Law Students to Evaluate Faculty Dean Candidates

Law School students will try to interview faculty candidates for dean despite President Bok's rejection two weeks ago of student requests for formal input into the choice of a successor to Albert M. Sacks, current dean of the Law School.

Students may also refuse to comply with Bok's invitation to write letters on prospective candidates--the one method of input Bok left open to them.

"We want to protest as loudly as possible," Larry S. Coben, a spokesman for the newly formed Committee on Representative Dean Selection (CORDS), a coalition of Law School student groups, said yesterday.

Taking Action

Proposals for student action, which law students will discuss at an open meeting tomorrow include:

*compiling student opinions on faculty members in the running for the post;

*forming a student committee to interview possible candidates from within the Law School;

*refusing to write Bok letters;

*and considering tactics such as a boycott of classes.

Marjorie R. Corman, president of the law school council, which is sponsoring Wednesday's open meeting, said yesterday that although law students opinions vary on specific tactics, they agree to go ahead with the ideas of compiling student opinions on candidates and interviewing law faculty up for the post.

Write Soon

Corman said she disagrees with boycotting Bok's letter-writing procedure, because "if we don't give any input, he can later say students never gave him any," adding that a unified organized effort will be harder for him to ignore.

Writing Bok letters is not "an effective way to channel student input," Fritz Byers, a members of CORDS, said yesterday. Byers said he endorses a complete boycott of all procedures that Bok authorized in an effort to mount "a campaign completely separate from Bok's."

A student group to interview candidates would provide students "an informed view of the candidates," Corman said, adding that students know faculty members only from the classroom and "don't know how the professor would be as dean."

Deadline

Corman, who met with Bok last week, said he told her that students have about one month to submit their views. Bok will then try to narrow the final list of candidates, she added. Bok was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Rejection

The student proposal Bok rejected two weeks ago asked that students be permitted to interview final candidates and that they be given a formal role throughout the selection process. Bok has said he would like to choose the next dean by the beginning of next year.

Sacks announced his resignation this summer, saying he believed a ten-year tenure was long enough.