Legal Commentary

A few years ago, Nancy Rappaport published a short essay in the University of Toledo Law Review, called "Going from 'Us' to 'Them' in 60 Seconds," in which she described her appointment, relatively early in her career, to an associate-dean post:

Scarcely a half-hour after the official announcement had been made concerning my appointment, I was at the faculty copy machine, and one of my colleagues walked in. He (mostly in jest, I think) told two other colleagues, who were standing nearby, ?Hey, don't talk about that in front of Nancy. She's a ?them? now.? And thus it began: the transition from being an ?us? to being a ?them? in the blink of an eye.

I had a similar experience, a few days ago, after it was announced that I am going to take on some associate-dean work at Notre Dame:  a colleague said (jokingly, I hope!) something like, "so, you decided to give up on being part of the solution and decided to become part of the problem, eh?"  (Ouch!).  I hope not!  Dean Rappaport writes, "Going from an 'us' to a 'them' also means that, unless your friends on the faculty are very special people, your relationships with them will change."  Again, I hope not.