NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Kent D. Syverud, dean of the Vanderbilt University Law School since 1997, announced today he will step down as dean when his second term ends in the summer of 2005. Syverud, who is the Garner Anthony Professor of Law, will continue as a full-time faculty member.
"It has been a good run," said Syverud, who came to Vanderbilt from the University of Michigan Law School. "Vanderbilt had a great law school when I arrived here, and I think it has improved in many ways over the past seven years thanks to the incredibly hard work of faculty, students, staff, alumni and the University administration. I look forward to continuing to teach and write at Vanderbilt in the future as a member of the best faculty around," he added.
"Vanderbilt Law School is a demonstrably better and truly excellent place for Kent’s leadership," Chancellor Gordon Gee said. "Kent is also a great citizen of the Vanderbilt community. His contributions to the academic life of the University have been considerable and will be enduring."
Nicholas S. Zeppos, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, chaired the committee that recruited Syverud to Vanderbilt. "It is impossible to state the impact that Kent has had on the law school, legal education and Vanderbilt. What stands out for me, as his colleague at Vanderbilt, is the combination of virtues he brings to all that he does.
"He is a person of absolute honesty and integrity and a tireless worker," Zeppos added. "He has a strong sense that a great law school needs to be focused both on training a special kind of leader in the professions and advancing legal research in a way that addresses fundamental challenges in our nation and beyond."
Zeppos said a search for Syverud’s successor will commence this summer. Vanderbilt plans to have a successor identified well before Syverud steps down to enable a smooth transition to take place.
Syverud’s contributions to the school are myriad. Under his direction, the law school’s faculty has grown to 45 members, more than half of whom have joined the faculty since 1997. Vanderbilt has successfully recruited prominent scholars from top universities including Michigan, Princeton, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, Washington University, Georgetown, Georgia, George Mason, Missouri and Iowa. More than a dozen faculty now hold endowed chairs or professorships.
The law school facility was expanded and completely renovated under Syverud’s tenure. The $24 million project, completed in late 2001, was paid for entirely by fund raising.
The school created a dynamic Law and Business Program in conjunction with Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management, as well as three new clinical programs and a graduate program for foreign lawyers that has attracted applicants from around the world.
Applications to the school have doubled to almost 4,000 a year, and the endowment has increased dramatically.
Syverud said his work as a professor at Vanderbilt Law School will be his primary activity after he concludes his eight years as dean. He has taught extensively while dean, both in the law school and at other schools and colleges at Vanderbilt. "Deans often say when stepping down that they look forward to returning to their first love, teaching," Syverud said. "I never left my first love, so I suspect the reunion is going to be pretty easy."
Syverud is the unopposed nominee for the 2005 term of chair of the board of the Law School Admissions Council. The council, based in Pennsylvania, owns and administers the Law School Admissions Test and assists in processing the applications of students to almost all law schools in the United States and Canada.
He recently was selected by the Burton Foundation for its inaugural award for contributions to legal writing and teaching. The Burton Award, in association with the Law Library of Congress, will be conferred in a June 14 ceremony at the Great Hall of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
For more information about Vanderbilt, please visit the News Service homepage at www.vanderbilt.edu/News. More information on the law school can be found at www.vanderbilt.edu/law.
Media contact: Susanne Hicks, (615) 322-NEWS
Susanne.hicks@vanderbilt.edu