Michael Schwartz, dean of the law school at the University
of Arkansas at Little Rock announced in November, 2016 that he would resign the
following summer. His accomplishments included a lawyer-student mentoring
program, live-client learning sessions, and a low-income clinic in the Arkansas
Delta.[1]
The trigger for his resignation was a school-wide email he had sent to students
just days earlier in which he announced that he was making counseling available
to any student who was upset by the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President.
Besides effectively normalizing over-reactions and failing to recognize normal
venting, the dean’s email interjected partisan politics, albeit tacitly, into
higher education. Rather than turn the popularized context into a teachable
moment for assumption-analysis, the dean modeled what happens when unsupported
assumptions run unchecked. In the end, the legal reasoning of students could
suffer.
The full essay is at "Grief Counseling to Hysterical Students."
1. Emily
Walkenhorst, “UALR
Law School Dean to Exit Post,” Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette, November 19, 2016.
