Our university's structurally ailing, yet energized, law school recently appointed ethics scholar Robert Wilcox as our new dean. In what may have been his first matter of business, Dean Wilcox refused a salary raise of more than $40,000 that was commensurate with his new position. Perhaps Dean Wilcox felt that he should earn a raise by bringing the law school up in the rankings, or by raising additional funds for a new building. Earning a raise ... what a novel idea.
It doesn't take a legal ethicist to grasp such a concept. We law students are fortunate enough to have a leader who is capable of making such prudent decisions on our behalf. But what about the other graduate students, and the undergrads? How can they place faith in leaders who put their own selfish interests ahead of theirs? The short answer is they can't.
The students must demand that their deans and provosts refuse these unjustifiable raises, or else they must insist on a new leader, one that truly has their best interest at heart. Every student of this great university is deserving of a Dean Wilcox. I just hope the student body can muster up the same kind of outrage over these raises as it did over the recent ousting of Ms. Moore.
Maybe I'll start a Facebook group...after exams.