Blaine

A complaint submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague requesting an investigation of the Vatican for crimes against humanity will be the subject of an April 2 program at The University of Toledo College of Law.

Two panel discussions titled “Child Sexual Violence by Clergy: Is the Vatican Accountable under International Law?” will be held Monday, April 2. Sponsored by the UT College of Law and its International Law Society, both panels will take place in the Law Center Auditorium. The first panel begins at 11:45 a.m. and the second starts at 6:30 p.m. Both sessions are free and open to the public.

Spees

The September 2011 complaint filed by the Survivors Networkof those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights charges that Vatican officials tolerate, enable, and fail to stop the systematic and widespread concealing of rape and other sex crimes by clergy against children throughout the world. The complaint states that “the high-level officials of the Catholic church who failed to prevent and punish these criminal actions … have, to date, enjoyed absolute impunity.” Panelists will discuss the background and international legal framework for the action.

Beckwith

Panel participants include Barbara Blaine, founder and president of SNAP, Pam Spees, senior staff attorney for the International Human Rights Program at the Center for Constitutional Rights, and David Beckwith,executive director for The Needmor Fund. The panel will be moderated by Benjamin G. Davis, associate professor of law at Toledo Law.

“The complaint seeks accountability for what one comes to see is not a local, regional or national problem in any one country, but has transnational dimensions,” said Professor Davis. “Having Toledoans, including the president of SNAP, discuss the background and legal journey to bring these matters to the attention of the International Criminal Court is a local example of international law in action.”

More information and the panelists’ biographies are available at http://law.utoledo.edu/news/events/VaticanApr12.htm.

For more information contact Rachel Phipps, assistant to the dean for communications in the UT College of Law, at 419.530.2628 or rachel.phipps@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
The Blade (April 3, 2012)

BOARD OF TRUSTEES’ MEETINGS

Thursday, April 5, 2012
Toledo Hilton Hotel, 3100 Restaurant
8:00 a.m. Nominating Committee Meeting
The Committee will enter Executive Session immediately upon convening to discuss an appointment.

Monday, April 9, 2012
Driscoll Alumni Center, Board Room
1:00 p.m. External Affairs Committee
2:00 p.m. Finance Committee
3:00 p.m. Trusteeship, Governance and Audit Committee

5:30 p.m. Board of Trustees Social Dinner — Driscoll Alumni Center, Schmakel Room

Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Toledo Hilton Hotel, Faculty Club Room
7:30 a.m. Clinical Affairs Committee Meeting
9:00 a.m. Academic and Student Affairs Committee

Any questions may be directed to the University Communications Office by calling (419) 530-7832 or via email at jonathan.strunk@utoledo.edu.

Joan A. Stasa
Assistant to the President for Board Affairs

March 30, 2012

Are you a bad boss? Maybe even a horrible boss? The good news is that if you are, you’re probably too arrogant to know it.

Dr. Clinton Longenecker has researched the top “despicable dozen” characteristics of really bad bosses, and arrogance tops the list. The research recently was published in the journal Industrial Management.

The full “despicable dozen” and the percent of respondents who mentioned the troublesome traits were:

1. Arrogant, prideful, inflexible and always right — 73 percent
2. Unprincipled, untrustworthy, misrepresent the truth and lie — 66 percent
3. Fail to create clear performance expectations — 58 percent
4. Not letting employees know where they stand — 54 percent
5. Horrible communication skills and practices — 52 percent
6. Erratic and unpredictable behavior and moods — 51 percent
7. Take all credit and avoid blame — 47 percent
8. Everything is a crisis — 42 percent
9. They don’t develop their people or help them get ahead — 39 percent
10. Do not solve problems or improve processes — 33 percent
11. Technically incompetent and lack talent — 31 percent
12. Lack wisdom and decision-making skill — 27 percent

Longenecker, UT professor of management and an expert in organizational development and executive leadership, said nothing undermines your credibility as a boss as quickly as throwing modesty to the wind and basking in your own greatness.

“People with arrogant bosses minimize and avoid contact and as a result, the regular and candid communication needed for any organization to improve and succeed doesn’t take place,” Longenecker said. “Stay humble. Arrogance kills working relationships and careers and it can be a real barrier to high performance.”

And the worst bosses also are viewed as being at the wrong end of the integrity, acing in ways untrustworthy and unprincipled.

So if you work for a bad boss, what should you do? Longenecker acknowledged, particularly in a difficult economy, that simply polishing up your resumé isn’t always feasible.

“Consider developing a realistic exit strategy that takes into account the pros and cons of your current situation,” he said. Work to understand how your boss is hampering your performance and take proactive steps to minimize your boss’ influence — and make it a priority to not emulate your boss.

