Fixing the pipeline

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African-American and Mexican-American representation in law school has decreased over the past 15 years, even as their test scores improved and more seats became available, according to a recent study published by Columbia Law School, “A Disturbing Trend in Law School Diversity.”
The groups accounted for a smaller percentage of the 2008 entering class than the 1993 entering class, and a smaller number of students — 4,060 in 2008 compared to 4,142 in 2003, according to Columbia’s Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic study, conducted in conjunction with the Society of American Law Teachers.
Applicants in those groups also have higher shut out rates than Caucasian applicants, meaning a higher percentage are denied acceptance by all of the schools to which they apply.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that schools may consider race as a factor in making admissions decisions, but may not use quotas, or de facto quota systems.
Representatives of law schools Upstate said they would like to increase minority enrollment.
Admissions data provided by the University at Buffalo Law School, Cornell Law School
and Albany Law School show minority enrollments fluctuating between 1993 and 2008.
Between 1993 and 2009, enrollment of African-American and Mexican-American students increased at Cornell, from 10 to 17, and from four to nine, respectively. The total class size also increased, from 191 new students in 1993 to 205 new students in 2009.
Richard Geiger, dean of admissions at Cornell Law School, noted that the percentage of incoming African-American or Hispanic/Latino students increased from 9.9 percent in 1993 to 22. 4 percent in 2009.
UB Law, by contrast, has seen a slight decline in the numbers of African-American and Mexican-American students accepted and enrolled.
In 1993, 50 of the 151 African-American applicants to UB Law were accepted and 22 enrolled. In 2008, 34 of the 202 African-American applicants were accepted and seven enrolled.
UB Law’s overall acceptance rates also declined, however. The law school accepted 667 out of 1,567 applicants in 1993, compared to 673 out of 2,104 applicants in 2008. Overall enrollment decreased from 269 in 1993 to 208 in 2009.
Lily Wiley-Upshaw, vice dean for admissions and financial aid at UB Law, said the school has seen its applicant pool expand since 2000, but applications from racial minorities have not kept pace.
“Unfortunately, in minority applicants, you didn’t see the same growth in applications that you saw in non-minority applications,” Wiley-Upshaw said Tuesday.
The study by Columbia Law School Professor Conrad Johnson found that, nationally, applications by African-American and Mexican-American law school candidates have remained relatively constant.
But Wiley-Upshaw also acknowledged that UB Law’s acceptance rate for African-American applicants in 2009 was lower than its overall acceptance rate. For the incoming class of 2009, the school received applications from 217 African-Americans and accepted 45, or about 20 percent. The school’s overall acceptance rate was about 32 percent.
Wiley-Upshaw said she could not explain the discrepancy.
“Each applicant’s different,” she said. “You look at the strength of each candidate. It’s the decision of the admissions committee.”
Of those accepted, 16 African-Americans enrolled at UB Law in 2009. They represent 7.6 percent of their class of 208 students.
Mexican-Americans fared slightly worse. For the entering class of 1993, four applied, three were accepted and two enrolled. For the entering class of 2009, 13 applied, three were accepted and none enrolled.
Wiley-Upshaw suggested Mexican-American student enrollment would be higher if UB Law was located in the South, in a border state.
Albany Law School, which said it could provide numbers only for uncategorized minorities, reported that 37 students, or 13.4 percent, of its 1993 entering class of 277 classified themselves as racial minorities. In 2008, 64 students, or 25 percent of its entering class of 255, were minorities.
Syracuse Law School did not return calls for comment.
Opening pipeline to law school
“A more helpful, productive conversation is to look at why, overall, the numbers [of minority students] haven’t increased,” Wiley-Upshaw said. “How can we get them through the pipeline, excite them about high school, excite them about college, excite them about law school≠”
UB Law is partnering with the Minority Bar Association of Western New York and the Buffalo public school system to better educate minority children and teenagers about the legal profession and encourage them to consider law school.
The initiative will reach out to students in urban elementary and high schools, and a third program is being planned to help college students prepare for the law school application process.
“I think what we’ve all realized, is that we need to do more to address the pipeline issues that plague not only law schools but also other graduate and professional schools,” Wiley-Upshaw said.
“Everybody wants to open the pipeline,” David Singer, a spokesman for Albany Law School said.
Albany Law School opened a Diversity Office in 2006 to focus on recruiting minority students and ensuring they have a positive experience. The office focuses on traditionally African-American undergraduate schools. The Black Law Students Association on campus also participates in recruiting efforts. A minority scholarship is endowed by an African-American alumnus.
Like UB, Albany Law School is reaching out to urban secondary schools to help teach teenagers about legal careers. Albany’s diversity office coordinates mentoring, mock trial programs and tours of the law school.
“I think it’s pretty well known that there is a pipeline issue, but it depends on the particular group, the particular situation at each law school. We’re all sort of acting in our own little world,” Richard Geiger, dean of admissions for Cornell Law School, said.
It could be helpful to factor diversity into law school rankings, if that could be done fairly, Geiger said.
Cornell provides its law school candidates the opportunity to write a separate application statement about their diverse background or obstacles they’ve had to overcome. Diversity is one of several factors considered by Cornell’s admission committee, along with more traditional admissions factors such as grade-point average, test scores and work experience, Geiger said.
“Diverse experiences, cultural [perspectives], upbringing — the more points of view that can be brought in, the better. I think maybe law school is even more that way than some other types of education,” he said.
The full results of the study are available online at http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/ salt/best-practices/constitutionality-checklist/.
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