Florida Coastal dean takes post at Barry University
"He has a wealth of experience in that area," said Sister Peggy
Albert, Barry's executive vice president. "I think he can move us through
the process of moving toward full approval of our law school."
Hurt guided Florida Coastal to full accreditation earlier this school year
and brings much-needed experience to Barry, which has struggled to gain approval
since the school's inception.
When the American Bar Association denied Barry accreditation in January 2001,
Dean Stanley Talcott offered to resign so the school could hire an "ABA
insider." The university asked Talcott to stay. Now that he decided to
return to the Barry faculty, the school has found an "insider" in
Hurt.
Hurt served from 1998 to 2000 as the ABA's deputy consultant of legal
education, the No. 2 official in the association's accreditation process. He
held that post when the association gave provisional approval to Florida Coastal
in August 1999.
Hurt became dean at Florida Coastal July 1, 2001.
Barry University, a Catholic school in Miami Shores, purchased the for-profit
University of Orlando School of Law in 1999 and renamed it Barry University
School of Law. The University of Orlando, founded in 1995, was twice denied
provisional accreditation. Barry also was denied twice before earning
provisional accreditation in February 2002.
Hurt said Barry contacted him a month ago about the position at the
311-student law school. He interviewed a week later and finalized the deal
Wednesday. Hurt will start July 1.
Albert said the school did not hire Hurt solely to work on accreditation and
that he would remain as dean if the school reaches that goal.
"I think it's a good match," she said. "I think that our law
school is in its formative stages, and I think he has the insight and the
abilities to help us continue to form our law school into the kind of
institution of which we can be proud."
The school has other strides to make. Last year Barry had the lowest
first-time passage rate on the Florida General Bar Examination, with 40.9
percent. Florida Coastal had a 77.6 percent passage rate; the state average is
75 percent.
Florida Coastal employs a former dean of Barry's predecessor, the University
of Orlando. Wallace Rudolph, now an adjunct professor at Florida Coastal, filed
a lawsuit against the University of Orlando shortly before Barry purchased it.
Rudolph contends he was fired for not achieving accreditation but that the
school's president hampered his efforts.
Rudolph could not be reached for comment, and Barry's lawyer did not return a
call seeking comment.