University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law: Dean Leaves Negative Assessment in Faculty’s Annual Review for Their Opposition to a Proposal

In August 2024, Bowen Law School Dean Colin Crawford proposed moving the school’s part-time program to a hybrid or online model. Faculty approved the proposal 19-3, with Professors Joshua Silverstein and Robert Steinbuch casting two of the dissenting votes. In July and August 2025, Silverstein and Steinbuch publicly opposed the proposal in newspaper columns and on social media. On August 28, Crawford paused consideration of the proposal. Despite giving both professors satisfactory ratings, Crawford used their 2025 annual performance reviews to criticize the professors’ opposition to the proposal, describing their conduct  as disruptive, disrespectful, uncivil, and harmful to their colleagues and the institution. FIRE wrote Bowen on November 12, 2026, explaining that criticisms of protected speech on  performance reviews threaten to chill future speech, and urging Bowen to remove the critical language.