Furman President Smolla Named To Sc Commission on Higher Education
April 1, 2011
GREENVILLE,SC – March 31, 2011 – The South Carolina Senate today confirmed Gov. Nikki Haley’s appointment of Furman University President Rod Smolla to serve a four-year term on the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education.
The 14-member Commission serves as the state’s coordinating board for higher education. Its mission is to promote quality and efficiency in the state system of higher education with the goal of fostering economic growth and human development in South Carolina.
Smolla became Furman’s 11th president on July 1, 2010. A nationally recognized legal scholar, teacher, advocate and writer, he is one of America’s foremost experts on issues relating to freedom of speech, academic freedom and freedom of the press. He is a graduate of Yale University and Duke University Law School.
Before coming to Furman, Smolla served three years as Dean and Roy L. Steinheimer Professor of Law at Washington and Lee School of Law. He has also been Dean and Allen Professor at the University of Richmond School of Law as well as Director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law at the College of William & Mary.
He has taught courses in higher education law, professionalism, constitutional law, and the Constitution and American culture, and has held teaching positions at the University of Illinois, University of Arkansas and DePaul University law schools. He was a Senior Fellow of the Washington Annenberg Program of Northwestern University, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Melbourne, University of Denver, and Duke law schools.
He is a frequent media commentator and the author of numerous books, including Deliberate Intent: A Lawyer Tells the True Story of Murder by the Book, Free Speech in an Open Society, and Jerry Falwell v. Larry Flynt: The First Amendment on Trial. His latest book, The Constitution Goes to College, was published this spring by New York University Press.
