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2012 FURMAN UNIVERSITY Furman Administration Rod Smolla Dr. Gary Clark Rodney A. Smolla became Furman University's 11th president on July 1, 2010. He is nationally recognized as a scholar, teacher, advocate and writer, and is one of America's foremost experts on issues relating to freedom of speech, academic freedom and freedom of the press. A native of the Chicago area, he is a 1975 graduate of Yale University, where he was a member of the football team. He graduated first in his class from Duke University Law School in 1978. Prior to coming to Furman, the 58-year-old 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. During his legal career, Smolla has presented arguments in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He has also testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. His book, Free Speech in an Open Society (Alfred A. Knopf, 1992) won the William O. Douglas Award as the year's best monograph on freedom of expression. He is also the author of Jerry Falwell v. Larry Flynt: The First Amendment on Trial (St. Martin's Press, 1988) and Deliberate Intent (Crown Publishers, 1999). The latter, which was made into a television movie by the FX cable network, describes Smolla's involvement in a notorious case in which he successfully represented the families of three murder victims in a suit against the publisher of a murder instruction manual. His latest book, The Constitution Goes to College, describes the constitutional principles and ideas that have shaped American higher education. It is scheduled for publication in late 2010 by New York University Press. Smolla is also a frequent media commentator in newspaper, magazine and Internet news stories. In addition to writing pieces for the New York Times Book Review, he is a regular contributor to the on-line magazines Slate.com and The Huffington Post. He has remained an active teacher even while serving in his two deanships, teaching courses in higher education law, professionalism, constitutional law, and the Constitution and American culture. Last fall he taught a course at Furman that explored the constitutional law principles that have influenced America's public and private universities. His numerous teaching awards include the State of Virginia's Outstanding Faculty Award and William & Mary's John Marshall Faculty Award. In addition to teaching at William & Mary, Richmond and Washington and Lee, Smolla has been a professor at the University of Illinois, University of Arkansas and DePaul University law schools, and a Senior Fellow of the Washington Annenberg Program of Northwestern University. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Melbourne, University of Denver, and Duke law schools. Smolla is active in civic and community affairs, and frequently speaks to community groups, church groups, youth groups, schools and college organizations. He serves on numerous civic, community, professional and corporate boards, including the Board of Directors of Media General, Inc., and the chairmanship of the Council for America's First Freedom, an organization dedicated to religious freedom. When Gary Clark was named director of athletics at Furman in August of 2000, he spoke of the challenge of building on the success of a program coming off one of its greatest decades. Now in his second decade as head of the school's 20-sport athletics program, it's clear Clark — and Furman — have made good on the task as Paladin athletics has maintained its competitiveness and overall excellence. During Clark's tenure, Furman athletic teams have combined to win 26 Southern Conference regular season championships and 27 league tournament titles, and make 40 NCAA Tournament appearances. Furman's athletics program earned an 108th place finish in the 2007-08 NACDA NCAA Division I Sports Academy Director's Cup all-sports competition, the highest showing by an SoCon school and third highest among state institutions, and the last four years Furman has ranked among national leaders in NCAA Academic Performance Rate (APR) scores. In addition, the university captured the SoCon's 2007-08 Barrett-Bonner Award by placing the highest percentage of its student-athletes on the league's academic honor roll. Clark's appointment as athletic director brought him full circle after first coming to Furman as a basketball player in the early 1970s and later returning in 1998 to serve as director of the Paladin Club, the school's athletic fund-raising organization. He added the title of associate athletic director for external affairs the following year. A 1974 Furman graduate with a B.A. degree in history, Clark earned M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of South Carolina. He spent the next 23 years at Spartanburg Day School as a teacher, coach, and, finally, headmaster, where he oversaw several successful enrollment and fund-raising campaigns. During his time as a Furman undergraduate, Clark lettered twice as a member of the basketball team and played on Paladin squads that won two Southern Conference Tournament championships and made two NCAA Tournament appearances under head coach Joe Williams. During his senior season, the Paladins posted a 22-9 record and defeated South Carolina, 75-67, in the NCAA East Regionals. A native of Chicago Heights, Ill., Clark, a former member of the NCAA's prestigious Management Council, is married to the former Merrie McCullough '75 of Honea Path and has two sons: Ryan and John Stewart. President Athletics Director Dr. Bill Pierce Faculty Athletics Representative Dr. Bill Pierce, Furman's NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative, joined the Furman faculty in 1983 and has chaired the health sciences department for almost three decades. During his tenure as chair, the health sciences major has grown into one of the most popular on campus. The W. Va., native was a highly recruited two-time all-state basketball player who attended Davidson on a basketball scholarship. While at Davidson, he played on nationally ranked basketball teams that won three Southern Conference championships. He was also a successful half-miler on the track team. Pierce graduated from Davidson in 1971 with a degree in political science. He earned a master's degree in sports studies from West Virginia and doctorate in physical education from Virginia Tech.