PROVIDENCE, R.I.
The law school at Roger Williams University
is a relative infant among peers, opened less than 15 years ago and angling
ever since to elevate its national profile and climb the rankings ladder.
Which makes the
recent attention it’s received all the less welcome.
In a whirlwind
week, Ralph R. Papitto, 80, the former chairman of the university board,
admitted using the n-word at a board meeting in May, then volunteered to have
his name taken off the law school — the only one in Rhode Island. The dustup
arrived at a delicate time for the university and especially for the young law
school, which lacks the prestige of top tier institutions but has aggressively
sought skilled students from outside the area and diversity in professors.
While a top 10
school has deep enough roots to shake off a controversy, it’s more challenging
at a place like Roger Williams, which is still introducing itself to the
national law community, said Andrew Horwitz, a professor at the law school
since 1994.
“Obviously, our
concern is that people will simply connect the statements that Mr. Papitto has
made to the name of the law school and reach inappropriate conclusions based on
that connection,” he said.
The Bristol school opened
in 1993 and received national accreditation a few years later. It was named in
1996 for Papitto, a successful businessman and university board member for
nearly 40 years, despite objections from students that he was still alive and
was not a lawyer.
