His letter didn't describe the law school I know

As a Duquesne Law School alumna, I read with disgust the words of Professor Robert S. Barker in his Dec. 13 letter ("Dean Guter's Removal Was Long Overdue"), mainly because they are not founded in the truth. Being a judge, I have learned to base my findings on the facts alone. The fact is that under Dean Donald Guter's leadership, the law school won trial advocacy's national Tournament of Champions and grew academically as the bar passage rate went from 68 percent to over 97 percent. If that is what happens when Professor Barker's "serious academic programs" are eliminated, perhaps the law school should do more along those lines.

Furthermore, faculty are not being "driven out." (There was but one faculty departure in four years.) Quite the contrary, it was Dean Guter who was driven out when the university president failed to follow normal protocol. This renders the president's motives more than suspect, as does his passing over for interim dean a female African-American associate dean with four years of law school administrative experience.

Unfortunately, the ill-conceived arrow shot by the president may be a mortal wound to the law school. Within 48 hours of this attack, close to 2 million donor dollars were revoked. Already, academic opportunities are being eliminated by outraged alumni.

Who would want to support or attend the law school that is described by Professor Barker and the university administration itself? Their words and their conduct are both sad and unfortunate. They do not embody the Duquesne Law School I knew as a student, and it is not the truth about the law school that exists today.

KELLEY STREIB
Cranberry

The writer is a Butler County Common Pleas judge, and her husband, Michael, is a professor of law at Duquesne University.

Guter got results

The attempt to force an unwarranted resignation from law school Dean Don Guter reveals a disappointing state of affairs on the bluff at Duquesne University ("Law Dean Ouster Spurs Outrage at Duquesne," Dec. 11). As a 2006 graduate of the law school, I was a student during the transition to Dean Guter.

Dean Guter's presence was felt immediately. As a successful retired U.S. Navy admiral, he brought a renewed energy, a focused drive and a willingness to interact with students to address their concerns. He was more than a figurehead; he was and has continued to be a factor in students' success. The results are evident under his watch, with an increase in the bar passage rate from 68 percent the year prior to his employment to a stunning 97 percent this past year. The president's office's citing of the U.S. News law school rankings as a performance standard is arbitrary and beyond the control of Dean Guter.

It is unfortunate that a well-respected university has continued to allow this president to act as "the decider" (no more appropriate term is fitting). Although nobody -- because there is no accountability -- will know President Charles Dougherty's reasons, I know, and can be sure that most of the graduates since 2006 know, that Dean Guter made a significant impact on their studies and development as attorneys and citizens.

JONATHAN M. KOZUSKO
Monroeville

Bringing us down

It appears that ever since the '80s, the Republican Party, starting with Ronald Reagan and hand in hand with corporations, has had it in its head to bring down the unions and American workers' wages to a level not very much higher than the wages of workers in Asia, Mexico, South America and elsewhere.

Foolish thought? Why did Southern Republicans promote the idea to put the UAW workers on the same wage and benefit levels as those in the nonunion Southern shops, before the Republican senators from the South would agree to the 20 or so times less bailout -- a meager $15 billion -- asked by the Big Three than that of Wall Street, with a bailout of $300 billion and no oversight as to where the money was going?

The whole action may not be a conspiracy, but these like-minded ideologues who have the power just do not know what they are bringing to the best system of government and country the world has ever seen.

They believe they are and were on the side of good, fighting the forces of evil like al-Qaida, so everything they do is in the belief that what they do is always good. For more than 20 years, doing good just wasn't their strong suit.

Don't believe what I say? Look around us. Where are the steel mills? Where are the garment factories? Where is our money to run the government coming from? How much do we, as a country, owe? And to whom do we owe it? How many people do you know who have lost their homes because greedy lenders wanted more money for themselves, had no oversight or were not regulated?

RICHARD RICH
Pine

Where's she been?

Dolores S. Jarrell writes in a Dec. 10 letter ("Gay Couples Cannot Provide for the Survival of Civilization") with some very distorted perceptions. She states that the state of marriage carries within itself the potential to engender children: "It is the reason the right of marriage has been granted to a man and a woman who have the promise of giving civilization the gift it most needs -- survival." This is stated as if there is no possibility of the gift of survival in a same-sex home.

Does she have her head in the sand? Does she think that children are born only of married couples? Does she think that every child who is born has a loving place to live? Has she ever heard of adoption? Has she ever realized that gay and lesbian couples can in most states both foster and adopt children and raise them in a loving environment? So why not raise them in a loving environment of married parents whether they are same-sex parents or heterosexual? I've seen it and it works.

Earlier in her letter she enumerates the civil rights that same-sex couples have been granted by some (but not all) states. Well big whoop! When you are a little bit "not equal" you are not equal.

CAROL E. ROSE
Mt. Lebanon

Good reading

I had to write about "Random Acts of Kindness." It shows that there are some decent, caring people out there -- not all mean, vicious and ignorant, which we have to tolerate today. Do not stop this wonderful column about the good people around.

PEARL G. EHRENBERGER
Carnegie

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