Friday, May 22, 1998
Minority numbers continue to fall
LAW SCHOOL: Administrators hope socio-economic background as
criterion will help maintain diversity
By Emi Kojima
Daily Bruin Staff
While UCLA’s undergraduate minority enrollment significantly
declined this year, the number of minority students at the UCLA Law
School has fallen over the past two years.
Last year, the number of minorities – African Americans,
American Indians and Latinos – admitted to the law school dropped
from 22 percent to 10 percent. This year, 8 percent of admitted law
school students were minorities.
This year’s enrollment statistics will be available in June.
The UC Regents changed the admissions policy for professional
schools in 1997 after Proposition 209, SP-1 and SP-2 ended the use
of race as a factor in admissions. Undergraduate admissions were
changed this year.
"(Having fewer minority admissions) is closing a lot of
opportunity for people that had just been opening up," said
Adrienne Byers, vice president of the Black Women’s Lawyers’
Association, which opposed Proposition 209.
"It will adversely affect the legal community as a whole.
Clients want to see diversity in the people who represent them,"
she said.
Andrea Sossin-Bergman, assistant dean of law school admissions,
attributed the drop in minority students from 1997 to 1998 to the
fewer number of admitted students overall.
Each class should be about 275 students. Because last year’s
class was so large – 381 enrolled out of the 1,007 accepted
students. This year, the law school admitted 830 students.
Currently, other states have similar legislation to Proposition
209, such as Michigan, Washington and Florida. Federal legislation
opposing affirmative action has appeared before Congress, although
none has passed.
The number of minority applications for every group except
American Indians has dropped at the law school.
"It can be attributed to the fact that we admitted fewer
minorities last year," Sossin-Bergman said.
"Some minorities do not feel welcome at UCLA and the UCs, but we
do work to overcome that," she added.
Out of 381 students in last year’s class that enrolled, 13
percent were minorities. In 1994, 32 percent of the enrolled class
were minorities.
"Everyone (admitted to the law school) is qualified,"
Sossin-Bergman said. "But we can’t admit everyone who is
qualified."
Some students see advantages to the changes in the admission
process.
"Maybe I’ve talked about it so much that I see the merits of
both sides and can ride the fence," said Jane Oak, a third-year law
student. "Under the admissions standards with socio-economic
background (as a criteria for admissions), we allow diversity
anyway, without having to choose based on race."
The UCLA Law School has used socio-economic background as an
admission criterion in the past; however this year it was
emphasized more in the admissions process.
"We do use socio-economic background as a factor, we always did.
We looked at educationally disadvantaged students, and if a student
is the first in their family to go to college," Sossin-Bergman
said.
Sossin-Bergman said that the law school admissions emphasizes
students’ "difficulties and hardships."
The law school operates on a rolling admissions system,
accepting students as applications come in from January through the
end of April.
Law school applications are on the rise this year, for the first
time since 1992. While the country showed a 1 percent increase in
law school applications last year, UCLA showed an 8 percent
increase.
Sossin-Bergman said that the improvement in the California
economy and the law school’s new library could be factors in the
increase in applications, with 327 more applications than last
year.
Some law school students are happy with the change in the
admission system.
"I’m against affirmative action because in a sense it’s reverse
discrimination," said Annette Kazmerski, a first-year law
student.
"If minority admissions go down, it’s a symptom that the school
isn’t making itself as attractive to minorities as it should be,"
she said.
Other law school students are divided about the admittance of
fewer minority students.
"I don’t think diversity should be forced, but not having it is
a sad thing," said Eran Lagstein, a second-year law student.
"I don’t know what’s worse – lack of diversity or forced
diversity."