Nov. 9, 2013

Southwestern cuts ribbon to first on-campus residence hall

Southwestern Law School celebrated the arrival of a new dean and the opening of its first on-campus student housing at a reception Tuesday afternoon. "From the start, Southwestern was audacious and innovative," Dean Susan Westerberg Prager said, noting the school's first graduate a century ago was a woman. And while several law schools these days trumpet their two-year programs, Southwestern began its two-year SCALE program in the 1970s, she said. Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge David S. Wesley, a 1972 alumnus, introduced Prager as someone who has had "a remarkable career." Prager was the dean of UCLA School of Law for 16 years before becoming provost of Dartmouth College in 1999 and president of Occidental College in 2007. In 2009, she took over as executive director of the Association of American Law Schools in Washington, D.C. The first female dean in the UC system when at UCLA, Prager also is the first female dean in Southwestern's 102-year history, Wesley said. Noting that Prager once taught seminars in historic preservation law, Wesley said she is "a perfect fit" for Southwestern, which is housed in the landmark Bullocks Wilshire building. — Don J. DeBenedictis