Longenecker also spoke directly to organizations and the leaders who employ bad bosses.

“If you have bad bosses working for you, it reflects poorly on you,” Longenecker said, citing short-term and long-term damage to the organization and, ultimately, to the career of the manager overseeing truly bad bosses.

Longenecker was quick to point out there is a difference between a boss struggling to find his or her footing in a new role and a boss who is doing little to improve his or her leadership skills.

To develop the “despicable dozen” characteristics, Longenecker sampled 187 seasoned business leaders from cross sections of U.S. manufacturing and service enterprises. Men comprised 72 percent of respondents and women 28 percent, all with an average age of 43 and more than 14 years of managerial experience. Participants were asked to “identify and chronicle the behaviors of the worst boss that they had ever worked for during their career.”

Media Coverage
The Blade (April 3, 2012)
WNWO (April 4, 2012)

Zietlow

Two UT law professors are available to speak from opposite sides of the Obamacare debate happening this week in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Professor Rebecca Zietlow believes the Court will and should uphold the law.

“I think the Court should and will uphold the 2010 Affordable Care Act because it always has deferred to congressional power to regulate the economy and it should continue to do so,” Zietlow said.

“This case is really about the type of policy issues that are best suited for the politically accountable legislature, and not the unaccountable federal courts. If the Court does strike down the Act, it will widely and correctly be viewed as a political decision.”

Strang

Meanwhile Professor Lee Strang believes the Court will find the individual mandate in the law unconstitutional.

“Today the Supreme Court hears oral argument on one of the most significant cases in a generation,” Strang said.

“At stake is whether the federal government will remain limited to its enumerated powers. The threatened loss of this foundational principle will, I believe, lead the Court to strike down the individual mandate.”

Contact Jon Strunk, 419.530.7832, to arrange interviews with the law professors.

Media Coverage
Leading Edge with Jerry Anderson (April 2, 2012)

Zietlow

As arguments to determine the fate of President Obama’s signature health care law continue Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, D.C., University of Toledo Professor of law Rebecca Zietlow predicts the Supreme Court ultimately will continue to defer to congressional power and uphold the law.

“I think the Court should and will uphold the 2010 Affordable Care Act because it always has deferred to congressional power to regulate the economy and it should continue to do so,” Zietlow said. “This case is really about the type of policy issues that are best suited for the politically accountable legislature, and not the unaccountable federal courts. If the Court does strike down the Act, it will widely and correctly be viewed as a political decision.”

Historically, Zietlow said, the Supreme Court has deferred to Congress’s power to regulate the national economy.

“What is at stake in Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida is the question of whether the Affordable Care Act is different enough from other statutes upheld by the Court to justify the Court’s departure from its traditional deferential approach.”

Zietlow teaches Constitutional Law at the University of Toledo College of Law. She is a nationally known expert on the constitutionality of congressional acts, and has recently written an article about the Affordable Care Act litigation entitled Democratic Constitutionalism and the Affordable Care Act, published in the Ohio State Law Journal.

The University of Toledo is partnering with the University of Michigan for a two-day joint academic conference that confronts the issue of the role of Islam after the Arab Spring by bringing together scholars whose areas of expertise provide insight into the social and political culture in the Middle East.

More than a dozen academic presentations by leading modern Middle East specialists, as well as emerging young scholars, will be featured during “Islam in the New Middle East: Traditions, Transitions, and Trajectories” 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, March 29 and Friday, March 30 at the University of Michigan. UT will live stream the speakers and presentations in Memorial Field House, room 1050, on Main Campus.

“The academic conference demonstrates UT’s commitment to supporting cutting edge scholarship on issues of national and international import,” said Dr. Ovamir Anjum, Imam Khattab Endowed Chair of Islamic Studies at UT. “All presenters and volunteers for the conference are enthusiastic and committed to their ongoing research.”

The conference will combine current analysis of the revolutionary uprisings in the Middle East with the long-standing scholarly conversations on the region.

In the spirit of the joint conference, keynote addresses will be held on both the University of Michigan and University of Toledo campuses.

Nathan Brown, professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Georgetown University, will give a keynote address “Islamist Movements in Post-Revolutionary Egypt,” on the University of Michigan campus at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 29 in the University Unions Hussey Room at Michigan.

On the UT campus, Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate professor of History at the University of Michigan, will give the keynote address “Arab Spring to Arab Transitions” at 7 – 9 p.m. Friday, March 30 in Driscoll Auditorium, room 1019.

