Surprise Announcement Comes Amid Big Changes to the Law School
Mayo Moran is leaving the deanship of the Faculty of Law to head Trinity College. Moran, who has been dean since taking on the position on January 1, 2006, succeeded Ron Daniels who oversaw the transformation of the law school into an elite, expensive, largely private institution. Moran will step down effective April 30, 2014, and will begin her role at Trinity on July 1, 2014.
“After more than two fantastic decades at our law school, it is hard to imagine being elsewhere. I am very excited about taking on this wonderful new challenge but of course my feelings are also very mixed,” Moran stated in her announcement to the school on February 24, 2014.
The announcement came the just after Trinity’s highest governing body known as Corporation voted on her appointment.
Separated from the Faculty of Law by Philosopher’s Walk, formerly Taddle Creek, Trin—as it is commonly called—is a prestigious college whose history is deeply entwined with U of T’s own development. Among other things, Trinity also known for sending many of its graduates to the law school, which Moran sees as a happy coincidence.
The announcement came as a surprise to students and professors alike. Moran has one-and-a half years left in her second term. In an interview on March 19, 2014, Moran explained that she was asked about the new position in the fall of 2013, though she is frequently queried about jobs.
As Provost of the University of Trinity College, an old British title that refers to the master of a college, akin to the principals and presidents of the other integrated and federated colleges, Moran will continue to maintain ties to the law school. “I will still be doing research, but I won’t be teaching a big class. I’ll do some graduate student supervision. I have a few doctoral and graduate students so I’ll continue to do that.”
As for leaving early, she explained that, “In many ways I would have been happy to finish my term, take my two years of leave, because I really haven’t had leave since 2005 and then carry on. But then it came along and looked interesting.”
Her time has seen many changes, along with a continuation of policies from Daniels’ time. It was during Daniels’ term that an Ontario Progressive Conservative government deregulated professional school tuition, allowing the faculty to increase fees significantly. While at the start of her deanship Moran told students she would be moderate on tuition, the students at the law school saw increases at the legal maximum of 8%, and then 5% when the province lowered the cap.
“What I said, before the freeze came off was that I wouldn’t be aggressive on tuition and I wouldn’t be flat on tuition,” Moran explained. “I would be modest on tuition. And I defined modest as somewhere between the rate of academic inflation and double digits. And academic inflation is about 5% and double digits is 10%, and 8 is somewhere between 5 and 10.”
Last year, students whose tuition fees surpass $30,000 per year organized a protest that saw two-thirds of the student body sign a petition to stop the increase in prices.
With a provincial election expected some time later this year, there is the possibility that tuition could be completely unregulated for “research-intensive” universities, as proposed by the Progressive Conservative opposition. Moran said that while she would not speculate what the next dean would do, she stated, “I guess what I would say is that I did raise it by the legal amount, like every other law school in the province. We do that for a reason. It costs a lot of money to put on a great professional program. And at the same time we very carefully monitor accessibility, diversity, and financial aid. We do our best to bring in other money.”
As for accessibility, Moran admits that more can be more can be done to make the profession more open. “I think law has always been an elite profession. Law school was probably more elite when tuition was low here frankly. And we do a lot more than we used to do 20 years ago to try and make it more accessible.”
Moran is a proponent of the recent move that she brought in to incorporate the Back-end Debt Relief Program into the school’s financial aid system. The program would provide students with funds to repay their student loans based on their pay after graduation.
Her deanship also saw the multiple new initiatives, some of which are still in progress. She has overseen the introduction of a new grading scheme in 2012-2013, the initiation of construction of the law school expansion project in 2013-3014, and the implementation of a new first-year curriculum set to begin in 2014-2015.
“I guess whenever you leave, if you are trying to do things there are always going to be things that aren’t completely done. I felt that on the building project that getting the funding in place, getting the project underway, having good swing space for students, these were all things that really needed me.”
The new grading scheme moved from a standard A, B+, B, C+, C, F system to an HH, H, P, LP, F system, where the distributions are fixed and some grades are rarely given.
The rationale, as Moran explained, was that potential employers would look at Toronto Law students differently from other schools. “I just think that it’s good for firms to know that when they are looking at students that come from U of T, it really is a unique talent pool and they should judge that accordingly.”
“I would go to law firms and they would say, ‘are we getting your best students?’ And I’d say, ‘All our students are fantastic. Our students are all great and you don’t need to be fixated on this.’ ”
As for the 1L curriculum, Moran sees the changes as refocusing the program, as well as reducing the effects of what she called the “April First Year Phenomenon” for students by splitting the first year program into distinct semesters.
Moran also was key to raising funds—including the leading donation from Hal Jackman—for the school’s expansion project. While the new law schools building complex will be larger, she does not foresee an increase in class sizes.
“I think the law school’s about the right size. And I think it’s good to keep it at this size. I think it’s good for the students because you know each other better, you have better relationships with your profs. I think it’s good for a whole range of reasons. It was designed with a student body of roughly this size.”
For her replacement, Moran gave some advice.
“Enjoy it. That’s it. It’s a great job. It’s a crazy job. There’s always a lot of stuff happening. At the same time, I honestly think that even on your worst days, it’s an amazing job to have. To be able to lead a place like this that has such a special role in the country, and try and think about what you can do to keep it going, to keep it flourishing, and how to make it better.”