UH law dean resigns

UH Law Center Dean Nancy Rapoport announced her resignation Monday in the midst of student and faculty complaints that the law school has dropped 20 spots in the U.S. News & World Report rankings (to No. 70 in the U.S. News 2007 list). Rapoport has headed the school for six years, but its slipping stature didn't come to a head until recently. On April 7, Rapoport ignored faculty motions to let students talk about the rankings at the beginning of a school meeting, instead making the roughly 100 students in the audience wait until the end of the meeting. It was a move she admitted caused frustration:

"No one had a lot of fun at the meeting, and students were frustrated because they had to wait until the end of the agenda," Rapoport told Texas Lawyer. "I should have done a better job of explaining which forum was appropriate for hearing the discussion."

Law professors also criticized Rapoport at the meeting, reportedly bringing her to tears — not out of emotional fragility, one student told the Chronicle, but because she was frustrated over having to defend herself for two and a half hours. In a letter to faculty, staff and students Monday, Rapoport tied her resignation to the "events of the past week or so," but she didn't elaborate.

Students said they're concerned about the UH law school's slip in the rankings, but they also said the rankings themselves are subjective, arbitrary and biased toward East Coast schools (six of U.S. News' top 10 law schools are in the East). Even so, they said problems at UH — including outdated facilities and a high student-to-faculty ratio — could be fixed with more funding. UH Provost Donald Foss said he will review those issues and others pointed out in the rankings.

Foss said Rapoport's decision to leave isn't based on the rankings. Her resignation will be effective May 31.