Law
school
deans
have
a
weird
job
description.
Technically,
they
lead
the
law
school
in
its
academic
mission.
But,
more
realistically,
they
fundraise,
game
the
U.S.
News
rankings,
and
manage
the
law
school
bureaucracy.
Ideally,
they
keep
the
alumni
happy
at
football
games
—
or
basketball
games
depending
on
the
school
in
question.
A
unicorn
dean
also
serves
as
a
leading
intellectual
light
carrying
the
program’s
scholarly
banner,
but…
all
else
equal,
the
university
will
prefer
someone
who
knows
how
to
get
that
local
car
dealer
from
the
class
of
’72
to
slap
their
name
on
a
new
building.
When
Kentucky
Law
announced
that
Judge
Gregory
Van
Tatenhove
of
the
Eastern
District
of
Kentucky
would
assume
the
deanship,
it
seemed
like
the
school
had
finally
gotten
its
ducks
in
a
row.
After
all,
the
school
hasn’t
had
permanent
dean
since
Mary
J.
Davis
stepped
back
from
the
role
back
in
2024,
and
a
pair
of
previous
dean
searches
failed
to
find
anyone.
Stability
appeared
to
be
on
the
horizon.
But
underneath
the
surface,
the
announcement
kicked
a
hornet’s
nest.
Or,
at
Kentucky
Law,
a
cockroach
nest.
According
to
the
Louisville
Courier
Journal,
weeks
before
that
March
6
announcement,
UK
law
faculty
told
university
officials
that
a
“substantial
majority”
of
them
found
Van
Tatenhove
“unacceptable”:
In
a
February
obtained
by
The
Courier
Journal,
UK
law
school
associate
deans
Joshua
Douglas
and
Beau
Steenken
told
law
faculty
they
had
sent
an
to
DiPaola
and
others
involved
in
the
dean
search
informing
them
that
a
“substantial
majority
of
the
faculty
expressed
that
Candidate
D
does
not
meet
the
standards
of
the
candidate
profile”
the
university
put
forward.
Candidate
D,
obviously,
was
Judge
Van
Tatenhove.
The
other
three
finalists
—
Michael
Higdon,
Mary
Graw
Leary,
and
Milena
Sterio
—
were
all
conventional
academic
picks
and
rated
as
acceptable
to
the
faculty.
The
university
disregarded
the
faculty
pick
and
announced
Option
D
anyway.
Did
we
mention
that
the
judge
served
as
a
legislative
aide
to
Mitch
McConnell
and
chief
of
staff
to
GOP
Rep.
Ron
Lewis?
Well,
he
did.
From
the
university’s
perspective,
a
politically
connected
former
judge
could
be
a
boon
to
fundraising.
From
the
faculty’s
perspective,
during
an
active
Republican-led
assault
on
academia,
a
Republican
dean
reads
a
lot
like
a
white
flag.
This
controversy
has
now
roped
in
Kentucky’s
governor,
who
publicly
inquired
about
the
University
of
Kentucky’s
decision-making
citing
the
judge’s
appointment
and
the
elevation
of
the
school’s
athletic
director
to
a
vague
“executive
in
residence”
role
earning
$950,000
a
year
through
2030.
The
selection
matters
for
the
school’s
accreditation
because
ABA
Interpretation
203-1
notes:
“Except
in
circumstances
demonstrating
good
cause,
a
dean
should
not
be
appointed
or
reappointed
to
a
new
term
over
the
stated
objection
of
a
substantial
majority
of
the
faculty.”
There’s
also
an
accreditation
standard
requiring
the
dean
to
hold
tenure
“except
in
extraordinary
circumstances,”
which
should
be
unavailable
to
the
judge,
as
he
lacks
the
necessary
scholarly
qualifications.
Provost
Robert
DiPaola,
who
ran
the
search,
decided
to
roll
past
both
of
those
standards.
