As president, Sarat will both appoint committees as well as organize the annual meeting held for the purpose of strategic planning and the development of interests. Sarat will also serve as the spokesman for the Consortium, traveling to various institutions to emphasize the value of an undergraduate education in legal studies. "One of the things that I think is important to do is to encourage the prestigious universities in the United States to develop [legal studies] programs for undergraduates," he said. "There is a kind of oddity in the United States; legal education is thought of as professional education. What the Consortium is trying to do is decouple the idea of legal education from the training of lawyers."
Sarat, who founded and currently serves as chair of the law, jurisprudence and social thought (LJST) department at the College, explained that his primary goal is to push top institutions to develop their own undergraduate legal studies programs. According to Sarat, the LJST program was developed with the specific character and dynamic of the College in mind. Although LJST is fitting for the College, the exact same program may not be right for all institutions. "I believe that colleges and universities throughout the U.S. should have departments and programs that serve to provide undergraduate education in law and justice," Sarat said. "I do also believe there are a variety of ways of doing it. LJST works here. The way we do it may not work in other institutions. It is possible to say colleges should have these departments without doing it [exactly] like we do."
As president, Sarat will have the opportunity to highlight to academia the significance of providing an education in legal studies at an undergraduate level. According to Sarat, there is both a substantive reason and a skill-based reason to study law and justice at the undergraduate level. "Substantively, undergraduates should study law because legal institutions are important around the United States and the world," he explained. "Citizens need to be informed about how law operates." More important than the substantive reason to study law, Sarat said, is the skill-based reason. "Legal education provides an opportunity for students to develop their skills in moral argument, their skills at the [close] reading of texts, and their ability to make judgments when there is a lot at stake. [While] I do not think law is the only place these skills can be cultivated, I think legal material provides a good place to develop these skills."
Sarat is honored and excited to have the opportunity to serve as president of the Consortium. "I am really quite honored and quite thrilled to be chosen to lead this consortium," he said. "I have devoted a substantial part of my career to spreading the gospel about undergraduate legal education. It is something I think is tremendously important. This provides a national platform to continue that work. I am really honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to take the next step."
While he is extremely delighted to be chosen as president of the Consortium, Sarat promises his new position will not take him away from his role as a professor at the College. "This is an extension of things I have been doing here for a long time," he said.