Please know how excited I am to have been appointed Interim Dean. My goal during this appointment is to build upon the momentum created by the dedicated work of the faculty, Dean Poser, and previous deans before her. Nebraska Law is a terrific school, and I plan on making certain our tradition of excellence continues.
My guess (and hope) is that you won’t really notice this transition in the short term. You will continue to be taught by the same great professors, advised by the same terrific administrators, and helped in the library and elsewhere by the same great staff. One change you might see is that Professor Eric Berger has agreed to be the Associate Dean for Faculty, which means he will be in the Dean’s Office a little more regularly. If this allows you to interact with him more, that will be to your benefit – those of you who have had him as a teacher already know what a wonderful person he is.
In the long term, of course, the Law College will miss Dean Poser and I am grateful for the years she spent at the helm. We are a better place because of her work here. Yet, I do want you to know that there are also exciting things happening at Nebraska Law that give me tremendous optimism for the future. We will open the new Clinic addition in the next year, and our program of building professional skills is expanding and improving. Last fall we were named the #1 Best Value law school in the country, and I think our combination of quality and reasonable cost is a differentiator for the school with prospective students. Our faculty continues to produce nationally (and internationally) recognized scholarship, and the fantastic professors we hired over the last five years have continued our tradition of excellent faculty teaching and research. I am confident that your investment in Nebraska Law will reap dividends for you in the future.
Please do not hesitate to email me or stop by the Dean’s Office if you need anything, have suggestions on ways we can improve, or simply to say hello. I wish you all the very best this semester!