UCI Law school's B-day, tomorrow

In this morning’s OC Reg:

After tough birth, UCI School of Law opens Monday

What with UCI’s School of Law opening tomorrow, Gary Robbins reminds us of its “tough birth,” most notably the fubar of Chancellor Michael Drake’s choice of dean:

Chancellor Michael Drake raided Duke University in September 2007 for a high profile dean, constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky, who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. About a week later, Chemerinsky was fired in a flap over his liberal political views. An uproar followed, leading Drake to rehire Chemerinsky, a gregarious scholar who emphasizes the word you when asking people, “Who are you doing today?” [Who?]

“(Drake) received intense pressure over a short period of time from some very influential conservatives that convinced him that I would not succeed as dean and if he went forth with me … he would not succeed in some things he had worked hard to achieve,” says Chemerinsky, 56.

“In light of that, I understood why he did what he did.”

There were some tense moments when the brouhaha occurred. But Chemerinsky says, “I adore (Drake). I would not have accepted this job if I didn’t respect and admire him so much.”

(Last Monday, Drake gave a well-received keynote address for SOCCCD’s fall “opening session.” We at the SOCCCD have wondered if Trustee Tom Fuentes was among the “influential conservatives” who sought to block C’s hire. Fuentes did not attend Drake’s address.)

Robbins notes that the controversy has faded and, since then, things have gone well:

UCI crowed about the applicant pool in April, saying in a news release that the school “has chosen its inaugural class by accepting only 4 percent of its applicants, making it the most selective of any law school in the nation.”

According to Robbins, that claim “was wildly out of context.” Still, the school really has done well:

…[T]here is no disputing that UCI fared well in recruiting founding faculty. Brian Leiter’s influential Law School Reports blog says Irvine’s law faculty ranks among the top 10 nationally in scholarly productivity. The scholars include internationally known psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, an expert on eyewitness testimony.

(Loftus is most famous for her work on memory. She’s a major critic of the notion of “repressed” or “recovered” memories. See the Jane Doe case.)

Chemerinsky’s still making with the big talk. He made a promise:

“I sincerely believe that from the moment that we first get ranked (by U.S. News and World Report) we will be ranked in the top 20. Top 25, of course.”

Meanwhile, in the city of Orange:

Fancy dining in an O.C. college dorm? Look, and drool (Robbins, OC Reg)

Earlier, we told you that Chapman University in Orange had just opened a 200,000 square-foot residence hall that’s distinctive for its 51-foot high climbing wall, the tallest of any at a California college or university. We should also have mentioned that the $46 million dorm also has a dining hall that resembles a chic Vegas-style food court and offers up dorm food that’s far from the gut-bomb goulash you can still find at many schools. The upscale dining hall, in part, is the sort of amenity that schools like Chapman are using to try to attract top students and keep them living on campus. The hall, located in the dorm quad, near the football field, is open to the public. The building will be formally named next week.