Makau Mutua Stepping Down As SUNY Buffalo Law Dean

Dean Makau Mutua, who has led Buffalo Law for seven years, will be stepping down from the deanship this December. Dean  Mutua made some size adjustments in the law school and has also had controversy in his time.  (In fact,  the litigation with Jeffrey Malkan continues.  A  filing here, submitted by the dean's co-defendant in the Malkan litigation, is pretty interesting in its own right.)

Comments

[JillyfromPhilly]

Dan,

It seems like quite a few law school deans have stepped down in the past 12 months? Is this type of turnover unusual?

[Jeffrey]

From your link in March 2014: "Mutua said the school will ease its ideal freshman class size from 200-225 to 185-200 in order to maintain the quality of its students."

Actual class size for class of 2017: 145 http://www.law.buffalo.edu/admissions/classProfile.html

[Dan Filler]

Jilly, this seems pretty typical to me. If the average tenure is six years, you'd expect to see 30 or more deans turn each year.

[Justin]

In your March 18 link, Dean Matua says that the school will be going for a class of 185 to 200 going forward, down from a traditional 220-25. According to the school's website, the class this fall is 145, versus 199 last year.

Do things are tough all over.

[Luigi]

Do you think there's a connection between the contents of the filing and the dean's abrupt decision (or order) to step down?