The Occasional Observer

For those of you who haven't been paying close attention from home, and want a little more background, I've written on this topic a few times: here, here and here.

Ave Maria School of Law was founded about 6 years ago due to the generosity of Tom Monaghan, former Domino's Pizza CEO and grade-A Catholic philanthropist. Through his foundation, Tom's committed upwards of $1B to Catholic causes, and education has been at the top of his list: Ave Maria College in Yspilanti, MI (which later moved to Florida and is now Ave Maria University), and the Ave Maria School of Law (AMSOL) which is now considering a move to Florida to be co-located with AMU.

The Law School's mission is unique: to integrate the rich history of Catholic teaching on natural law into the modern legal curriculum, and ground its students in the timeless truths of the Church, as well as the ins-and-outs of a legal career. I once considered attending AMSOL, but I doubt I'd have been able to stomach being around the turncoat portion of the faculty and alums who are trying (in vain) to destroy the school's promise.

[Just as an aside, one of these turncoat professors has a narcissistic pseudo-history of the Law School, in which he traces the school's origin to his (and some of his colleagues) dispute w/ the Univ. of Detroit-Mercy. Safranek, in detailing the conflict w/ UDM, alludes to just how bleak his job prospects at UDM were: "the law school began discussing how to terminate the Catholic faculty who had protested the University’s actions." Presumably, the same situation applied to Murphy, Falvey, and Myers, who are listed as fellow "protesters" in Safranek's article.

What an odd place to start a history of AMSOL, with Safranek about to be fired. Any semi-normal history of the school would rightly have started with the necessary ingredient that enabled the institution to exist: Monaghan's wealth, and his spiritual journey that led him to make that wealth available to others. Such a history would have moved on from there to discuss Tom, sitting in a board room, listening to a proposal by a bunch of down on their luck law professors, and deciding to turn their lemons into lemonade.

I have to admit, Safranek's logic is a little easier on my ego. I get to be a founder, too. After all, I've had the idea for a Catholic School of Journalism for years. It would ground its students in objective truth and shatter the AP/Reuters secular monopoly on wire services. I haven't met my committed Catholic billionaire donor yet, but since he'll be an afterthought, and someone I can vilify a few years after I get my hands on his money, I guess I'm a "founder" too.]

Well, this past week, it came out that the aggrieved faculty, who've incited all degrees of discontent over the potential Florida move, have taken the additional step of outlining their grievances to the ABA. They did so knowing full well that this would lead to an investigation of the school. The worst case scenario for AMSOL would be that the ABA revokes their full accreditation, making it harder to attract students, staff, and damaging the value of an AMSOL degree.

Basically, the faculty has taken the step of throwing overboard the livelihood of the lawyers they taught (as well as those lawyers' families) in order to get their way. They don't want to move, and No Man is going to stand in their way. Either they'll win, or they'll cause as much collateral damage as they can on the way out.

Who can get these dissidents to cease and desist for the good of the mission? Not their chaplain, Father Orsi, who has apparently been opposing the insurgents' divisiveness (why would an orthodox Catholic Law Professor feel the need to listen to a Priest?). Not their boss, the Dean, whose calm demeanor could have been used as an example to handle this dispute with class, not divisive rancor. Not the founder, whose generosity made the institution possible. Not the Board, who actually has the responsibility for making these types of decisions (after all, why have obedience to actual authority when one can stand on conscience alone?).

Yep, this past week, after years of impugning Mr. Monaghan, Dean Dobranski, and anyone who disagrees with them as "Un-Catholic", the dissident faculty members outed themselves. They're nothing but a bunch of self-serving opportunists who took advantage of Tom Monaghan when they were down on their luck, and UDM was about to cut them loose. And now they spit in his face, and the faces of the very students they taught, in order to serve their own convenience. When the school moves (which I have to imagine they will for reasons I laid out in the earlier articles), and the insurgent members of the faculty decide to resign rather than go with the school, all that will be left to say is "good riddance."