President Trump nominates College of Law Dean as secretary of labor

By Martina Bretous and Abbey Olson/PantherNOW Staff

On Feb. 16, President Donald Trump nominated the University’s current dean of the College of Law for labor secretary.

“We just spoke, and he’s going to be, I think he’ll be a tremendous secretary of labor,” said Trump announcing the nomination earlier today.

University President Mark B. Rosenberg says the honor gives the college the visibility it deserves.

“When you get any of your faculty members or deans appointed to senior positions at the national level, it’s great recognition for the University. It’s a confirmation of the purpose-driven mission that we have and in this case, it’s outstanding recognition for our College of Law,” Rosenberg said to PantherNOW.

Since 2009, Acosta has overseen large growth in FIU’s law program and has contributed to the program’s increase in rank, according to Rosenberg.

“We always were doing well in bar passage, but three years in a row [as] number one, confirms the quality of the College of Law, and he has helped to consolidate the respect in the community and so that employers want to hire our college graduate,” said Rosenberg.

Raised in Miami, Acosta attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Working as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice, Samuel A. Alito, Acosta became the first Hispanic assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. In 2005, George W. Bush appointed Acosta as a U.S. attorney for the southern district.

During a press conference with local media, Rosenberg had nothing but praise for the nomination.

“FIU has a destiny to fulfill. FIU students and faculty — we always say that they’re World’s Ahead and this is just another example,” Rosenberg told Student Media. “Dean Acosta is a person of substance. He’s thoughtful, he’s got integrity and he’s being recognized for that as a nominee to be Secretary of Labor.”

FIU’s official Twitter account favorites tweet from student, Guillermo Garrido, praising Secretary of Labor nominee, Alexander Acosta.

Trump’s nomination of Acosta follows Andrew Puzder’s decision to remove himself from consideration for the position amid controversy regarding his hiring practices and personal life.

As for who will replace Acosta if he is appointed, Rosenberg says it happened so fast that he hadn’t had time to think too much about it.

“We’re not even thinking about that now, we’re just very happy about Alex. Obviously, there’s a confirmation process and we know he’ll be successful there,” said Rosenberg. “The College of Law is very strong right now, there’s capable leadership there and so, we’ll be looking at what our options are in the next couple of weeks.”

Student Media will provide more updates as they become available.