This article is the second in a series of profiles on the five Chancellor's Award winners.
Lissa Broome will stop at nothing when it comes to the interests of the School of Law. Her devotion has gone beyond the usual teaching and administrative work to the downright ridiculous, including kissing a pig at this year's Law Revue.
That stunt was part of a fund-raiser, she explained. Her smooch to the snout helped support law students who wanted to spend a summer working in the public interest for organizations such as Legal Aid, she said.
"He was black, with bristly long hairs and horns," she said of the pot-bellied piglet. "He was kind of cute, but still a pig."
Most of her work is less spectacular, but carried out with equal commitment. Broome has proven again and again her capabilities, Dean Judith Wegner said.
"She has performed with extraordinary talent and dedication," said Wegner, who nominated Broome for the Chancellor's Award. "She combines her work as a faculty member and as an administrator in a remarkable, unforgettable fashion."
Broome has been a faculty member since 1984 and just completed a two-year term as associate dean for academic affairs. Her work in this capacity was especially notable, Wegner said.
"I believe that no one in the school's history--most definitely including myself--has done as excellent a job," she said.
Specific accomplishments include learning almost all the names of each student in the 200-plus member classes, creating a new faculty orientation program and developing an innovative "college" system that starting with the 1995 freshmen will split the class up into smaller groups and thereby improve teaching.
But perhaps her greatest innovation, Wegner said, has been the establishment of a student affairs "Dream Team." This group of several administrators convenes regularly to come up with ways to improve student life, in such areas as orientation, advising and events scheduling.
Broome extends her commitment beyond the law school to University-wide service, working on boards from the Faculty Athletics Committee to the University Hearings Board. She is just as involved in various legal groups, holding leadership positions in the Association of American Law Schools and the American Bar Association.
"I know of few faculty members who have contributed so systematically to the improvement of the profession in such generally unheralded settings," Wegner said.
Broome said her enthusiasm stemmed from the company she kept.
"My favorite part is the people I get to work with," she said."That includes the students, who are terrific and bright and keep me on my toes. They're challenging and fun to work with--you can say all the same things about the faculty. And since I have been in administration, I have gotten to know the staff members better, and they are just wonderful, too."
She also enjoys the friendly atmosphere of Chapel Hill.
"It's a world-class university in a beautiful town, but small enough to know people and be recognized in the grocery store and feel part of the community," she said.
If she could change one thing, she said, it would be to get more funding for the school.
"We're always struggling against the inadequacy of resources and trying to do the best we can with what we have," she said. "We obviously would like additional resources for faculty salaries and staff salaries, because the law school has slipped vis-à-vis our competitors. And there's no space for the students."
One change she is happy about, although she will miss her administrative work, is resuming more teaching duties now that her term as associate dean has ended. Her specialties are commercial and banking law, but she has taught a broad range of courses.
"I'm looking forward to full-time teaching because that was my first love," she said. Her excellence in the classroom is proven by being a three-time winner of the Frederick B. McCall Award for Excellence in Teaching, which is given annually by the law students.
"She would have received that award even more frequently but for the fact that there is a limit on repeated recognition within a set time frame," Wegner said. "She has the absolute confidence and respect of every member of the faculty, student body and staff at the law school."
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