[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Peter Schrag

The University of California is a big, complex operation, so maybe you shouldn't be surprised at the regularity with which one or another part shoots itself in the foot.

No sooner had the Board of Regents, following reports of extensive administrative disarray, nudged UC President Robert Dynes into an early semiretirement than came the on-off-on appointment of Erwin Chemerinsky as dean of a new law school at the University of California, Irvine.

Was Chemerinsky's contract abrogated because he was a well-known liberal and had drawn opposition from conservatives, or because, as a future dean, he was writing Op-Ed pieces on controversial subjects? Or was it all, in fact, one and the same?

At almost the same time came the regents' even more embarrassing disinvitation of Larry Summers as a speaker at their dinner last week. Summers, who had been President Clinton's treasury secretary and president of Harvard, had been forced to resign from Harvard following faculty pressure prompted by his remarks suggesting that women might be underrepresented in the sciences because of some genetic insufficiency.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Peter Scheer
Executive Director
California First Amendment Coalition

The best that can be said about the University of California’s leaders is that they are neutral in their spinelessness: in the face of political pressure, they are quick to surrender the university’s academic freedom--its lifeblood—whether that pressure comes from the ideological right or the left.

From the right, UC-Irvine was criticized for its hiring of law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, a liberal, as the dean of its new law school. Chancellor Michael Drake, rather than resisting pressure from conservative quarters to politicize a key academic appointment, fired Chemerinsky last week. (Later, apparently realizing that his action would do grave harm to the fledgling law school, Drake went hat-in-hand to Chemerinsky and publicly re-hired him.)

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

This deserves far more than a quick hit.  Erwin Chemerinsky, the esteemed legal scholar who was unceremoniously dumped as Dean of the new UC Irvine Law School after catcalls from the conservative noise machine, has been rehired by the school.

UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake and Erwin Chemerinsky have reached an agreement that will return the liberal legal scholar to the dean's post at the university's new law school, the university announced this morning.

With the deal, they hope to end the controversy that erupted when Chemerinsky was dropped as the first dean of the Donald Bren School of Law.

Drake traveled over the weekend to Durham, N.C., where Chemerinsky is a professor at Duke University, and the two reached an agreement about midnight Sunday, sources told The Times.

Practically the whole faculty was going to walk out if they didn't set this right, so it's not surprising.  Apparently LA County Supe Mike Antonovich and OC Republicans won't get their way on this one.

But I still think the point is valid that if Chemerinsky has to jump through this many hoops to get a UC job, why exactly is John Yoo still employed at Berkeley?

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Hannah Beth Jackson
When I learned that UC Irvine had just hired Erwin Chemerinsky to become the first Dean of their newly created Law School, I was very impressed. It's quite rare for any law school to get one of the greatest legal scholars of our day as its chief. To get someone of Chemerinsky's stature to be the first dean of a new law school is an even greater coup. This is the real deal who was going to put a beleaguered UC Irvine on the map and very quickly.

I didn't think for a moment, "Wow, and now we'll start putting out progressive lawyers to match the thousands being rubber-stamped out of conservative institutions like those overrunning the federal government and the executive branch, in particular." What I thought, and apparently so many others who have worked with him or heard him speak think is that this University will become an institution of excellence and pride, with thoughtful and quality lawyers. With a dean of Chemerinsky's reputation, this school will quickly put itself on the map. Go UC Irvine! Not!

by jbridges16 [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

This article written by: Former Assemblymember Hannah Beth Jackson of Speak Out California

When I learned that UC Irvine had just hired Erwin Chemerinsky to become the first dean of their newly created law school, I was very impressed. It's quite rare for any law school to get one of the greatest legal scholars of our day as its chief. To get someone of Chemerinsky's stature to be the first dean of a new law school is an even greater coup. This is the real deal-  a person who is going to put a beleaguered UC Irvine on the map and very quickly.

I didn't think for a moment, "Wow, and now we'll start putting out progressive lawyers to match the thousands being rubber-stamped out of conservative institutions, like those overrunning the federal government and the executive branch, in particular." What I thought, and apparently like so many others who have worked with  Chemerinsky or heard him speak, is that this University will become an institution of excellence and pride, with thoughtful and quality lawyers. With a dean of Chemerinsky's reputation, this school will quickly put itself on the map. Go UC Irvine! ... Not.