Dean Cuts Committee Students, Angering Law School Council

The Law School administration will eliminate four student and alumni representatives from the school's placement committee next year, Victor Brudney, chairman of the committee, said yesterday.

Brudney and Albert M. Sacks, dean of the Law School, decided to restructure the committee because "the damn things gets to be unwieldy" with too many student members, Brudney said.

The move is intended to "make the committee comparable in size to other law school committees, not to displace a particular human being," he added.

The committee counsels law students in finding summer jobs and employment with law firms, and makes recommendations to Sacks on policy decision affecting students applying for jobs.

The decision to decrease student and alumni representation on the committee is "absolutely outrageous," David Oppenheimer, student committee member, said yesterday. Oppenheimer, who is also a member of the Law School Council, added that the student body was not consulted on the matter, and does not approve of the change.

"To alter the student-alumni vs. faculty-administration ratio is wrong," Oppenheimer said.

Students have been unified in all policy decisions and "we've been a thorn in the side of the faculty," he added.

Russell Simpson, assistant dean of the Law School, said the decision to reduce the number of students from six to four was "purely practical." The committee is too large to meet regularly, and the large number of alumni makes it "too remote" from the Law School, he added.

Simpson said he does not think the reductions will make any difference in the committee's ability to carry out its functions.

Neither Sacks nor Alfred Daniels, assistant dean of the Law School, would comment on the change.

Students and alumni have always taken a strong stand on questions of discrimination submitted to the committee, Lenora Tucker, a student committee member, said yesterday.

The reduction of student committee members is a result of the students' active stand on problems of discrimination, particularly during last year's controversial "Bowman Case," she added.

Last fall, Gail E. Bowman, a third-year law student, charged the recruiter for the Chicago law firm of Kirkland and Ellis with making racist remarks during the course of her interview.

Brudney said yesterday the restructuring of the committee was conceived "long before the Bowman case came to a head."

Any claims that the change was a result of the Bowman controversy is "pure nonsense," he added.

Brudney said, however, that Bowman lodged her initial complaint before the change was discussed.