COVID-19 First-Person Perspective: Dean Browne Lewis, NCCU
Accepting a position as the dean of an HBCU was the fulfillment of a dream for me. I was eager to start, so I went to Durham over spring break to meet my faculty and staff. The second day of my visit the world started shutting down because the relentless nature of the COVID-19 virus was slowly being revealed.
I helped the law school create a plan for completing the remainder of the spring semester online. Then, I boarded a plane back to Cleveland. During that time masks were not required and people had not truly grasped the devastation that the virus would leave in its wake.
Because of the impact of COVID-19, my start date was moved up from July 1 to June 1. Therefore, my deanship overlapped with that of the interim dean. Having two deans during such a chaotic time benefitted the law school and gave us peace of mind. On the day I assumed the role of being the only dean, I walked through the law school. I was the only one in the building, and it felt like the aftermath of the apocalypse. At that time, I did not know that would be the last time in a long time I would be able to take a deep breath and observe the beauty of our law school. That temporary solitude gave me the opportunity to reflect on why I had chosen to accept the position of dean at North Carolina Central University School of Law (NCCU SOL). The motivating factor in my decision was the need to help diversify the legal profession, so that black and brown people do not feel that justice is behind a locked door that can only be opened by the combination of wealth and whiteness.
As I enter my sixth month of being the dean of NCCU SOL, I reflect on the things that have made my deanship uniquely challenging. Like other new deans who started their tenures this fall, I have been forced to deal with the real consequences of COVID-19. In my position as the dean of a state law school, I have had to figure out creative ways to respond to the COVID-caused budget cuts. The financial struggles have been challenging, but they pale in comparison to the human hardships caused by the virus.
Most of my faculty, staff, and students are black and brown people. Consequently, they and their families have been disproportionally adversely impacted by COVID-19. The demographics of the members of my community played a key role in my decision to hold classes remotely. However, that decision was complicated by the fact that black and brown people are far behind white people when it comes to having access to technology. Thus, I had to come up with ways to ensure that our students had the technology they needed to take their classes remotely.
Deaning in the age of corona has been demanding. I actually started preparing for the fall semester in May before I officially started as dean. As I prepared for the fall semester, my number one priority was to keep my faculty, staff, and students healthy and safe. I added extra staff to clean the building, had furniture removed to make social distancing practical, supplied masks and other PPEs, and made mental health counseling available. After taking all those steps, I thought that I could take a few days off to breathe. Then, Fayetteville, North Carolina, native George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the place where I went to law school and practiced law. This came on the heels of the killings of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Law school deans from across the country immediately started posting statements on their websites and issuing statements to their communities condemning the murder. I needed a few days to catch my breath before I could follow suit. As the granddaughter of an enslaved black man and the sister of an unarmed black man who was shot five time by an angry white man, I was paralyzed with heartache. Nonetheless, I got it together for the sake of the law students who needed my voice to be a part of the conversation, and issued a statement on our web page.
During my tenure as dean of NCCU SOL, I have faced a lot of challenges beyond those one would expect a new dean to experience. For example, my family in Louisiana sustained a direct hit by Hurricane Laura. Through it all, I have made a conscious effort to relax, breathe and enjoy. I am living my dream of educating legal eagles while protecting the nest. Poet Gift Gugu Mona has been quoted as saying, “A strong woman is like an eagle; against the strong winds she soars.” Every day, my legal eagles give me the strength I need to soar above the storms 2020 keeps throwing at me.
Browne C. Lewis Esq. serves as Dean of the School of Law at North Carolina Central University.