Brian Leiter reports:
A faculty member at SLU writes: "The theme of yesterday's emergency faculty meeting was one of sadness and dispiritment, especially as we learned how [University President] Biondi's theft of funds from the Law School (including perhaps a noted alum's estate-gift to the Law School) will impact the funding of student activities in this year and years forward. For example, it looks like there may not be funds available for student travel (e.g. moot court), student-coordinated and student-oriented legal conferences, and also the research activities of our very strong faculty."
It looks like a classic example of a cash-strapped central university treating its law school as a cash cow. Law schools often are the most profitable college in a university, but it's easy to kill off the goose that lays golden eggs. Squeeze too much blood and eventually you start having serious problems retaining quality faculty, attracting quality dean candidates, persuading alumni to contribute, and so on.
