LAW Dean announces resignation

School of Law Dean Ronald Cass announced Friday that he will step down from the post at the end of the year to "explore new scholarly and other professional projects," after a month of questions about the school's fundraising practices.

Cass is the 14th high-level Boston University official to resign in the past two years. University officials will likely appoint an interim dean in the next few months and start a national search for a permanent replacement shortly thereafter, Cass said in an interview Friday afternoon.

In a letter to the LAW community dated Friday, Cass said the decision "stirs deeply mixed emotions." He discussed at length LAW's failure to erect a new building for the school and questions about the school's fundraising for the project, which first publicly hit the school in an early March column in The Boston Globe.

But Cass said the fundraising issues are not why he decided to step down - it was simply time to go after 14 years at the helm.

"I've been dean for 14 years and we've accomplished an enormous amount here at the school in that time," he said. "All of these things come after reflection, and at the end of the day, you get to a point where you know what you want to do."

Cass said the school has risen in national rankings under his tenure, something for which several faculty members credited him. President ad interim Aram Chobanian said in a press release that Cass has done an "exemplary job advancing the law school and its mission."

"During his tenure he has recruited a number of outstanding scholars while also pursuing his own scholarly work, and he consistently brought in very highly qualified students," Chobanian said in the release.

Cass called the school's inability to begin construction on a new building during his time "certainly frustrating." In his letter to the LAW community, he said the building is a major place the school needs to improve.

"Although I am pleased with the school's present standing, I know that our success is not complete," Cass said in the letter. "Most obviously, we need a new building ... [and] we are not yet able to announce when that building will go up. The university has some costly construction projects, including ours, and constraints on its ability to fund them. The timing of this project depends most critically on those factors."

LAW officials had recently thought it would be possible to break ground as soon as this summer, according to a March 2 piece by Globe columnist Alex Beam.

School officials had said in 2003 that they had raised between $33 million and $36 million - Cass said those figures had been an estimate based on pledges - toward the $149 million needed for a new building and that the university had agreed to match LAW's efforts dollar-for-dollar, according to Beam's column. But Cass told faculty members in February that the number was closer to $10 million and that construction would not start in the near future, the piece said.

Cass said Friday that the discrepancies were because of "different ways you account for what people promise to give you" - LAW's practices had been different from those of the university's central Office of Development and Alumni Relations. University fundraising officials are now "conducting a review" of LAW's fundraising policies and working to bring them in line with the rest of BU, according to Cass' letter.

Cass also defended the school's fundraising practices and said LAW officials are continuing to raise money for the project.

"It is important in this context to emphasize that, contrary to some speculation, all funds received are fully accounted for and every dollar received for our building and other capital funds is secure," he said.

Cass said in the interview that the 18-story cement mass in the middle of campus in which the school is currently housed is clearly inadequate. He hopes the school will finish the project "sooner rather than later."

Graduate Banking Law Program Director John Baerst said he was "deeply disappointed" when he read Cass' announcement Friday - the dean had been "very good" and had "done great things for the school." BU Executive Vice President Joe Mercurio was also complimentary.

"He's been extraordinary," Mercurio said. "He's been productive and responsive. In terms of stature, [LAW has] certainly improved under his stewardship."

LAW First-Year Writing Program Director Robert Volk said his biggest accomplishment was making the school more student-friendly. He made the school a "kinder, gentler place," Volk said.

Chobanian will ultimately decide whether Cass will be involved in the search for a replacement, Cass said. The president did not to respond requests for comment Friday.

BU's Board of Trustees considered Cass for the school's presidency last summer but opted instead to hire former National Aeronautics and Space Administration chief Daniel Goldin. Cass said the situation was not a factor in his decision to resign, but a related piece of Beam's column may have caused some embarrassment.

In the column, Beam quoted an email Cass intended for former LAW fundraiser William Eustis in which he said, "If I get the university presidency here (which I feel better about today - a subject for another conversation), there will be a job for you here."

The email actually went to a number of faculty members and fellow presidential candidate Provost Dennis Berkey, according to the Globe.