Florida Coastal School of Law Dean Scott DeVito resigned Tuesday after four years in the position. The resignation was effective immediately.
“It’s just the right time for me to step down and look at other things I’ve been intending to do,” DeVito said Wednesday during an interview.
DeVito notified Florida Coastal students and faculty Tuesday of his resignation via email. In a statement to faculty, DeVito wrote:
“It has been a great honor to be a professor at Florida Coastal for the last eleven years and to have been your dean for the last four. After considerable thought and personal reflection, I have made the decision to resign from Florida Coastal School of Law. I wish you all the best and will greatly miss you.”
The American Bar Association in August denied Florida Coastal’s application to convert to a nonprofit law school. DeVito said his resignation was not related to that, but he expects the school to reapply for nonprofit status.
A replacement for DeVito was not determined as of Wednesday afternoon.
DeVito said he would work on a few projects he’s had in the works, but he had no official plans yet.
“The hardest thing for me to do in a really long time was leave the school,” he said. “I did because I think it’s the right thing, but it was a very difficult thing to do.”
The school has faced issues the past few years. Between 2015 and 2017, the school’s first-time Bar examination pass rate was at least 9 percentage points below the state average.
Last year, the school was found to be out of compliance with ABA accreditation standards. By March, it was found in compliance.