don't send your kids to Pepperdine U - Ken Starr to be head cheese

[donsu]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040406/ap_on_re_us/brf_starr_pepperdine

Kenneth W. Starr, who led the investigation into President Clinton (news - web sites)'s relationship with Monica Lewinsky, has been named dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law, a school official said.

-snip-

The appointment, which was to be officially announced Tuesday, followed a more than six-month national search, said Brad Cheves, the university's vice president for advancement and public affairs.


Starr, a longtime guest lecturer at Malibu-based Pepperdine, was acting as independent counsel when he led the Lewinsky investigation, which ended with the first impeachment of a president since 1868.

-snip-

Starr, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington and former federal appeals court judge and U.S. solicitor general, will begin work at Pepperdine on August 1.
---------------------------------

yuck

[underseasurveyor]

1. What a shame

To pollute a beautiful campus with garbage like that.

[RobertSeattle]

2. six-month national search?

If I recall Pepperdine has wanted Starr for 6 years or so.

[XanaDUer]

3. No shock...

Pepperdine U. is listed as one of America's top liberal-arts colleges by the "National Review College Guide".

It is affiliated with the evangelical Church of Christ.

[donsu]

5. "top liberal-arts college" and "Church of Christ" somehow don't seem

to go together.

when/how did this happen?

[XanaDUer]

6. Not sure what you mean...

but, the guide is called , "The National Review College Guide", and its ISBN # is 0-671-79801-4.

So, the criteria used are based on on things like the moral atmosphere, classes on American Heritage, etc. Also, one estimate puts the proportion of registered Repubs there at 3 out of 4 students. It's located in Malibu.

It also has a Great Books Colloquium as part of its core curriculum.

[donsu]

9. liberal-arts and evangelical seem to be opposites

nt

[NormanConquest]

4. Yecch, headcheese....

appropriate for Starr, though.

[iamtechus]

7. "six-month national search" my ass!

Starr is nothing if not patient. The Pepperdine job was arranged for him years ago
but he had to forgo the opportunity in order to nail Clinton.

This current appointment is his delayed reward for bringing Clinton down. Just
google the words "scaife" "pepperdine" and "starr" to discover the whole story.
The article linked below comes from Salon.

"The nagging problem for Starr is that the same Scaife-controlled foundations that funneled money to the Arkansas Project have also contributed more than $1 million to the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy in California, where Starr will become dean after he completes his duties as independent counsel. Following the money trail of the alleged payments to Hale inevitably would lead to Pepperdine benefactor Scaife."

http://archive.salon.com/news/1998/04/cov_08newsb.html

[lapfog_1]

11. Scaife and Pepperdine

I tried to start a thread on this yesterday, but apparently I'm
still too much of a "newbie"...

Anyway, the more correct amount that Richard Mellon Scaife
donated to Pepperdine is more than $13 M, not $1 M.

This job is a direct payoff to Starr for the hatchet job on
Clinton and the impeachment.

Scaife tried to arrange this job for him before but it was too
much of a politically charged item and too newsworthy.

Looking at Pepperdine's website, it appears that this decision was
likely made weeks ago. I wonder why the announcement was made
YESTERDAY? We need a term for this... what was the name of the
British civil servant that told other departments on 9/11 that
it would be a good day to release any bad news.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/04/27/scaife.profile/

[Doctor Pedantic]

8. My e-mail to Pepperdine

I posted this yesterday ... here's my outraged email to the president of my alma mater, Pepperdine, cc'd to the provost and to Starr. I've actually had a nice dialogue with the provost, who is a Democrat himself. They're at least sensitive to the public relations backlash. I'm still mad, though...


Dear Dr. Benton:

As a lifelong member of the churches of Christ (currently active at Culver-Palms), a Pepperdine alumnus (Seaver 1987), and a lawyer, I have long dreamed of retuning to Pepperdine some day to teach at the law school. That dream was effectively shattered by Pepperdine's decision to hire Kenneth Starr as its new Dean.

I happen to believe that a Christian's place in this world should be guided more by Matthew 25 than by Leviticus, and I am distressed by the commandeering of Christianity in this country by the Republican party in general, and by the right wing in particular. Pepperdine's ties to Richard Mellon Scaife are troubling enough -- but hiring Starr places Pepperdine deeply into the pocket of the extreme right. This is a man who spent tens of millions of dollars investigating the sex life of the President. Any doubt that this was a personal and political vendetta was erased for me when I viewed a copy of the infamous Starr report on display at the Smithsonian last year. This version of the report was autographed by Starr to Jim Rogan, and included jaunty, back-slapping remarks that confirm the cynicism and partisan zeal with which Starr pursued the Clintons in his effort to destroy them all. This is hardly Christian, ethical, or admirable conduct. Starr is not exactly a role model for how any individual, much less a lawyer or a Christian, should behave. His "investigation" displayed astonishing contempt for legal or ethical boundaries, and an unseemly, prurient interest in the private conduct of both private and public citizens.

Additionally, as you know, Starr has made millions of dollars from the deaths of millions of people as a strong advocate for the tobacco industry. When I attended Pepperdine, not only was alcohol forbidden on campus, but any dances had to take place off campus (of course, allowing dancing at all was viewed as heretical by our sister colleges, including Harding, which Starr himself attended). Yet Pepperdine now has selected a shill for the tobacco industry as the public face of its law school. Have Pepperdine's standards fallen so low?

I cannot express to you how sorry I am that Pepperdine chose Starr (presumably more for marquee value that for any other reason) over other qualified, less polarizing, and more ethical candidates. It appears that Pepperdine has decided to abandon the core principles on which it was founded, and to become the Fox News Network of academia.

[northzax]

10. but on the other hand

Starr is also of counsel to freethegrapes.org working to standardize the liquor laws across the states. so that's one point in his favour.