Former University of Toronto Law School Dean Ronald Daniels -- who will assume the position of Penn provost next Tuesday -- leaves behind a legacy of solid progress tinged by controversy at the institution he has called home for the past 17 years.
Penn President Amy Gutmann announced Daniels' appointment in late April after a search committee -- headed by Penn School of Medicine Dean and Executive Vice President for the Health System Arthur Rubenstein -- presented her with a list of four candidates. Daniels will replace Interim Provost Peter Conn, who has held the position since former Provost Robert Barchi left Penn last summer to become the president of Thomas Jefferson University.
At Toronto, many credit Daniels with making the law school Canada's most prominent. He revamped the financial-aid program after the elimination of government funding sent tuition costs soaring for Ontario's professional schools. Daniels also worked to raise the school's endowment from $1 million in 1995 to over $57 million today, allowing it to recruit some of the world's most distinguished faculty.
"We really sought to transform the law school into a school that was international," Daniels said. He cites the school's "global perspective" -- including curriculum reform and a new International Human Rights Program -- as one of his most important achievements as dean.
But, like any university administrator with a penchant for change, Daniels has critics as well as supporters. And for many of those critics, leading the school toward so-called "globalization" was Daniels' biggest mistake.
Daniels encountered opposition earlier this year when a faculty committee on international education he convened proposed the elimination of electives on topics like "feminist analysis" and "law and diversity" in favor of required "global perspectives" courses for first-year students. Heated debate among students and faculty ensued.
"To take away these [elective] courses is to take away the one small safe place where the significant subset of students who compose minority groups, who often feel alienated and marginalized, can feel recognized in the curriculum and feel welcome in the community," third-year Toronto law student Amy Salyzyn told Ultra Vires, the University of Toronto Law School student newspaper.
The introductory international courses were eventually incorporated into the first-year curriculum and are now mandatory for incoming students. To some, that change was indicative of Daniels' larger vision for the program.
And while some professors criticize Daniels' attempts at globalization as actually being moves toward Americanization, others say Daniels has encouraged them to be anything but pro-American.
"Anyone who tells you he took you in an American direction is nuts," said David Beatty, who has taught at the Toronto Law School for over 30 years and calls the American government an "ugly crowd." "[Daniels] put in an infrastructure that allows us to compete with [the United States] on a world stage."
Lois Chiang, the assistant dean of students at the Toronto Law School, said that the school's international reputation has steadily improved under Daniels' leadership. It is currently ranked as the best law school in Canada by several independent sources.
But the law school's ascent to its current prominence was not without controversy.
Daniels and many University of Toronto administrators came under fire in 2001 for a cheating scandal that landed on the front pages of the city's most widely read newspapers.
About 30 first-year law students were investigated for misrepresenting practice exam grades when they applied for summer jobs at law firms. Since the tests were given as preparation for final exams, the law school refused to show the grades on any official transcripts, and some students inflated their grades in their self-report.
One of those students, Roxanne Shank, admitted to reporting an inaccurate grade but said it was a mistake. Daniels suspended her, along with the other students who were convicted of the offense. Shank sued the university, claiming that she had a right to an official university tribunal because her statement was not a clear admission of guilt.
An Ontario court ruled in favor of Shank and overruled Daniels' decision.
News of the incident spread throughout the Law School and led to further scandal.
Professor Denise Reaume told a small group of her students to tell potential employers that they had received all A's on their practice exams. That, she said, might teach the law firms that they should not rely on internal practice tests when considering job candidates.
In response, Daniels launched an investigation into Reaume's comments after "students had very directly implicated her as a reason" for misrepresenting their grades, he said. Daniels recommended that the investigation be conducted by administrators outside the law school.
"Issues of academic freedom are obviously raised when you're seeking to examine speech of a faculty member," Daniels said. "It's why we felt that this should be done outside the law school."
When Toronto administrators responded to press inquiries about the scandal, they provided Reaume's name to reporters, an act that Daniels called "a mistake."
Eight of the world's most prominent legal scholars -- faculty at universities like Oxford, Columbia and Yale -- wrote an open letter in February 2001 to Robert Birgeneau, president of the University of Toronto at the time. The letter criticized the investigation into Reaume's comments as an "act of harassment and intimidation and a violation of academic freedom."
While some faculty did not want to investigate her comments, "the dean felt otherwise," said Jules Coleman, a professor at Yale Law School who signed the open letter. "Our goal [in writing the letter] was, 'Now that you think otherwise, remember we're watching to make sure that this process goes fairly.'"
University of Toronto officials eventually apologized to Reaume after she formally complained to the university and threatened to sue for libel.
According to Reaume, Daniels "holds ideas about academic freedom that are pretty troubling."
Penn search committee chairman Rubenstein said that he was not aware of either incident as the committee interviewed Daniels and other candidates for the provost spot.
Daniels said he stands by his decisions regarding the suspended students and is looking forward to his future at Penn.
"It was by far the most difficult moment in my professional career," he said.
Daniels remains a popular figure at the law school. Many faculty and students interviewed said his departure is a huge loss for the University of Toronto.
On Saturday, Toronto Law School faculty and staff announced that they had raised over $170,000 ? to be matched by the university ? for law-student financial aid. The endowment is named in honor of Daniels and his wife.
And as Daniels prepares to begin his tenure as provost at Penn, he said his career at the University of Toronto has prepared him well for the challenges that wil lie ahead.
"I'm really just trying to take my time for the next several months and really learn the institution," Daniels said. "I'll still be facing a fairly steep learning curve and trying to get a sense of the intellectual community ... This is a really great and fortunate option that has come my way."