Faculty
member
Ramsi
Woodcock
flagged
the
problem
to
the
UK
president
and
wrote
an
op-ed
in
the
Courier
Journal
making
these
procedural
arguments.
But,
according
to
the
email,
a
“substantial
majority”
of
the
faculty
“expressed”
that
Judge
Van
Tatenhove
“does
not
meet”
the
job
requirements advertised by
the
university
because
he
lacks
“experience
arising
from
a
senior-level
administrative
role
such
as
department
chair,
center
director,
associate
dean,
or
dean.”The
also
stated
that
Van
Tatenhove
“does
not
possess
the
necessary
qualifications
(including
a
record
of
scholarship)
to
be
granted
tenure
under
the
Rosenberg
College
of
Law’s
current
rules.”
Van
Tatenhove’s
only
academic
publication
appears
to
be
a note he
penned
as
a
law
student
forty
years
ago.
The
ABA requires that
a
dean
be
a
tenured
law
professor.At
any
school
interested
in
protecting
its
accreditation,
that
would
have
been
the
end
of
Van
Tatenhove’s
candidacy.
But
Judge
Van
Tatenhove
doesn’t
have
the
scholarly
record
because
he’s
spent
the
last
two
decades
as
a
federal
judge.
I
don’t
know
as
though
there
are
established
canons
of
construction
for
interpreting
ABA
accreditation
rules,
but
a
standard
probably
should
not
be
read
to
prevent
a
school
from
appointing
a
federal
judge.
That
said,
the
school
couldn’t
leave
well
enough
alone
and
extended
this
defense
of
Judge
Van
Tatenhove
to
an
absurdist
end.
A
Kentucky
spokesperson
argued
that
Van
Tatenhove’s
judicial
record
is,
a
kind
of
scholarship
in
itself,
because
“hundreds
of
his
judicial
opinions
have
been
effectively
peer-reviewed
by
the
Sixth
Circuit
with
an
affirmation
rate
above
80%.”
Insert
a
head-smack
emoji
here.
The
“Sixth
Circuit
as
peer
review”
claim,
makes
you
worry
that
they
maybe
they
don’t
understand
how
scholarship
works.
Also,
as
a
soon-to-be-former
Kentucky
professor
notes
of
Dean
Davis,
“the
last
permanent
dean
of
the
law
school
has
not
published
any
legal
scholarship
in
decades.”
It’s
hard
to
hang
a
hat
on
a
standard
that
the
faculty
hasn’t
worried
about
for
years.
The
ABA’s
accreditation
body
declined
to
comment
on
a
specific
school,
as
the
ABA’s
accreditation
body
always
does.
This
afternoon,
Above
the
Law
has
learned,
the
provost
has
called
an
emergency
meeting.
Presumably,
the
goal
is
to
convince
everyone
to
stop
taking
this
fight
to
the
Courier
Journal.
Judge
Van
Tatenhove
seems
more
than
qualified
to
run
a
law
school.
But
even
if
faculty
shouldn’t
be
able
to
unilaterally
pick
their
boss,
they
should
be
able
to
nix
one.
That’s
a
balance
that
the
ABA
standard
gets
right
—
a
substantial
majority
just
needs
to
not
actively
reject
the
choice.
That’s
a
low
bar,
and
Kentucky
couldn’t
clear
it.
A
law
school
can’t
function
if
the
majority
of
the
faculty
doesn’t
have
confidence
in
the
dean.
Maybe
Judge
Van
Tatenhove
is
prepared
to
stand
up
to
the
anti-intellectual
broadside
his
fellow
Republicans
have
launched,
but
the
faculty
has
ample
reason
to
prefer
—
at
this
moment
in
history
—
a
candidate
from
within
the
legal
academy.
The
board
of
trustees
meets
April
24
to
formally
confirm
the
appointment.
As
long
as
he’s
got
a
plan
for
the
cockroaches,
he’ll
be
fine.
Earlier:
Federal
Judge
Steps
Up
To
Be
Law
School
Dean
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.