UNIVERSITY
Law school attracts more minority students
By Alice Wheeler
f merald I ditor
Attracting and retaining mi
noritv far ulty and students to
the law school remains .1 chal
lenge to University administra
tors and ret miters
In the I 'niversitv s current
funding crunch, law professors
who are members ot minority
groups are especially vulner
able to job oilers from si bools
that pay higher salaries, said
law school Dean Maurice Hol
land
"In every 1 use they (minority
professors) moved on to anoth
er university I loll a ml said
This spring. University I’res
Myles Brand announced that
the layy st I100I had hired a neyy
minority fai idly member. Ihra
him Uassama .1 1084 graduate
of Harvard Lays School, yylio
was supposed to begin teaching
in January l'l'D
I ' idol 1 uuaiely because of
prior commitments. Uassama
yvill not arrive on 1 ampus until
tall Itltil "Uassama yvas the
tirst minority candidate in four
or five years,” Holland said
"We ha\e not had any lui h
yvitli minority or non minority
fac ully hei a use our sular \
structure is seriously non 1 urn
petitive
Salaries are not tfie only
problem caused In lack of
funding: money for library a<
But there’s plenty of room for improvement, officials say
(positions. travel and faculty
research is also limited, he
said
Competition a rrion g law
schools to attract minority stu
dents is also tierce
Although the University law
si liool has substantially in
i leased the amount of scholar
ship money for minorities in
the past year. It still is not com
petitive w ith other si (tools
"There is very limited finan
i tal support available from the
University tor minority si holar
ships," said lane Cordon, assis
tant dean of the law si hoot
During the past vent, the law
school raised an additional
S-1U.000 for m holarships from
the Oregon l.aw Foundation
and t1 s West Corpora!ion, she
said
"This year almost all first
year minority students will re
reive some scholarship moil
e\ " Gordon said
Holland said he agrees the
law si liool needs to increase
the financial aid offered to mi
nority students '1 l-inanr ial
support is an urea in which we
really want to improve," lie
said "We are losing out on
some very qualified minority
students
['he I’mversitv s law school
must compete with the exten
sive scholarship programs de
veloped by st bools sn< h its (he
University of Iowa in Iowa
(lily
" I y pit iilly yy e t an offer a
student free tuition and some
living expense money for the
full three years." said Dennis
Shield, assistant dean and <ii
ret tin of admissions at the Uni
versity of Iowa law st hool
Shield said his university
spends ( lose to SfilMI.OOO a year
for minority scholarships The
money is appropriated from the
state through the Hoard of Re
gents
‘‘Minority enrollment lots
been in< reusing every year for
the past four years as has the
strength of our applicants.
Shield said In the past, many
of Iowa's minority students
t ame from Uhicago; now 'stu
dents are now coming from all
over the country
About a third of this year's
incoming t lass at knvu are
members of minority groups.
At Oregon, about Is percent of
the incoming student .ire mi
norities: last year, minority stu
dents composed U) port ent of
tlie first year class
Uordon said she is encour
aged hy the increase in minor
11y enrollment "The more en
couraging thing is that this y ear
lor the first time there is a real
cultural mix among the enter
ing class," she said
Moth Gordon and Holland
said they believe that the lack
ol available tuition grants se
verelv reduces the number of
minority students who actually
enroll at the law school.
"We are suc< essful in getting
interest and applications, then
we lose them when it conies to
lost and financial assistance."
Ilolland said
laws school students are also
concerned about minority rep
resentation and are trying to
help diversify the faculty and
student population.
Christopher Young, a third
year student and a member of
the law school's Diversity Coa
lition, knows that oilers of li
nan< ial support are an effective
method of recruiting minor
ities
"A lot of other schools will
offer you full tuition. If some
one had offered it to me, it
would have- been very ettruc
live." he said.
The Diversity Coalition was
formed two years ago In a
group of law students who
wanted to inc rease awareness
of the1 lac k of minorities
including women, gays and
lesbians, people of color and
people with disabilities at
the law sc bool and in the legal
profession in general
This spring, (he coalition or
ganized a boycott of classes to
i all attention to the la< k of mi
norities.
I.avv schools across the coun
try participated in the boycott.
"Some schools did walkouts."
Young said. "We wanted to do
a day of awareness, to bring at
tention to the problems, not to
demand, 'We want change
right now.' " Young said.
Aside from a lack of fin,mi lal
incentives, minorities may be
reluctant to come to the 1 biiver
sitv for other reasons. Young
said.
