What's Going on at Florida Coastal?

The ABA recently notified Florida Coastal School of Law (the last surviving InfiLaw school) that it was rejecting FCSL's application for a major change to convert to non-profit status.  This may have precipitated a leadership shakeup at the school.  Yesterday it was announced internally that Academic Dean Jennifer Reiber was returning to her post on the faculty and today Dean Scott DeVito apparently quit.  No word if he was pushed out or left voluntarily.  I tried to reach out to him for comment through his FCSL email and got this Autoreply: "Thank you for reaching out to me. Scott DeVito is no longer employed by Florida Coastal School of Law."  Normally, when Deans step down they rejoin the faculty, but it doesn't seem like that happened here.  So, what is the next step for Florida Coastal?  Who is running the school right now? Why did the ABA reject their application to convert to non-profit status?   If I learn of any developments, I will let you know.  In the meantime, if anyone has any insights, please share them in the comments (or email me at [email protected]).

 

Interestingly, Atlanta's John Marshall Law School also has a pending application with the ABA to convert to non-profit status.  I wonder if they will have better luck with the ABA than Florida Coastal.

 

UPDATE:  I still don't know why Dean DeVito stepped down, but he reached out to me via e-mail and stated "my leaving had nothing do with the ABA decision."   Stay tuned...

 

UPDATE 2: I am hearing rumors that students are not receiving their federal student loans at FCSL.  This could be a real problem for FCSL if not resolved quickly.

 

UPDATE 3:  I am getting reports that former Academic Dean Jennifer Reiber has been named Interim Dean and that Peter Goplerud, a former Dean of FCSL and most recently President of FCSL's failed InfiLaw sister school Arizona Summit, is being brought in as President of FCSL.  Could that be the reason Scott DeVito decided to leave?

Comments

[anon]

There are more details over at Above the Law (https://abovethelaw.com/2019/09/florida-coastal-dean-resign-missing-student-loans/), but I couldn't find a comment section. I don't understand the issue with the students not getting their federal financial aid. At least the CEO of Infilaw is taking it "seriously" and "understands" that it is causing stress and hardship. It doesn't look like they are going to do anything about it though.

[informant]

Goplerud hired Devito, and both are (in my experience) decent guys. So I think the causal chain runs the other way- DeVito left or was fired, then Infilaw tried to bring in a grownup to save the day.