Clark Says $31 Million Raised

Law School Dean Robert C. Clark, appearing comfortable and confident in his first public forum this year, revealed that donors have pledged more than $31 million to the school in the second year of its six-year fundraising drive.

Clark, who last year established himself as a highly succesful fund raiser, seemed hopeful about the Law School's six-year fund drive. He said that following the meeting, with the group of about 40 students, he planned to catch a plane to talk to an alumnus about the "possibility of a major gift."

During the forum, Clark took up about half of the hour and a half forum with his agenda of Law School policy concerns--everything from the $150 million dollar fund drive to the large number of visiting professors this year. The students who attended the meeting filled the remaining half with questions for the dean.

Clark, who perenially reminds students of the Law School's rich tradition, acknowledged that the school does have some room for improvement, and assured the audience that he is working hard to eliminate these problems.

"The faculty ought to be much bigger," he said. "The student-faculty ratio is rather awful."

He also agreed with a student complaint about the lack of attention paid to intellectual property law at Harvard. Clark said this and the lack of an environmental law professor are issues he is studying.

Last year, Clark's first as dean, did not run as smoothly as he would have hoped. On two occasions, students held sit-ins to call for more minority and women faculty members. More than 1000 sent him letters protesting his termination of the school's public interest career placement office.

His two public forums last year narrowed the communication gap between the dean and students. However, Clark's uncomfortable and seemingly cold public manner often irritated the students whom he was presumably trying to pacify.

Yet yesterday, he seemed to have gained polish in his public dealings with students. The atmosphere in yesterday's forum was far less volatile than that which pervaded the two previous ones. In fact, at times, Clark broke through his stern persona and told several amusing anectdotes.

One such time was his recounting of a true story in which a professor slated for a visiting spot at Harvard rejected a tenure offer at Stanford Law School so as to risk the slim odds which one fights when competing for a tenure offer at Harvard.

He also drew chuckles from the audience with a hypothetical story about Yale Law School professors who have grown to actually enjoy living in New Haven. Clark wondered how anyone could live in the gritty Connecticut city.