Our fellow Indisputably blogger and resident kind soul, Michael Moffitt, has decided to decline a second 5 year term as Dean at Oregon. His statement is here, but more telling is what Oregon’s provost said:
I speak for his fellow deans and everyone in Academic Affairs when I say his leadership of the law school will be truly missed. While this is a tremendous loss to the university, his decision to continue in his faculty role will ultimately greatly benefit our law school students and the discipline of law. . . . It was my and President Michael Schill’s sincerest hope that Michael would continue as dean and build upon these successes for another five years, especially after the many wonderful accomplishments observed during his intensive five-year review.
I have no doubt that all at Oregon are disappointed to hear this and completely understand. Michael will be stepping down at the end of the Spring 2017 semester.
The next dean has big shoes to fill indeed.
Congratulations to Michael on a successful deanship. I am excited for his return to academia and look forward to his work once back on the faculty.
Being a dean is a difficult, often thankless but very important job, so it is great when people like Michael step up to take on the challenges. A number of our DR colleagues are or have been deans and the DR experience is almost certainly a great value to their schools.
We are so grateful at Oregon for the time, energy, patience, skill, perseverance, optimism, and dedication that Michael brought to the law school. It will be hard to fill his shoes.
Wonderful tribute. These days, having success over five years and being asked to serve another five is testament to Michael’s many talents, including his relationship-building skills. It is not easy being Dean.