SEATTLE - University of Washington School of Law Dean W.H. Knight (Joe) today
informed President Mark Emmert and Provost Phyllis Wise that he is resigning his
position, effective June 15, 2007. He will remain a tenured member of the law
school faculty.
In his five years at the law school, Dean Knight
established the law school as one of the best public law schools in the country,
increased funding for scholarships to low-income students, and directed the
building of a new $80 million facility with state-of-the-art classrooms and
library resources.
“When I joined the law school in 2001, the university
administration exhorted me to become an agent for change in the law school,” he
said. “The law school has gone through a period of transition, and it is now
time for new leadership to take it to the next phase.”
The law school has 704 students in its Juris Doctor,
Masters, and Ph.D. programs. It recently received a $33 million gift from the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund the Gates Public Service Law Scholarship
Program, one of the largest scholarship programs in the history of the UW.