After 14 years, dean of social sciences resigns
By Shaun Bishop
Sept. 28, 2005 9:00 p.m.
Scott Waugh, the dean of social sciences who has served for
longer than any other top administrator in the UCLA College,
announced this week he will step down at the end of the school
year.
Waugh, who is also a history professor, will have been dean for
14 years and will have worked at UCLA for 28 years when he steps
down June 30, 2006.
He noted jokingly in an e-mail announcing his resignation to
colleagues that he had been dean for “more than enough time
to do considerable mischief.”
“Being dean has been a wonderful experience, sometimes
frustrating, often challenging, always stimulating. The greatest
pleasure has been working with all of you, few of whom I would have
known as a historian of medieval England,” he wrote in the
e-mail.
He now plans to take a year off, then return to teaching and
researching medieval history at UCLA, which he said was difficult
while acting as dean.
“That’s a part of your life you don’t do as an
administrator,” he said.
Waugh became dean in 1992, and one of his first challenges was
negotiating an end to the student hunger strikes that prompted the
creation of a chicano studies research center.
That came full circle for him with the departmentalization of
the center this past January ““ the cause those fasting
students had originally been fighting for. He called the
departmentalization “very gratifying.”
Another defining point of his tenure was dealing with state
budget cuts while trying to maintain faculty recruiting and the
quality of the social science programs ““ a task Waugh said
was his biggest challenge.
“It hasn’t been easy because we haven’t had
all the resources (to maintain quality) given the challenge,”
he said.
Patricia O’Brien, dean of the College, said Waugh’s
handling of the difficult budget situation has been one of his
biggest accomplishments.
She also said numerous departments in the social sciences have
maintained top-10 rankings in their fields under Waugh.
“That’s not an accident,” she said.
Anthropology Chairman Douglas Hollan said Waugh’s decision
to step down was a “terrible loss for the College” and
praised his ability to fairly distribute budget cuts among
departments.
“During the time that I’ve been chair we were all
trying to contend with the big budget cuts,” Hollan said.
“Given that everyone was going to have to share the pain, I
think he did a good job of distributing the pain in a fair and just
way.”
Waugh’s time as dean also saw the passage of Prop. 209,
which outlawed consideration of race or ethnicity in hiring for
stage agencies, including the UC, posing new problems for faculty
recruitment.
Waugh said his division tried to work within the restraints of
Prop. 209 by identifying fields with female or minority candidates
““ such as political science or ethnic studies departments
““ and make sure applicant pools reflected the demographics of
candidates in those fields.
O’Brien noted Waugh’s interactions with faculty and
his collaborative style as part of what made him successful.
“It’s easy when you’re sitting in an
administrative position to get removed with what’s happening
on the ground,” she said. “That’s not the case
with Scott.”
Colleagues also said he was attentive to faculty issues.
“As an (interdepartmental program chair), Scott has been
tremendously supportive and I worked with him quite well,”
said Min Zhou, former chairwoman of the Asian American studies
department.
“I found that he is a dean who is very receptive of
departmental demands, and also he’s very willing to
listen,” she said, adding, “Whether or not he can do it
is quite another thing.”
Zhou also said Waugh “has provided guidance to get things
through the administrative maze” of making Asian American
studies its own department, which was approved last October.
He said he chose now to step down because he believes the social
sciences are on relatively secure financial footing, and now is a
good opportunity for someone else to take the reins.
Among other activities he will undertake during a year off
following his resignation, he’s looking forward to catching
up on some sleep and, he said with laugh, “re-toning his
intellectual muscles.”
