By Alicia Carson
Donald Guter had every intention of returning to Washington, D.C., for a government job after his time was up at Duquesne University School of Law.
The former dean, fired from his post in December 2008 just before finals, chose to stay on staff as a professor in order to continue teaching his students and to see them graduate.
But Guter’s plans began to shift after he met two board members from Houston’s oldest law school, South Texas College of Law, at a conference in New York in late January.
Mike Hays, chairman of the board at South Texas and co-chair of the school’s dean search committee, said it was Guter’s record at Duquesne that impressed the board. More specifically, Hays points to Guter’s success in raising Duquesne’s bar pass rate from 68 percent when he began his tenure to 98 percent by the time his post ended.
It was those achievements and other notable successes that raised questions and protests in support of Guter after his firing, while others criticized him for advancing a personal political agenda.
“I really liked my job at Duquesne,” he said. “I like all the aspects of dealing with the alumni, students and faculty. But I was not looking to get myself into a situation again where there would be a governing structure that would [have the potential for] conflict with a university president. I just didn’t want to do that.”
South Texas was not the first school to invite Guter to interview. However the description of the school’s mission statement, its governing structure and the fact that it’s an independent law school captured his full attention.
“One thing led to another and by the end of the following week or so, I was [in Houston] interviewing for the position,” Guter said of what happened after the meeting in January.
As the incoming president and dean, Guter found that the South Texas campus had qualities that are particularly important to him.
“There didn’t appear to be any kind of faculty fractions,” he said. “The faculty is so well respected, and they respect each other, and really care about the mission and the school.”
But in spite of everything, Guter’s affection for his alma mater has not wavered.
“I feel a sense of allegiance to [Duquesne] that gave me the chance to live my life the way I wanted to live it, which was in the navy as a JAG in the JAG Corps. So that part is difficult,” Guter said about his departure. “But kind of like the guy who plays a career in the NFL and goes to a new team, my allegiance is to South Texas and I’m going to give them their money’s worth.”
