Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993 TAG: 9307160142
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
The new role for Dean Herbert W. Titus, a Harvard graduate who turned his back on Marxism after a religious conversion, is intended to help the school win American Bar Association accreditation, said a report published Thursday.
The 7-year-old law school, which has about 300 students, has provisional ABA approval and intends to seek full accreditation within a year.
Several leaders at the institution told The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk that the ABA has expressed concern over Titus' authoritative management style and slumping performances by graduates taking the bar exam.
A plan by the school's Board of Trustees and Robertson to make Titus an endowed scholar, relieving him of day-to-day operations, indicates a shift to a more mainstream image for the university. The school also gives degrees in business, communication, education, government and ministry.
Robertson had planned to have Keith Fournier, executive director of his American Center for Law and Justice, serve as interim dean to give Titus the John Marshall Chair of Constitutional Law. But word of the move leaked this week to faculty and students, causing an uproar.
"I just don't understand what could have happened," said David Billing, a third-year law student. "What I really regret is that the students are always the last to know."
Fournier said he accepted the offer, but then turned it down when he learned ABA regulations would require that he serve full time as dean.
The law school received provisional ABA accreditation in 1989, but the bar group expressed concern that the student body may not be diverse enough and that full academic freedom was not allowed.
by CNB