Harvard Law Review Seeks to Increase Minority Members

A subcommittee of the Harvard Law Review met yesterday to consider options for increasing representation of women and minorities on the Law Review. Of the 41 candidates most recently selected as members of the Review, three were women and none were Blacks or Chicanos.

"We're trying not to foreclose any options," Chris Littleton, a third-year law student and member of the subcommittee, said yesterday. She added that members of the Law Review are concerned that underrepresentation of women and minorities is unfair to them and may deprive the Review of their special insights.

One change under consideration is increasing efforts to inform students of what to expect from the competition for membership and the publication. "The Law Review has a bad reputation among some students," one member of the subcommittee said, adding that it is "perceived as cold, distant, and an unpleasant place to work."

Also under consideration are changes in competition procedures, such as placing more emphasis on writing ability rather than grades. But many members of the Law Review said yesterday they would oppose changing the competition procedure.

"The Law Review has been in existence for 94 years and has always had a completely objective method of membership selection," Stewart Singer, Law Review president, said yesterday.

"The Law Review is a kind of honor society, perceived as an elite among elites," Claude Dixon, executive editor of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties journal, another Law School publication, said yesterday. "That's what makes it so important to have representative numbers of minorities and women on the Review," he added.