JURIST - Boyer and Barry: Unlikely Buddies - Faculty Websites Can Help Bridge the Seniority Gap and Promote Collegiality

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In this monthly column, law professors comment on the many academic opportunities and challenges presented by Web technology.

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Unlikely Buddies:
Faculty Websites Can Help Bridge the Seniority Gap and Promote Collegiality

Spencer S. Boyer and Gregory Alan Berry
Howard University School of Law

One of us has taught at the Howard University School of Law since 1966 and is the senior member of the faculty. The other joined the faculty three years ago. One of us has educated thousands of lawyers and counts among his former students some of the most accomplished attorneys in the country including a university president, a Cabinet secretary, dozens of judges, and a few chief justices to boot. The other saw his maiden class graduate this past spring. One of us is a law school legend; the other is often mistaken for a student. One of us has a magnificent office with a spectacular view of the Washington skyline; the other makes do with surplus furniture and window that has been broken for more than two years. In short, we are light years apart in the universe of our law school. But over the past several months we have become very good friends and wish to tell you how this unlikely occurrence came to pass. It is a story of a match brought about by a faculty website and a reminder of the potential for greater teaching, scholarship, service, and collegiality made possible by this exciting technology.

The Junior Professor:

The courses I teach -- appellate advocacy, legal reasoning, writing, and research -- require me to be accessible to my students to a much greater extent than other professors. My office is not the most comfortable place to meet with students and the time required to have course materials copied for distribution is so long that it is not worth the bother. I developed my faculty website two years ago to overcome these obstacles. I designed and created my website from scratch using only the Netscape 3.01 file editor and an HTML source code editor which I taught myself to use. Although I did not have any specialized training in computer science or information systems, I found it relatively easy to learn how to create, edit, and upload my webpages because the logic of computers is so similar to the logic of the law. In fact, my experience learning to be a webmaster often proves useful in the classroom and in student conferences because it helps me drive home the central idea I try to convey to every student in every class I teach: the most valuable and important skill any law student can develop is learning how to learn.

My faculty website proved to be a great resource for my students and, judging from the e-mail messages I have received, students in other sections and at other law schools. Over time, word got around that I had some expertise in webpage design and implementation and a number of colleagues asked me to create webpages for them. I readily agreed to do so on the condition that the professor permit me to teach request him or her how to maintain the website after its initial launch.

My reasons for requiring each professor to participate actively in the design, creation, and operation of her or his website is twofold: first, I have learned from experience that a website will go unused if it is not tailored to the particular needs and requirements of the professor and students; and second, in the course of learning to become a competent webmaster, the professor must necessarily assume the role of a student trying to master a new and seemingly complex subject. For many professors it has been a long time since they were in this position, which makes it is easy for them to forget what it is like to be a law student trying to master a new and complex subject. In learning to webmaster his or her website, a professor will be reminded, as I was, that every student does not learn in the same way or at the same pace and thus may be motivated to develop new and better teaching techniques. For these reasons, I do not favor ready-made website packages such as Web Course in a Box or TWEN.

Before creating any faculty websites I met in advance with as many colleagues as possible to discuss their special needs and requirements. These meetings were extremely rewarding for me because they gave me the opportunity to visit at length and establish meaningful relationships with colleagues (including the dean) whom I otherwise would have little or no contact. My most rewarding meeting was with the senior member of the faculty, who invited me to his home. That meeting lasted several hours and covered a great many subjects. We learned that we had much in common, including an interest in computers, a love of teaching, and similar scholarly interests. Moreover, during the course of that and subsequent meetings, my senior colleague shared with me many of the secrets that have made him one of the most celebrated law teachers in the history of our law school. I now have a similar opportunity. The incredible thing to me is that all this was made possible because I spent a few weeks learning the basics of webpage design and was willing to approach and share my knowledge with a senior colleague.

The Senior Professor:

My junior colleagues claims he benefits most from our new friendship. I disagree. In the space of a few short weeks, I have become a fairly good webmaster, or so I have been told by dozens of visitors to my website. This resource would not even be available to me, my colleagues, or my students had it not been for my junior colleague. Thanks to the webpages he designed, any professor, student, or staff member can easily learn the research and scholarly activities, personal interests and hobbies, and innovative teaching techniques of any colleague. We can review each other’s biography, curriculum vitae, course syllabi, and communicate with each other from any place simply by accessing the “Ask Professor” page of the website. In the past few weeks I have learned more things about more colleagues than I have in any comparable period in the last thirty years. Equally surprising, I find myself talking with my colleagues more often, at greater length, and about more subjects than I ever have before.

Of course, the most important lesson I learned from this experience is that senior professors do not have a monopoly on good ideas. Our junior colleagues are energetic and enthusiastic and often bring new perspectives, extraordinary talents, and valuable skills that can enrich our lives and renew our law schools. Make time to talk with them. Be sure to listen to them. You may learn that one of your colleagues has excellent suggestions for improving the functioning of your faculty committee. Still another is eager to share with you an idea that will enhance the quality of your teaching or scholarship. You may even discover, as I did, that one of your colleagues is a masterful webpage designer and computer expert who is eager and willing to help you become one too.

Conclusion

Ideally, collegiality should be the animating spirit of every law school. Too often this value is honored more in the breach than the observance. Most of what we know about our colleagues is learned at faculty meetings where frequently battle lines are drawn and positions staked out in advance. The lack of meaningful dialogue and exchange of ideas is particularly acute with respect to senior and junior faculty members. Perhaps senior professors are too busy to pay attention or be concerned about their junior colleagues. Perhaps junior professors are too busy or intimidated by their senior colleagues to approach them. Whatever the reason, something valuable -- a genuine sense of community -- is being lost. We do not claim that making greater use of faculty websites will cure all ills. But it is a start and it will help.

© 1999 by Spncer H. Boyer and Gregory Alan Berry. All rights reserved.
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The views expressed in this column are solely those of its author, and do not reflect those of JURIST, its Advisory Board, its staff or its host institutions.
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