The conference is sponsored by UT Department of Philosophy and the Center forReligious Studies and the University of Michigan’s Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies and Islamic Studies Program.

For a complete conference schedule, visit sites.google.com/site/inmeconference.

Toledo Law student David Paul Mann was recently named the 2012 Distinguished Law Student from the Sixth Circuit by the American College of Bankruptcy. Mann is the only student from the states in the Sixth Circuit – Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee – to receive the award this year.

The American College of Bankruptcy’s Distinguished Law Student program seeks to honor and encourage law students who have demonstrated academic achievement and interest in bankruptcy law. On March 16, Mann traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the college’s induction ceremony where he had the opportunity to meet distinguished practitioners and judges from the bankruptcy bar. The induction ceremony took place at the U.S. Supreme Court.

UT law student David Mann was named the 2012 Distinguished Law Student from the Sixth Circuit by the American College of Bankruptcy.

As a night student at The University of Toledo College of Law, Mann has collected several major accolades including Best Oralist and Best Team at Toledo Law’s 39th annual intramural moot court competition for his argument before a panel of judges that included two United States District Court judges. He currently serves as assistant managing editor on The University of Toledo Law Review and his note, “Out of the Penalty Box: Why Supreme Court Precedent Should Have Saved Matching Fund Triggers,” was published in the Law Review’s Summer 2011 issue. Set to graduate this May, Mann plans to join Marshall & Melhorn, LLC, as an associate in the firm’s business litigation practice.

“David Mann is a superb representative of the College of Law. I have no doubt that he was a hit with the American College of Bankruptcy, and that the connections he has developed as an American College of Bankruptcy Distinguished Law Student will serve him well in his professional career,” said Kara Bruce, assistant professor of law at Toledo Law.

By day, Mann is the executive director of the Lucas County Land Reutilization Corporation, locally known as the “Land Bank,” a non-profit , quasi-governmental entity established by state statute. By strategically acquiring vacant and abandoned properties, the Land Bank works to reduce blight, increase property values, and promote economic development in LucasCounty. Mann was hired as director a few months after the Land Bank was created in August 2010, and for many months was the Land Bank’s sole employee. When asked what it has been like to build the new Land Bank by day and attend law school at night, Mann is quick to smile and quips, “I don’t have a life, but I knew that going in.”

After observing him in her secured transactions and commercial paper classes, Professor Bruce nominated Mann for the Distinguished Law Student honor. His nomination was supported by Judge Mary Ann Whipple of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio, a part-time professor at Toledo Law who teaches bankruptcy course offerings, and Nicole Porter, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law.

The American College of Bankruptcy requires that written materials from the student and letters of recommendation accompany a Distinguished Law Student nomination. All nominated students are considered by the council in their circuit, which selects the winning student.

“I was honored to represent The University of Toledo College of Law at this event,” Mann said after the induction ceremony in Washington. “It’s an important recognition of the work that Judge Mary Ann Whipple and Professor Kara Bruce are doing to prepare the next generation of bankruptcy professionals in our community.”

The American College of Bankruptcy is an honorary professional and educational association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals. College fellows include commercial and consumer bankruptcy attorneys, insolvency accountants, turnaround and workout specialists, law professors, judges, government officials and others involved in the bankruptcy and insolvency community.

For more information contact Rachel Phipps, assistant to the dean for communications in the UT College of Law, at 419.530.2628 or rachel.phipps@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
The Independent Collegian (March 29, 2012)

In a lecture at The University of Toledo College of Law on March 26, Tanya K. Hernandez, professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, will discuss the role women of color have played in the development ofsexual harassment law.

Hernandez will speak at 11:45 a.m., Monday, March 26, in the Law Center Auditorium. Her free, public lecture, “Sexual Harassment and Women of Color,” is a part of Toledo Law’s Cannon Lecture Series.

Hernandez

Women of color have figured prominently in the development of sexual harassment law and policy. African-American women in particular brought most of the early precedent-setting sexual harassment cases. Yet, few people are aware of the racial context of these cases. Noticeably absent from the court opinions is any discussion of race, and the legal discourse and commentary in this area also largely neglect to address race. Hernandez will discuss this “racial silencing” and its consequences in the development and enforcement of sexual harassment law.

“I am very excited for Professor Hernandez’s visit. She is a very engaging speaker and she will be discussing a topic that is of vital importance,” said Nicole B. Porter, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law at Toledo Law. “It is sometimes uncomfortable for our students to discuss sexual harassment and its racial implications but that’s exactly why it’s so important to bring attention to this issue.”

Professor Hernandez is a graduate of Brown University andYale Law School. Hernandez’s scholarly interest is in the study of comparative race relations and anti-discrimination law, and her work in that area has appeared in such publications as the California Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal.

