Wednesday, November 11, 1998
Minority admissions decline at law school
OUTREACH: Officials recognize need for recruitment to encourage
African Americans, Latinos to apply
By Brian Fishman
Daily Bruin Contributor
While protests, arrests and vicious debate have surrounded the
repeal of affirmative action, diversity at the UCLA Law School has
has continued to decline.
This year, the number of African American applicants dropped 55
percent from 1994 levels. The number of Latino applicants has also
fallen by 44 percent since 1994, the year before the decision to
discontinue affirmative action.
During the same period, the number of African Americans actually
admitted to the law school dropped from 26 percent to 8 percent
while the number of Latino admits fell from 17 to 12 percent.
The last time affirmative action was used in admissions was for
the incoming class of 1996.
According to the Black Law Student Association, the lack of
minority students has been compounded by their obscurity.
The association, which welcomes incoming African American
students, has only located six of the eight students enrolled, said
Teresa Kerr, association president
"We want to introduce them to our organization, but in this case
we can’t find all the students enrolled," Kerr said.
She added that the end of affirmative action has driven away
prospective applicants because they no longer feel welcome.
The fear of declining diversity was enough to dissuade many
students from applying, said Andrea Sossin-Bergman, assistant dean
of law school admissions.
"Even before the end of affirmative action, the number of
(minority) applicants started to decline," Sossin-Bergman said.
"We can’t admit people who don’t apply," she added.
But, Kerr said the law school has not done enough to encourage
minorities to apply.
"Under the guidelines of Proposition 209, they are still allowed
to do outreach  we haven’t seen that," Kerr said.
Sossin-Bergman, however, claimed the law school does have
outreach programs, and this year has named an assistant dean in
charge of outreach.
She also pointed to the Law Fellows program, aimed at training
undergraduate students to prepare for law school.
This program is designed to teach disadvantaged students how to
take the LSAT and to offer assistance writing personal
statements.
In 1997, the program’s inaugural year, 19 students participated,
and this year officials hope recruit 45 students to the program,
said Sossin-Bergman.
Additionally, the school gives names of minority admits to the
various campus ethnic groups. Those groups then try to woo the
potential students into attending UCLA.
"It’s going to take money or people power," said Shui-Ming
Cheer, president of the Asian Pacific Islander Students
Association
Kerr echoed these sentiments, complaining student groups can’t
run outreach programs by themselves.
"We just don’t have the resources," she said.
Kerr said UCLA needs to work harder to appeal to California
students.
"It used to be that the draw of UCLA was diversity," Kerr
said.
She added that with the end of affirmative action, students
admitted to UCLA who may also have been admitted to more
prestigious eastern schools will now go farther east, rather than
stay in California.
"I don’t think it’s a hostile environment, but it can be a
culture shock if you are used to a more diverse environment, she
said.
The school needs to take other factors, besides grades and LSAT
scores into account in admissions, Cheer said.
Sossin-Bergman said the law school does consider alternative
means of determining applicant merit.
"We actually state that we will take under consideration
socioeconomic factors (in admissions)," said Sossin-Bergman.
Cheer was conciliatory towards law school faculty, asserting
they have supported affirmative action.
"The vast majority are in favor of affirmative action," Cheer
said, "but they don’t want to take a more political stance."
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