Law Dean to Step Down
Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan is stepping down from her post as of September 1, 2004, and will become director of a new Stanford center on constitutional law after a yearlong sabbatical. A nationally known constitutional law scholar who has argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, Sullivan came to Stanford from Harvard in 1993 and was named dean in 1999. Former University president Gerhard Casper says the new center is conceived as a memorial to law professor Gerald Gunther (1927-2002), with whom Sullivan co-authored the casebook Constitutional Law.
Next Overseas Stop: Beijing
Stanford’s newest overseas studies program will open this fall at Peking University, with Albert Dien, professor emeritus of Chinese, as the faculty member in residence. Some 30 students will take courses designed specifically for the program, with preference given to those who have studied Mandarin Chinese for at least one year. The students will be housed in dorms with other international students, who constitute about 1,800 of the total student body of 46,000. “It’s a beautiful campus, laid out like many schools on the East Coast,” says Irene Kennedy, associate director of OSP, who visited Beijing in October and discussed details of the program with university vice president Min Weifang, MA ’82, MA ’86, PhD ’87.
Farewell to the University Architect
David Neuman, former University architect and associate vice provost for planning, started his new position as architect for the University of Virginia in January. Neuman had been responsible for campus development since 1989, including extensive retrofitting following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. He oversaw construction of the Science and Engineering Quadrangle and Clark Center and restoration of Memorial Church, Cantor Arts Center and Green Library. At UVA, Neuman will be responsible for a 180-year-old academic complex that includes buildings designed by Thomas Jefferson.
A New Dean of Students
Gregory Boardman, associate vice president for student affairs at Tulane University, has been named Stanford’s dean of students and begins his new job on February 2. His responsibilities include oversight of Bechtel International Center, the community centers, the Office of Judicial Affairs, the Office of Student Activities and Tresidder Union. He also will respond to student concerns about such issues as the campus alcohol policy. “What’s important here is that the students have a say in any kind of policy review that affects them,” Boardman said when he was selected in early December. He replaces Marc Wais, who left Stanford for NYU in March.
