pizzas and the crucifix: the saga of ave maria law school.

[dennis]

One of the generally understood perks of being a tenured law school professor is the job security. This assumption, however, requires that your law school is not run by a pizza mogul who moves the school halfway across the country so he can erect a 250-foot crucifix. Read: as long as your boss doesn't have a crazy agenda, you'll probably be able to keep your job

Naplesnews.com reports that the professors at Ave Maria School of Law settled their wrongful dismissal claims against the school, who sued for wrongful termination or denied tenure. This means that there will be no ruling on whether the professor's claims were barred by a constitutional exception for "ministerial" employees that prevents the filing of employment claims.

The saga of how Ave Maria went from a start up with a bright future to the lowest ranked law school in the country is detailed over at The Washington Monthly. Excerpts from the Washington Monthly article are after the jump:

It started with a Tom Monaghan, pizza mogul, and Justice Scalia:

Their aim was to build a world-class institution, one that would churn out lawyers capable of leaving their stamp on the larger culture.

Scalia was so enthusiastic about the project that he also persuaded his friend Robert Bork, the erstwhile conservative Supreme Court nominee, to join the faculty. Before long other prominent conservatives were lining up behind the project. They were so enamored with the idea, and the money Monaghan was willing to put behind it, that no one seemed to give much thought to the implications of a fast-food mogul wading into the world of higher ed.

Ave Maria was the result of Monaghan’s recommitment to his Catholic faith:

It dawned on Monaghan that his hunger for success and flashy belongings was pride in its purest form. He immediately swore what he called a “millionaire’s vow of poverty” and began shedding his possessions. Finally, in 1998, he sold Domino’s for an estimated $1 billion and announced that he was retiring from the pizza business so he could devote his time and money to Catholic education. “I want to die broke,” he declared.

It was later that year that Safranek and the other professors approached Monaghan with their idea for the Catholic law school.

The law school was established, things were going well until a massive crucifix started a series of problems:

By early 2002, Monaghan had three promising schools—Ave Maria College, St. Mary’s, and Ave Maria School of Law—but they were scattered across Michigan. In the hopes of bringing them together on a single campus, he submitted plans to build a new Ave Maria University at Domino’s Farms. The proposal might have sailed through unnoticed if it weren’t for one detail: a 250-foot crucifix. That’s taller than the old General Motors building and almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty.

The citizens of the nearby Michigan town balked at idea of a massive crucifix, so Monaghan contacted a Florida landowner, packed the university up, and headed to Florida:

What they envisioned was an old-fashioned company town with a theocratic twist. Monaghan and Barron Collier would own everything from the local utility company to the building supply that provided concrete for wells and foundations. But the most startling part of the whole arrangement was the plan for governing the community.

And the move to Florida nearly killed the school:

[T]he law school has been in a freefall. Most of the original faculty have fled or been pushed out, and the quality of the students has tumbled. One current professor told me, “Our student body now is one of the four or five worst in America.” The instability has also wreaked havoc on the school’s reputation: in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, Ave Maria tied for last place in the peer-assessment category, the most important measure in determining a school’s standing.

Meanwhile, in June, the U.S. Department of Education reported that Ave Maria School of Law had failed its financial responsibility test, the only law school in the nation to do so. Even more troubling, the school ranked sixth to last among all American institutions of higher learning on the department’s financial responsibility index, thanks partly to its multimillion-dollar deficit. With its finances in disarray, the school has shelved plans for the $30 million building across from Mansion Row. When Ave Maria School of Law finally opened for business in Florida this August, it was in a former retirement home on the outskirts of Naples.

The full article is over at The Washington Monthly and contains an interesting (yet exhaustive) history of the school.

Comments

[ConcernedLegalProfessional]

I am extremely disappointed in the underlying theme to this blog posting. I find it disconcerting that a supposed "professional" would stoop so low. Clearly, you do not care for Catholicism. It would take a different type of professional to help you understand why. In the meantime, remind me who has been forced to attend Ava Maria against their will or was recruited to teach there against their will? Who entered Ava Maria's halls and did not know they were entering an Orthodox Catholic institution? In my dealings with students and alums from the school, they knew and wanted the kind of education Ava Maria gives. Do they not have that right? If, they want to attend a school with a 250 foot Crucifix, then so be it. If you do not care for it, so be it. But, why, pray tell crucify them for wishing to express their religious beliefs?

[Gretchen Trupiano]

Thank you, ConcernedLegalProfessional!

[Truth Teller]

This is garbage and inaccurate. Find something better to do with your time.

[Bob]

Agree with ConcernedLegalProfessional.

[disillusioned20103L]

yeah, but ask any 3L if they have a job yet or much less an interview.

This school's prospects are now trashed....

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