Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Denver to Slash Ten Junior Faculty Positions Through Voluntary Buyouts
Above the Law reports today that the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law (#68 in U.S. News) is "planning to slash 10 tenure-track positions due to additional class size cuts. The kicker is that junior faculty members are expected to self-select out of their own jobs — for cash, of course." Above the Law quotes Denver Dean Martin Katz:
[W]e will be offering voluntary buy-outs to certain tenure-line faculty as a way to reduce the size of our faculty, and thus our expense base. Our plan calls for us to maintain our current 10:1 student-faculty ratio, which is important to the quality of the legal education we provide, particularly in our Experiential Advantage Curriculum.
Update: Deans Respond to TaxProf Blog Posts on Faculty Layoffs
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/03/denver-law-school-.html
Comments
Despite this being factually inaccurate, I thank Prof. Caron for reprinting it here. I never check ATL and this is important news. So long as the source of the information is disclosed, I see no issue with a reprint.
Posted by: HTA | Mar 26, 2014 8:23:06 AM
Wait, what does DU mean by tenure line? Might that also be senior faculty in addition to junior folks?
Posted by: Confused | Mar 25, 2014 7:41:22 PM
This is a good start and a sign of things to come. The word is out about law school debt and the poor job opportunities awaiting grads.
Posted by: Law school enslaved debtor | Mar 25, 2014 4:15:08 PM
These junior faculty presumably want to make a career out of being a professor. There are very few institutions hiring. Who will take the bait and jump ship?
Posted by: HTA | Mar 25, 2014 2:21:44 PM
This is sad, but a sign of the times. What we do not need are 20 good law schools and 150 tiny, lousy ones. There really should be only 75-100 law schools, and all of them should be quality. This would be better for everyone from students to the bar to the law schools. It only is bad for the 75 that die.
Posted by: Jojo | Mar 25, 2014 2:04:40 PM
I'm really exited that the faculty, who have been telling us for years they could make more in private practice, now have the chance to see how that pans out!
Posted by: Hoxton | Apr 23, 2014 8:18:41 PM