It is generally understood that one of the rationales for naming former Mayor Jim Strickland the new dean at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law was his demonstrated success in having raised significant sums of money — both from the business community during his mayoral campaigns — $1 million at max — and for helping to pry loose from state government some $350 million for local athletic facilities.
Indeed, Strickland’s fundraising prowess was so notable as to make him an obvious prospect for the role of institutional rainmaker. That’s the time-honored term for an individual blessed with unusual ability to attract investments and contributions from others by dint of their persona, their history, or their contacts, or through a combination of all three.
In 2006, Harold Ford Jr. missed becoming U.S. senator from Tennessee by a relative handful of votes, but the former congressman’s residual clout as a looming national figure was sufficient to land him on Wall Street, where he flourished as a rainmaker for more than one big-time brokerage.
So Strickland’s ability to attract big funding is, all by itself, a huge plus, right? Not everybody thinks so. Among those who don’t is activist Cardell Orrin, currently executive director at Stand for Children Tennessee and former chief information officer at LeMoyne–Owen College.
In a Facebook post written in the wake of Stricklands’ hiring, Orrin mused:
“Imagine if former Mayor Wharton, or better yet Mayor Herenton (even more fun), had given millions of dollars to LeMoyne-Owen College during their tenure. This part is easy … They actually did do this, but to help save the college’s existence, not just for pet projects like tennis courts.
“Now, it gets a bit more difficult … Imagine if either mayor had donated all that money to LeMoyne-Owen College, and then, in the final hours of their administration, rushed a decision to gift a stadium worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the college? …
“Imagine if, within just three months of leaving office, one of these former mayors had secured a leading job at LeMoyne-Owen College, with some yet to be disclosed salary. Can you imagine the reaction from the media and the conservative crowd to even the mere consideration of such a position, let alone actually receiving it?
“Try to envision the newspaper headlines and articles covering this hypothetical. Would some enterprising investigative reporter be opening up a file and making FOIA requests? Would they just basically reprint the college’s press release?
“Whew, it must be nice to live in the world of imaginings …!”
Whew, indeed! Known as a longtime critic of Strickland, Orrin, along with some other like-minded foes of the former mayor, has begun raising this issue and imagining it to be a prima facie scandal. What it amounts to is a suggestion that Strickland bought his job, which, in this reckoning, is not just a reward but an out-and-out payoff!
The fact is that the University of Memphis law school, once renowned for the quality of its teaching and, especially, for the high percentage of its graduates able to pass the state bar and achieve thriving, socially useful careers in the larger community, is widely perceived as having begun to lag in those important regards.
Arguably, what it needs now is a shot in the arm from an administrator known for personal success and for an ability to attract substantial support from the social eco-structure which the university both lives in and is charged with serving.
What it may need is a rainmaker. And a two-term local mayor with prodigious fundraising skills and demonstrated connections both to the local business community and to the state government in Nashville clearly fit the bill for those at the university whose duty was to make the pick.
Credit is due both to those critics like Orrin whose imagination suggests caution in viewing such a choice and to those members of the law faculty — a not insubstantial number — who wanted a more traditional choice, perhaps from within university ranks
But the die has been cast. And optimism should be the motto of the moment.