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In Appreciation: Don Weidner

Charles W. Ehrhardt^*

Twenty-five years after he was first appointed, Donald J. Weidner stepped down on June 30, 2016 as Dean of the Florida State University College of Law. During his deanship, the FSU law school was remarkably transformed.¹
In the fall of 1975, I attended the Association of American Law Schools’ hiring meeting in Washington, D.C. as chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee. One evening after the day’s interviews with possible faculty candidates were completed, Dean Josh Morse and I were relaxing in our interview suite. Professor Joe Jacobs, who was then a member of our faculty, brought his friend and former colleague by the suite to say hello. His friend was Don Weidner, who at the time was on the law faculty at Cleveland State. We hit it off that evening, and the following fall Don came to Florida State and fortunately never left.

Don was appointed dean in 1991, at a time of increasing expectations for the school. Under Don’s leadership, the college expanded the quality and size of the faculty as well as increasing the quality and productivity of its research and scholarship. Today the school has a national scholarly profile.² Areas such as environmental, tax, international, and business law significantly expanded not only in the size and quality of the faculty but also in the curriculum opportunities available to students.³
At the same time, the quality of the student body underwent a significant increase as measured by LSAT scores and undergraduate grade point averages. In addition, the school’s growing reputation attracted graduates from a wide variety of quality universities and colleges.
In his first year as dean, Don was instrumental in establishing and obtaining the funding for our Summer for Undergraduates Program which bears his name. The primary purpose of the program is to increase

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the pipeline of diverse candidates for law school and is an ABA-recognized model for law schools with similar programs around the country.
After six years of leadership, Don decided to step down as dean and returned to the teaching faculty. His sabbatical was short lived when the tenure of his successor was brief, and the need for interim leadership was filled by Don. The university did not appoint a search committee. In 2000, a delegation of faculty requested a meeting with the University’s Provost, went to his office and advised him not to appoint a search committee, but rather to strike the Interim from Don’s title, which the Provost was pleased to do.
The success of our law students was foremost in Don’s view. Moot Court, Mock Trial, and other student organizations frequently received national recognition⁴. The job placement rate of the college’s graduates continually ranks the best in the state of Florida.⁵ For the past two years, the significant efforts in expanding the diversity of our student body is reflected in the entering classes being more than thirty percent African-American, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian.⁶
Don was a prolific fundraiser who dramatically increased our contributions from alumni and other donors. The law school’s endowment has increased by six hundred percent since he became dean, with the resulting additional funds for student scholarships, student organizations, and faculty support. Each year the number of students who contributed to the school’s annual fund drive was among the best in the county. For example, in the spring of 2016, eighty-one percent of our students were contributors. Even though he raised significant private moneys for the school, he was able to expand the school’s physical footprint by fifty percent without the expenditure of any of these private funds as a result of his active involvement with the Florida legislature.⁷