Resignation of Dean of Law, Prof Penelope Andrews

Dear colleagues and students

I write to inform you that Professor Penelope Andrews, Dean of the Faculty of Law, has tendered her resignation. She will be leaving the university on 31 December 2018. I am naturally very sad that we are about to lose her.

Professor Andrews has indicated that she wants to pursue several opportunities that have recently arisen in collaboration with a global consortium of scholars on issues of constitutionalism, race and transformation, and she wishes to be able to focus on her research on a more full-time basis. She has also indicated her desire for greater flexibility to engage in teaching and visiting professorships, which the demands of her current position as dean do not afford.

A respected human rights scholar and advocate, Professor Andrews has been serving the University of Cape Town (UCT) with enthusiasm, engagement and passion. She has been particularly successful in linking with external stakeholders of the Faculty of Law – mobilising alumni, raising funds for the faculty, raising the international profile of the faculty and the university, and bringing in local and international guests, who have stimulated fresh thinking on a variety of legal issues, including the teaching of law.

Professor Andrews has been a vocal and effective member of the Senior Leadership Group and the Deans’ Committee. We have valued her integrity, loyalty, her critical yet constructive support of the executive, and her willingness to step into the numerous additional committees, task teams, legal support processes and general leadership duties that being part of the senior leadership team demands.

Although she will formally step down as dean in December, Professor Andrews has accepted an invitation to take up a fellowship at the Center for the Study of Law and Culture at Columbia University School of Law, where she will be pursuing a joint project with the center on comparative legal education. Her accumulated study and research leave will enable her to take up the fellowship from 1 August.

During the remainder of this year, Professor Andrews has committed to completing the fundraising for, and organisation of, various initiatives she has started, namely the Dikgang Moseneke Fellowships, the Housing Law Clinic, increasing UCT Law’s named student bursaries, and the distinguished visitors’ symposiums hosting Justice Dikgang Moseneke and Dame Linda Dobbs.

Professor Andrews joined UCT as Dean of Law in 2016 after having spent most of her career working overseas. After receiving her LLM from Columbia University School of Law in New York in 1984, she began her teaching career more than two decades ago at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. She has served on significant law school committees and on the boards of public interest legal organisations as well as on business councils. Prior to joining UCT, Professor Andrews served as president and dean at Albany Law School in New York. She also served as professor of law and director of International Studies at Valparaiso Law School in Indiana, USA.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Andrews for the total commitment to UCT that she has displayed in her leadership roles both in the faculty and at UCT senior leadership levels.

I extend our best wishes to Professor Andrews in her future endeavours.

Sincerely

Dr Max Price
Vice-Chancellor

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