Hernandez is a non-resident faculty fellow at the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at the Seattle University School of Law.  She previously served as a law and public policy affairs fellow at Princeton University, a faculty fellow at the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University, and as an independent scholar in residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She currently serves on theeditorial boards of the Journal of Legal Education, and the Latino Studies Journal published by Palgrave-Macmillian Press.

In 2011, Hernandez was named a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and in 2009 she was elected to the American Law Institute. Hispanic Business Magazine selected her as one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” in 2007.

The lecture is sponsored by the Joseph Cannon Memorial Lectureship Fund. The fund was established in 1980 in memory of Joseph Cannon, a Toledo area attorney, and seeks to bring lecturers to Toledo Law who can discuss questions of law and society while emphasizing the humanistic dimensions as well as the limitations of the United States’ legal system.

For more information contact Rachel Phipps, assistant to the dean for communications in the UT College of Law, at 419.530.2628 or rachel.phipps@utoledo.edu.

Nearly 200 anthropologists are expected to attend the Central States Anthropological Society annual meeting this week hosted for the first time by The University of Toledo.

The conference, Thursday, March 22 through 24 in the Park Inn Hotel in downtown Toledo, will include a number of presentations by anthropologists about their research and the latest news of their field, including five UT faculty members and eight UT students.

“The conference provides a wonderful opportunity to introduce The University of Toledo and the city of Toledo to anthropologists from across the central states,” said Willie McKether, UT assistant professor of anthropology and local arrangements coordinator for the annual meeting. “Hosting the conference in Toledo gives our students the opportunity to attend so they can meet leaders in the discipline and discuss their own research with future colleagues.”

The annual meeting will begin with an opening reception 7-9 p.m. sponsored by the UT College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences. The evening will include welcoming remarks from UT President Lloyd Jacobs, food, and entertainment, including an Irish dance troupe and The Murphys jazz band.

The conference will include a documentary film screening of The Natural State of America, “A Century of Fighting Racism” panel discussion and a publisher’s exhibit, in addition to numerous research presentations.

The Central States Anthropological Society, founded in 1921, is a section of the American Anthropological Association focused on promoting anthropology in the heartland and beyond.

The University of Toledo  College of Business and Innovation (COBI) and the Business Engagement and Leadership Council will recognize business and academic excellence during their annual Pacemaker Awards Friday, March 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Inverness Country Club.

Carroll

Each year the prestigious Pacemaker Award recognizes an individual for outstanding achievement in business as well as contributions to the community and the University. The 2012 recipient of the Business Pacemaker Award is William J. Carroll, currently on the Board of Directors of Graco, Inc., and former President and Chief Operating Officer of Dana Corporation.

“William Carroll’s highly successful career,  community involvement and outstanding integrity and leadership in the regional business arena make him the ideal business professional  to receive this year’s Pacemaker Award, the College’s highest honor,” said Thomas G. Gutteridge, dean of the UT College of Business and Innovation.  “As a UT College of Business alumnus, current member of the UT COBI Business Engagement and Leadership Council (BELC) and a former chair of the BELC, Bill continues to live his deep personal commitment to the College and its important activities within the business community.”

Carroll, a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve for six years, obtained his bachelor’s degree in accounting at UT and completed an advanced management program at Harvard Business School. He held several key positions at Dana Corporation,including that of President and Chief Operating Officer from 2003 to 2004.

Carroll also has been Director of Economic and Community Development for the City of Toledo; Chief Executive Officer of Limo-Reid, Inc.; and principal of Highland Jebco, LLC, where he is currently a consultant.

In addition to his involvement with the COBI BELC, Carrollis a trustee of Lourdes College, Chairman of the Lucas County Port Authority, and a member of the Toledo-Lucas County Convention and Visitors Bureau.  He and his wife Cathy have four children.

Academic Excellence Pacemaker Awards are presented to UT College of Business and Innovation graduate and undergraduate students for their outstanding academic achievement, University and community service, and leadership.

The 2012 student Pacemakers are:
Accounting – Shane Sobczak and Lauren Stuck;  Finance – John Doncaster and Colin McHugh;  Information Operations Technology Management – Stephen James and Lindsay Vollmar;  Marketing and International Business – Adam Covault and Rachael Kravitz; Management –  Michael Schaffer and Sydney Smith; MBA –  Kyle Kickbusch; Executive MBA – Eric Benington;  Ph.D. –  Vafa Saboorideilami;  Dean’s Office –  Frank Lindsay-Pangalos (MIB) and Thomas Schwann (EMBA).