Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, INDUSTRY NEWS, TRENDS—University of Arkansas rescinds job offer to new law school dean after ‘feedback from key external stakeholders’, (Jan 20, 2026)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

“There’s no way the people of Arkansas want somebody running and educating our next generation of lawyers and judges [to be] someone that doesn’t understand the difference between a man and a woman.”

On January 9, 2026, the University of Arkansas Office of the Provost announced that it had selected a new dean for its law school. A few days later, it updated the announcement to explain that “[a]fter receiving feedback from key external stakeholders about the fit between [the selected candidate] and the university’s vacancy, the university has decided to go a different direction in filling the vacancy.”

What happened? According to multiple reports, including thorough reporting by The Arkansas Advocate, what happened is that key Republican politicians learned that the selected dean—a current professor and associate dean at the University of South Carolina’s law school whose areas of expertise include Title IX and civil rights in the public schools—had signed on to an amicus brief in a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding transgender athletes.

Support for dean. State representative Nicole Clowney, who noted that the school had been searching for a new dean for two years, explained, in part, on social media:

“After the deal was done and the hire was announced, a few state legislators along with at least one constitutional officer became aware that the newly hired Dean had signed onto a ‘friend of the court’ brief in a lawsuit challenging laws regarding transgender athletes in sports. (To be clear, Prof. Suski was not a party in the case nor did she represent a party in the case. She was one of seventeen academics who signed on in support of one side.)

There is nothing about signing onto this brief that would impact Prof. Suski’s ability to serve as Dean. Unsurprisingly, administration of high school athletics programs does not fall into the job description of the Law School Dean hellip;.”

The ACLU of Arkansas also spoke out against the decision. “Let’s be clear: This had nothing to do with competence or fitness to lead,” said Holly Dickson, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas. “It had everything to do with viewpoint.”

Objecting lawmakers. The Advocate reported that one of the objecting lawmakers was Senate president pro tempore Bart Hester, who is a Republican, and who told the Advocate, “There’s no way the people of Arkansas want somebody running and educating our next generation of lawyers and judges [to be] someone that doesn’t understand the difference between a man and a woman.”

Other Republican politicians in the state have also applauded the decision, according to the Advocate and other reports, including the Attorney General Tim Griffin and Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

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