"There is a stigmatism about
Oregon being anti-minority."
lie said. '' Hut the l ’Diversity
has done a lot of good work.
Minority enrollment is up and I
think there are two disabled
students starting this term.
"Hut we have to keep work
ing for change We don't want
the ('Diversity to say. 'We've
got one minority professor and
that's enough.' " Young said.
Tile law school sends rei ruit
ers and sometimes minority
students to college fairs across
the country Gordon also sends
information about the Universi
ty's law si bool to all under
graduate schools with an en
rollment composed of at least
25 percent minorities
She also w rites to more than
100 minority graduates of the
Turn to RECRUITING, Page 11
Better law school funding planned
Students, Legislature
asked to foot the bill
By Christopher Blair
fir! >" . <' 1 Md'laijiniJ I i Jr to r
t 'niversitv law students will
literally pay the price to satisfy
tin- complaints of tin' Americ an
Har Association's acc reditation
committee
When they register for c lass
es this week, first year law sin
dents from Oregon will pay a
$750 resource fee on top of
their tuition, a §150 increase
over last year First vear stu
dents from out of state w ill pay
Shoo
And that's not all The fee in
crease. pari of an emergency
funding plan for the lavs
sc hool, will continue to rise
over the next three years Hy
Pin t, residents w ill pay a $‘100
fee; non-residents. $2,400
The trouble began last year
w ith a series of letters from the
American Har Association,
whic h threatened to revoke the
law school's AHA accreditation
if funding and academic; condi
tions were not improved
The most recent letter, dated
Jan it) of this year, demanded
progress in improving fac ulty
salaries, the faculty student ra
tio and law library resources
At its July 20 meeting. 'The
Oregon State Hoard of Higher
Education approved a plan to
inc rease the sc hoot's funding
I he hoard voted to ask the leg
islature tor a $750,000 inc rease
m the Levy school's annual
budget and also to inc rease the
law student resource fee to
raise an additional $2 50,00(1 to
S 100.000 a year
It approved, the law school
administration will be able to
c reate five more regular fa< ulty
Maurice Holland
positions, bringing the total to
27. The law library will hire
two more librarians and add
more books
The next step will be for
Thomas Hartlett, chancellor of
the Oregon State System of
Higher Kducation, to submit
the increase as part of the gov
ernor's budget proposal to the
legislature Of course, this will
have to wait until the next gov
ernor takes office in January.
"There's not much we can
do until the next governor's
elected." said law school Dean
Maurice Holland. "The main
concern then will be to make
sure the funding proposal be
i nines part ot the governor's
budget submitted to the 1991
legislature
Holland said the chancellor
will work with the new gover
nor to bring him or her "up to
speed" not just on the law
si bool issue but on higher edu
cation funding m general.
"The effort will be to per
suade the Legislature to ai tual
1\ appropriate the funding to ti
nance the lavs si hooi retpiest
bei ause that is the funding that
David Dix
has been pointed to as absent
by the ABA accreditation com
mittee," Holland said
Holland said the fee increase
should raise l>etween $250,000
and $300,000 a year, depend
ing on the mix of in state and
out-of-state students
Added to the money he
hopes the legislature will up
prove next year, Holland said
the additional revenue will
"certainly U‘ enough” to ap
pease the AHA, whose repre
sentatives will meet with the
law si hool administration Dei
15.
No one from the ABA could
l>e reached for comment.
Student response to the fee
increase may come as soon as
law si hool registration begins
this week
Barbara Buckley, vice presi
dent of the Student Bar Associ
ation. said the group had not
vet formed an opinion on the
fee increase, but they plan to
discuss it at their next meeting
w ithm the next tw o weeks
State Rep David Dix. D-Ku
gene, who represents the I'ni
Turn to FUNDING, Page 13
INSIDE
WHILE YOU WERE AWAY
Taylor’s closed its doors, and the ASUO
picked a new insurance carrier. A summary of
these stories and more that happened over the
summer can be found on.
Page 3
UNIVERSITY—
Students and community members can view
fossils and fine art at the University's muse
ums and galleries.
Page 6
The Office of Public Safety, also known as
Campus Security, likes to think of itself as the
University's “kinder, gentler police force."....
Page 7
COMMUNITY—
Students who have not yet found housing
face a tight market in the months of August
and September...
Page 8
SPORTS—
Opportunities for team sports abound in Eu
gene and Springfield through the cities' parks
and recreation departments.
Page 9