybar.org or (317) 269-2000. The IBA will act as a clearinghouse for that information.

In addition, the IBA has office and work space available at its office at 107 N. Pennsylvania St., Suite 200. If you are in need of work space, please contact us at iba@indybar.org or (317) 269-2000.

Marion County courts also have informed the IBA that affected firms in the Regions Bank building will be accommodated by the courts due to the storm.

In true Hoosier fashion, we know our members will do their best to help their colleagues in need. Please watch for additional e-mail updates regarding the impact of the weekend storms. Thank you.

As you may know, on Wednesday, Capitol Police refused to allow Rep. McKinney to bypass a security checkpoint without passing through the metal detector. Why? Because the officer concerned disagrees with her political beliefs, is hostile to her race, and has an inclination (though of unknown origin and nature) to send women through metal detectors. It is for these reasons that Capitol Police picked a fight with the six-term member of Congress.

At the time, she wasn't carrying a lapel pin indicating that she, as a member of Congress, is not required to walk through the metal detector, but don't you think that Capitol Police should recognize the 535 members of Congress well enough to rely on memory to distinguish them from non-members who may try to enter the building?

Apparently, yesterday's announcement about the result of the investigations of Professors Bradford, Roisman, and Mitchell hasn't slowed down Bradford.

Ed. note: As was readily recognized under this post's comments, this story was indeed a spoof for April Fools Day... I just wanted to make that explicitly clear. CNN, of course, never posted any such article. -lds

The SBA elections concluded on Friday, and the executive board slate of Matthew Morgan defeated that of William Saint. Thus Matthew Morgan is the new SBA President, Pratik Patel the Vice-President (Day), Scott Smith the Vice-President (Night), Meagan Merril the Secretary, and Michael Allen the treasurer.

In other positions, Aaron Culp defeated Jennifer Wilson for 2L Day Representative, Lindsay Carlberg took 3L Day Representative unopposed, AJ Feeny-Ruiz took 3L Night Representative unopposed, Terry Wilson took 4L Representative unopposed, and I took ABA Representative unopposed.

The 2L Night Representative is still unfilled, as nobody ran for the position.

...

This brings me to the matter of the candidate statements. I have appended to this post links to the statements of all the candidates who submitted them.

Now, a commenter on a previous post asked for ILN to post the statements of the candidates before the election. I responded saying that I was "prohibited" from doing so, and it is this issue which I will now elaborate upon.

Before the elections were held, I wanted to post the candidate statements, but since I was running for a position (unopposed), I felt I should ensure that doing so was not a violation of the election rules or the SBA Constitution. My reading of the rules did not indicate that there would be any violation, but I e-mailed Christopher Americanos, the previous SBA Vice-President and the person in charge of the elections, to make sure.

He wrote me back and essentially said that it was within his sole discretion to prohibit me from posting the statements and that his decision was not appealable. I inquired as to what provision of the election rules or constitution would be violated, and he was unable or unwilling to cite any.

I reluctantly conceded, but I am now compelled to discuss the matter with an eye to the future. If Chris' assertions to me were correct, that means that one person would be endowed with the unappealable unilateral power to cancel any person's candidacy, without regard for the election rules or the constitution. I hope he was indeed incorrect, but if he was right, then the system obviously needs to be changed. If this is the case, the new SBA leadership should amend the rules to vest election powers in more than one person, create an appeals process, and generally take measures to ensure that those in charge of the elections are bound to the rules.

...

Candidate Statements:

Click the names to download the statements for the following: the Morgan slate, the Saint slate, Jennifer Wilson, Aaron Culp