You'll likely recall the recent controversy in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Bowen Law School when the plans of Dean Theresa Beiner and a retiring professor and defender of Bill Clinton, John DiPippa, to rename a richly endowed professorship in constitutional law after the former president were discovered.
Arkansas FOIA guru and UALR law professor Robert Steinbuch objected to the renaming and the way it was quietly handled. That's when the dean basically told him to mind his own business.
As a highly respected transparency advocate, however, Steinbuch chose not to take that advice. As things turned out over the ensuing months, he was vindicated.
After initially hearing of Steinbuch's concerns, an FOIA request I filed and a hearing by Sen. Jason Rapert helped expose the truth, said Steinbuch.
The flap created headlines in the Washington Times newspaper and elsewhere in national legal circles.
In a letter to Senator Rapert, UALR Chancellor Christy Drale repeated the conclusion reached by Steinbuch and rejected by the dean months earlier, that the naming of the professorship after Clinton was mishandled. She reversed the dean's actions, thus basically setting the ship upright.
If you thought it ended there, Steinbuch says think again. The Bowen dean again finds herself at the center of controversy for questionable decisions involving Steinbuch's faith, which is Jewish.
The professor recently took time off from his instructional duties to observe two holy days. He said he has done the same thing every year he's taught at the law school, which spans almost two decades.
But for the first time, Steinbuch said the school's dean questioned his absence, seemingly unaware such annual religious events occurred in an asserted environment of diversity and tolerance.
This last point can't be overstated, Steinbuch says, holding no punches about the partisan politics he sees. "The law school is a hotbed of political leftism, continually bowing to the latest diversity and inclusion gods," he told me, "almost every time. For example, while the school just received a million dollars from the Walmart Foundation for its newly created Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform, my religious observance is hampered.
"I guess that means it's 'yes' to racial justice but 'no' to religious justice. Maybe there's no history of repression against Jews we should be concerned about? But from what I recall from my high school history class, not to mention my family's tragic personal history, that's not right. Since religious injustice doesn't fit the political narrative of the administration, they apparently left that out of their definition of 'justice' reforms."
Meanwhile, there's even more logs on this fire. In Steinbuch's law class, he invited a federal judge to guest lecture during his religious observance. "You'd think having such an accomplished attorney and sterling judge speaking to law students would be viewed as beneficial to the law school and students," he said. "But apparently not so."
Instead, Dean Beiner informed Steinbuch he couldn't have a guest lecturer in his class, notwithstanding 20 years of precedent to the contrary and the fact that relevant guests are standard practice throughout academia.
"So Dean Beiner has chosen exactly the opposite of what is considered best practice," said Steinbuch. "And we wonder why Arkansas is consistently 49th or 50th."
The Bowen Law School's rules explicitly do permit guest lecturers. And the same week Steinbuch said Beiner prohibited him from having a guest lecturer, she announced guest lecturers speaking to another class. Steinbuch himself guest-lectured recently at the school's request when another faculty member became unavailable.
Seems to me, Steinbuch unfortunately has become a kind of professor non grata with the administration because of his outspoken questioning of various issues and policies affecting his school and university.
Today, he feels there's one set of rules for him when he observes his religion as he always has and invites a guest lecturer to his classroom but quite another for every other person on Bowen's faculty.
"Here's the thing," he said. "The First Amendment does protect religion, but it doesn't protect other activities." By refusing to permit Steinbuch the same option as other law school professors, "the dean actually skipped over the First Amendment," he said.
The same dean, who teaches constitutional law, he added, has refused to allow the conservative-leaning Steinbuch (and another Jewish professor) to teach that class notwithstanding their seniority. "It wouldn't look very good to have two diametrically opposed views of the First Amendment presented since it would highlight the absurdity of one," he said. "Can you guess which one?"
The professor wonders what it will take for the folks at UALR to finally get things resolved at Bowen since there's obviously work yet to be done in the interest of fairness, integrity and the First Amendment.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.