Celebrating the career of Professor Ronna Greff Schneider

Friday, May 13, 2022 was declared Ronna Schneider Day in Cincinnati, OH by mayoral proclamation as colleagues, friends, former students and family gathered to celebrate the 42 year career of Professor Ronna Greff Schneider—only the second tenured woman professor at the College of Law and the first mother on the faculty. Schneider retired at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year.

An expert in constitutional law, with a focus on the First Amendment, and education law, Schneider first came to the College of Law in 1980 as an assistant Professor of Law. Throughout her career at UC, she worked alongside such legal luminaries as Professors Stan Harper, Ken Aplin, John Murphy, Bert Lockwood, Al Squillante, Dean Emeritus Joseph Tomain, and Dean Emeritus Gordon Christensen.

Interestingly, when she arrived at the College, the building located at the corner of Clifton Avenue and Calhoun was in the midst of a major renovation.  The result was that her first office was located across the street in what had been a semi-private patient hospital room at the old Deaconess Hospital. It is only fitting that her departure coincides with the building’s move to a new site on the north end of the Clifton campus.  

She became a Lecturer in Law at Boston College Law School and realized that she really enjoyed the legal academic environment.  Upon returning to Cincinnati, she joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College of Law to teach those who would become the next generation of lawyers.

Throughout her 42 years at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, Schneider taught Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Torts, and Civil Procedure. She also created a popular seminar in civil rights issues in Education Law, which she taught annually.  Schneider has been a national leader in this area, chairing the Association of American Law Schools Section on Education Law multiple times. Additionally, she is an elected member of the prestigious American Law Institute that, among other things, writes and publishes the various Restatements of the Law.

Schneider has authored books, law review articles, and book reviews on many topics including sexual harassment, hate speech, and religion and schools. She is noted for her two-volume legal treatise, Education Law: First Amendment, Due Process and Discrimination Litigation (Thomson Reuters), and its regular supplements. She also is the co-editor of the book Education Law Stories (Foundation Press).