Warm retirement wishes to our School Manager, Elizabeth Varley
Much of the success of UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy can be attributed to the outstanding support of non-academic staff. In this respect we owe a huge debt to Elizabeth Varley. She came to the School in the early 2000s, and initially worked as an administrator within Cultural Policy. She then replaced Valerie Brouder as School Manager in 2012, and served tirelessly, and wonderfully, in this role until the end of last year.
Elizabeth’s outstanding advocacy and support of our students led to her being repeatedly nominated for teaching awards, although she was never a lecturer. In this, our students rightly joined the School’s academic and other support staff in appreciating how Elizabeth was not simply committed to the efficient running of the School (not always easy in the face of a pandemic and rapidly changing regulations), but also to the welfare of each and every one of us. We have always marvelled at how networked she was across the university, but this reflects that we were not alone in admiring her ability to get things done in a way that always indicated her commitment to fairness and efficiency. But this also often came with a hint of gossip and great appetite for good fun. On the other hand, as she was fiercely loyal to the School and its interests, woe betide those for whom she had a disapproving “tsk, tsk,” and a shake of the head - these being reserved for any she identified as placing unnecessary obstacles in the paths of our students and staff. Successive Heads of School knew they had no greater ally or support in Elizabeth, and all knew how crucial she was to the maintaining and contributing to the School’s rightly famous atmosphere of collegiality and friendliness. For all of these reasons Prof Kathleen James-Chakraborty added Elizabeth as a co-author to a forthcoming article on Chloethiel Woodard Smith - a pioneering architect who built her career in part by quietly helping behind the scenes to advance those of her, in this case, male, colleagues. Anyone from our School who reads it, will recognise that Elizabeth has done as much for them as Smith did for any of her peers.
Elizabeth is very much missed as a School Manager, but remains a very dear and valued friend.