The door to the School of Law’s dean’s office will
have a new name on it next fall, as Jonathan Varat steps down from
a five-year stint at the position.
According to a letter Varat addressed to colleagues, his
decision to resign comes after a review of his tenure as dean that
included “gratifying praise by many and blunt reservations by
some who appear to prefer a change in the course of my
administration.”
Varat called his decision “sudden and unanticipated,
though considered.”
But colleagues ““ some of whom have known Varat since he
joined UCLA’s faculty in 1976, won’t be waving goodbye
just yet.
Varat will serve as dean until the end of August before
returning to full-time teaching and writing at UCLA, said Jessica
Copen, director of communications at the School of Law.
Varat said he will assist in the process of selecting new
leadership, which has not yet begun.
Colleagues said Varat’s personal involvement in hiring
faculty members during his deanship is among his contributions to
the School of Law.
“He hired a whole bunch of really talented professors,
adding tremendous talent and luster to our faculty,” said
David Sklansky, professor of law and associate dean at the School
of Law.
During Varat’s tenure as dean, the law school hired an
average of three to four new faculty members each year.
Richard Sander, a law professor who has known Varat since 1989,
said Varat stood “above the fray” when appointment and
admissions decisions divided the faculty.
“We’ve had various disputes about those things. He
tried to be a fair mediator between different factions,” he
said.
As dean, Varat oversaw a law school struggling with budget cuts,
and played a key role in expanding the law school’s
fundraising and developing office to keep the school
“financially healthy going into some very, very difficult
budget times,” Sklansky said.
Law Professor Jody Freeman attributes the school’s ability
to weather the UC system’s budget crisis, in part, to
Varat’s efforts.
“He’s been … a leader for the professional schools
when dealing with the prospect of budget cuts,” she said.
And, in light of sharply declining minority enrollment,
colleagues credit Varat with working to keep the portrait of the
law school’s student body from being predominantly white.
Varat oversaw the School of Law’s aggressive
implementation of outreach programs to attract minority students,
as well as the creation of a critical race studies concentration
for law students.
Sklansky said Varat “enriched the intellectual life of the
law school,” helping to establish “a number of
intellectual projects” including the Williams Project on
Sexual Orientation Law.
“He worked tirelessly for the law school throughout his
deanship, as he had before he was dean,” Sklansky said.
In his letter to colleagues, Varat said his dedication to the
School of Law will not end with the resignation of his
deanship.
“I look forward to our future years together, and I remain
profoundly committed to making an already great institution greater
still,” he wrote.