We mention this because by year’s end this will be a far more important role than it is now and we’d suggest would be up there with announcing new Deans. This appointment looks like an afterthought rather than what it should be in these COVID times, the pivitol role in the 21st century law school.
A local university staff was tasked with an additional role.
Western Michigan University Cooley Law School’s director of graduate and extended programs, Catherine McCollum, is now serving as director of online learning after all classes were shifted to an online platform.
She oversees the law school’s new Center for Online Instruction and manages and coordinates online resources and faculty training.
“Cathy McCollum displayed leadership and agility during the emergence of the COVID crisis by gathering administrative support, teaching others to help support faculty and developing a plan to train and certify faculty members in best practices for online teaching,” said Amy Timmer, associate dean of students.
In her continued role as director of graduate and extended programs, McCollum is responsible for oversight and coordination of administrative aspects of Master of Laws (LL.M.) and partnership programs, including meeting accreditation compliance requirements, student academic advising, grade processing and approval, application processing, marketing, scheduling, registration, and student policy manual updates and enforcement.
Prior to joining WMU-Cooley, she worked as a research attorney with the Michigan Court of Appeals in the Prehearing Division. She has served as a hearing referee for the Michigan Tax Tribunal and has represented pro-bono clients.
McCollum has experience in individual, business, state and local tax. She teaches individual income taxation and previously she taught taxation of business entities.
She is a co-author of “The Stimulus Package: Some Tax Changes in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” which was published in Michigan Tax Lawyer; and “Compensatory and Noncompensatory Partnership Interests and Those Transactions That Fail to Meet the Section 721 Non-Recognition Provision,” Walsh College Mark R. Solomon Tax Symposium.
McCollum earned her LL.M. and Juris Doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan-Flint.
Source: https://grbj.com/news/law/wmu-cooley-law-school-names-director-of-online-learning/
