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Ava Maria University Gets "Death Book" Zealot as New Head!

Ava Maria University, a conservative Catholic law school based in Naples, made some headlines a while back when Loring Spolter noted that Judge Zloch has hired several law clerks from that school.

Believe me, I'm not getting in the middle of that.

But it seems the struggling school has a new head: James Towey, the former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under George W. Bush.

Towey's a Seminole law grad who most recently made news flocking a "death book for veterans"(!) as part of the scare campaign over health care reform.

Amid many crazy health care allegations, this one was a doozy and earned Towey the much-coveted BuzzFeed  "Pure Manure" rating.

So the school's in good hands (I'm talking about the FSU part).

BTW, the Washington Monthly previously took a look at Ava Maria back in late 2009, and it didn't look so good:

Most of the original faculty have fled or been pushed out, and the quality of the students has tumbled. One current professor told me, ?Our student body now is one of the four or five worst in America.? The instability has also wreaked havoc on the school?s reputation: in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, Ave Maria tied for last place in the peer-assessment category, the most important measure in determining a school?s standing. (The school was not officially ranked because U.S. News doesn?t rank schools that land in the bottom tier.) Meanwhile, there are signs that Monaghan?s foundation, which funds the law school and the university, is on the verge of running out of money, in part because Monaghan bet his fortune?and the future of his nonprofits?on the now-crumbling Florida real estate market. Earlier this year, Ave Maria University?s second-longest-standing professor resigned, but not before sending a letter to administrators expressing his alarm at the school?s financial straits. ?I fear that all of us (to different degrees) are participating in something that we may later deeply regret,? he wrote, ?namely selling to young people and their families [an] educational product that we do not have sufficient reason to believe can be delivered.?

 Sounds like a great place to spend a lot of money when the legal job market is already in the crapper.

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on February 15, 2011 (boomark / email).