Law Schools Judged on Their Racial Mix

By Mara Rose Williams, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Jan. 21–Area law schools could improve their racial mix of students to better reflect the population they serve, according to a recent report.

In 2005, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Missouri-Columbia were among the whitest law schools, tying for 20th among 183 American law schools. Both ranked better in 2004.

The University of Kansas School of Law improved its ranking from the previous year, dropping from 63rd to 88th on the list. The University of Montana law school had the highest percentage of white students. Howard University in Washington, D.C., a historically black college, had the lowest percentage of white students.

The annual America’s Whitest Law Schools Report by a University of Dayton law school professor ranks private and state law schools based on the percentage of white students enrolled compared with the percentage of white applicants.

Admission officials at both Missouri schools said the report did not consider that only a small number of minority students apply to their schools. Even fewer meet admission criteria, and state schools cannot afford to offer the big scholarships that attract the best minority students to private schools.

Debbie Brooks, director of admissions at the UMKC law school, said she would love to enroll more minority students, but “the pipeline is the issue,” she said. “I can’t admit students to law school if they are not applying, and I can’t admit them if when they apply they don’t qualify for admission.”

According to the report released late last fall, MU and UMKC had 34 percent more white students enrolled in 2005 than were in the Law School Admission Council’s national application pool. But when the schools were compared with regional admission applications, they ranked 128th — with just 6.5 percent more white students enrolled than were in the regional pool.

MU spokesmen said the national ranking did not paint a fair picture because the law schools get more than 80 percent of their students from the Midwest.

“When you look at Missouri compared with other places in the nation, we are very white,” said MU spokesman Christian Basi.

MU Law School Dean Larry Dessem said that in fall 2004, 9.8 percent of all students enrolled were minorities. At UMKC’s law school, nearly 9 percent were minority.

University of Kansas Law School admission officials said that in 2004, about 21 percent of the students were minorities. In the 2005 report, KU had an 18 percent minority enrollment.

“Of course we’d love to be listed as one of the most diverse law schools in the country, but I don’t think the middle is a bad place to start,” said Carrie English, director of admissions for the KU law school.

Vernellia Randall, the University of Dayton law professor who has conducted the study for two years, said her report did not break down applicants to individual law schools by race. Instead, it compares school enrollment against the regional or state pool of applications furnished to the Law School Admissions Council. The council tracks every law school application.

The report said whites account for 68 percent of the nation’s law school applications but fill more than 80 percent of the law school seats.

The consequence of not increasing minority enrollment, Randall said, is that “by 2025, we will have a profession that doesn’t look anything like the nation it serves.”

Although minorities constitute about 30 percent of the U.S. population, only 15 percent of the nation’s lawyers are African-American, Asian American, Latino or Native American.

Dessem said efforts were being made.

This month, the MU law school hired a coordinator of student diversity programs to recruit minorities and students with diverse cultural backgrounds. At UMKC, Brooks has compiled a list of minority-student recruiting events at high schools, colleges and universities throughout the region.

KU officials visit undergraduate campuses with large minority enrollment, attend Law School Admission Council forums in cities with strong minority populations, and participate in events such as the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute and the National Black Graduate Student Association Conference.

A 2005 American Bar Association report on diversity in the legal profession predicts that unless a pipeline is created to funnel academically sound minority students into law school, the racial divide will grow.

The effort, Brooks said, needs to start in elementary school.

“Someone has to tell these kids they can go to law school and what they need to do to get there,” she said. “We have to get to them early. … We have a huge task in front of us.”

————

To contact Mara Rose Williams, call (816) 234-4419 or send e-mail to mdwilliams@kcstar.com .

—–

Copyright (c) 2006, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.