Interim Law Dean Raymond Nimmer was officially appointed dean Wednesday and said he would continue working hard to maintain the UH Law Center’s high standards.
"The Law School Dean Search Committee and Faculty voted to present certain names to Provost Donald Foss, and my name was one of the two names that were presented," said Nimmer, who has been interim dean since 2006. "(Foss) made a tentative decision about a week and a half ago or so, and after we spoke about it we reached an agreement and he announced it today."
Nimmer said he was excited about staying on the job.
"I’ve been an acting dean for a couple of years and we’ve done a lot of really good things," Nimmer said. "Staying on as permanent dean gives me, specifically, a chance to help make a lot of additional great things. happen. It’s an exciting opportunity. This is one of the leading law schools in the country, and being able to have an opportunity to lead it and make it better is just great."
Nimmer said recruiting undergraduate students at UH is one of the Law Center’s main priorities.
"We want to have the highest quality of student body that we can have in the college," he said. "People who have studied at UH for their undergraduate career who want to go to law school eventually really need to consider us a target. One of the things we will be doing is try to reach out even more than we already have to the people on this campus. Right now our student body comes from various schools nationally, from Texas schools such as the University of Texas, Texas A’M and UH, but our overall goal is having the highest quality of students. Anyone interested in law school who reads this on campus should consider us."
Nimmer said Foss, also Vice President of Academic Affairs, didn’t appoint him to a set term, as was normally done in the past.
"In years past, deans would receive a contract for a specified numbers of years, but they could leave earlier, or be asked by the provost to leave," Nimmer said. "But this is simply an appointment without a specific number of years attached to it. I think both the provost and I expect that I will be here for multiple years, and there will be much positive growth during that time. I think I am ready and this is the right time in my career for this responsibility."
