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Interim Provost Don Rice tapped 24-year School of Law veteran Frank Houdek to be the college’s new interim dean Wednesday.
Houdek, who previously served as the college’s associate dean for academic affairs, will fill the position immediately while a national search committee hopes to land a permanent dean by July 2010.
“I’ve had a lot of experience as an administrator and being the dean of a school of law, you have a wide range of responsibilities,” Houdek said. “My job is to maintain and stay on track and keep our eyes focused on the mission until a permanent dean is appointed.”
Houdek replaces Peter Alexander, who announced his resignation last year and will become a visiting professor at the Notre Dame Law School in the fall.
Houdek brings a wealth of experience to the table.
The Los Angeles native earned his law degree and master’s in library science from University of California Los Angeles and has worked as a librarian with several large law firms around the country.
“(Houdek) is a long-term member of the School of Law faculty and I believe he brings to the position both historical perspective and a vision of the future of the school,” Rice said in a university press release. “I think he is very well-positioned to prepare the school for a selection of a new, permanent dean.”
Houdek said one of his primary focuses would be to implement several faculty suggestions made during a self study the law school prepared as part of the American Bar Association’s accreditation process in 2008.
“This is really a faculty-driven school,” he said
Among the suggestions, Houdek said, was a need to become more hands on.
“We will certainly continue to use the traditional legal education system of learning the law, but we need to recognize that new lawyers today from day one have to have an understanding of how to act as a lawyer and how to do things as a lawyer,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that in today’s world, law offices that hire new attorneys expect them to know how to do things.”
Houdek steps into a position that has been subject to criticism.
In November 2007, Alexander was a defendant in a lawsuit in which a law student claimed she was discriminated against because she was white.
Then in March 2009, Alexander was involved in a faculty dispute that had the university on the verge of being censured by the American Association of University Professors.
Houdek, though, said he had nothing but admiration for his predecessor.
“He is still here and a full-tenure faculty member,” Houdek said. “I’m sure I’ll be relying on him when topics come up that I haven’t had experience with. I’ve received a great deal of training from him.”
