MORGANTOWN — West Virginia University College of Law's interim dean is looking forward to the opportunity once he begins July 1.
John Taylor, who is currently a professor at the law school and has held the title of associate dean of Academic Affairs for four years between 2010 and 2015, said he will strive to use the school's resources wisely.
"The most important asset of the College of Law is its people," Taylor said in an interview with The West Virginia Record. "We are fortunate to have a lot of faculty and staff who are doing excellent work in serving our students, our state and our profession. And we are fortunate to have a lot of students who are working hard to prepare themselves to fulfill their dreams by serving others."
Taylor
Current WVU Law Dean Greg Bowman announced he will be leaving the school at the end of June to take on another role as dean of Roger Williams University School of Law.
Taylor said his job as interim dean is to create and maintain the conditions that enable our faculty and staff to do their jobs as well as they possibly can.
"If I can do that successfully, that will serve our students and the state in both the short and the long term, and it will help us attract a good candidate to become the next dean when we do a national search next year," Taylor said. "This is not going to be an easy task, for we — like many other public and private entities in the state — are working with fewer resources than we would ideally have, and the impact of the Coronavirus is certainly not going to improve the situation."
Taylor said in responding to those challenges, his goal is to use the school's resources as wisely as possible and to raise additional funds so that the college can continue its work over the long haul.
"I am most looking forward to learning more about facets of the college’s work that have been mostly outside the scope of my usual responsibilities and to interacting more with constituencies outside the law school," Taylor said. "I was associate dean for Academic Affairs for four of five years between 2010 and 2015, but a lot has changed since then and there are many parts of our operations that I rarely dealt with in that role."
Taylor said it will be wonderful to learn more about some of the work the school is doing that is less familiar to him.
"The interim dean role will also provide much greater opportunity to talk to people around the state about the impact of the college in the past and the present and how we might increase our impact in the future, and that’s exciting," Taylor said. "Finally, the interim dean job role will give me more insight into the college’s role within the larger university."
Taylor said he is looking forward to working with everyone in the building to try to strengthen their sense of communal solidarity and shared mission, which have historically been among the greatest strengths of the college.
"I will certainly gain a better understanding of the college and its relation to the state, and I will certainly learn a great deal about the financial side of running a law school that I do not yet know because that has not been one of my responsibilities in the past," Taylor said. "I hope I will become better at delegating some tasks to others, at agonizing less over small details and at talking less and listening more."
Taylor has been part of WVU's faculty since 2002. He previously clerked for Judge M. Blane Michael of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina with his law degree. He received a doctorate degree in religious studies from Stanford University.
