With articles by the AP and the National Law Journal, it was only a matter of time before the law prof blogsphere began commentary on potential faculty buyouts at Vermont Law School. The NLJ piece states, quoting my Dean Marc Mihaly:

“I think it’s safe to say that some sort of voluntary buyout package will be offered to the faculty, and I think it will be early next year,” Mihaly said. “We don’t want to go there if we don’t have to.”

The Faculty Lounge is up with this commentary. The post concludes:

“It remains to be seen whether Vermont is headed toward faculty buyouts, but if this is a sign of a trend, we should all be paying close attention (at every level). What is tenure worth? Can it be assigned a dollar value? Is there some idiosyncratic or personal value attached to this form of property (see my earlier post on personality theory)? Is it fungible? Can partner buyouts at underperforming law firms be a model for these initiatives? I look forward to your thoughts on this.”

UPDATE:

Additional commentary/stories:

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2012/11/vermont-law-school.html

http://abovethelaw.com/2012/11/a-law-school-finally-does-something-about-decreasing-applications-and-starts-firing-people/

http://www.wcax.com/story/20189007/vls-prepares-for-belt-tightening

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