Sitting In and Speaking Out in a Search for Change

During this past year, while the Law School faculty remained divided by tenure debates, the school's students pulled together to generate an activism that made their concerns known to the entire campus.

Student demonstrations made clear to the faculty and administration student concerns about the dearth of women and minority professors at the school. There are currently four Black and six women professors tenured and two junior professors who are minorities.

In early April, 125 students held a "study-in" in Langdell Hall as part of a nationwide protest involving over 35 law schools. At some of the other schools, students boycotted classes and picketed outside the few classes that were not cancelled. The Harvard demonstration was noteworthy because of its relative non-disruptiveness.

Dean James Vorenberg '49 and Professor of Law Robert C. Clark, who will succeed Vorenberg in July, have applauded the students' methods of protest and say they support the cause.

"I recognize why you are here and the message you want to send to the Law School and the Law School faculty," Vorenberg told students at the protest. "And I want to thank you for carrying on this forum in a considerate and careful way. It adds to the strength of what you have to say."

At two other demonstrations calling specifically for the hiring of a Hispanic professor, protesters used similarly sedate tactics, silently holding up posters outside the faculty's meeting room in Pound Hall as professors entered.

Demonstration organizers have said they favor quieter methods of protest because "we didn't think that [stronger forms of protest] would work here now," according to Ivette Pena, the incoming chair of Alianza, a Hispanic students' organization. Pena added that Alianza would continue its negotiation with the administration over the next academic year, but "we don't want to be forced to take harsher measures."

But student political activity has not been consistently sedate this year. Last fall, controversy over a proposed amendment to the Law School Council's charter culminated in sabotage, personal attacks and charges of bigotry by both proponents and opponents of the amendment.

Tensions were sparked when a council-organized committee advising the search for a new Law School dean expressly set aside two seats for members of the Coalition for a Diverse Faculty, a minority student alliance. When the council would not similarly reserve seats for members of a conservative student group, the group proposed an amendment preventing the council from reserving seats for members of any specific student organization, except in special cases.

Many students called the proposal racist, saying it was designed to exclude minority students from ad hoc committees.

"This proposal is racist," said Robert L. Wilkins, president of the Black Law Students' Association. "The assumption it asked people to make runs counter to the idea of fighting discrimination. This whole thing became very insulting because conservative students were trying to equate their experience as an 'ideological minority' with that of Black, female or gay students."

Supporters of the amendment denied racist motives, and claimed that many students opposed the amendment--which lost by a margin of 40 percent--because it was associated with the relatively conservative Federalist Society.

"Many people were against this not in principle, but because the conservative and libertarian students proposed it," says Sam J. Levy, who was a member of the group that proposed the amendment and also president of the Federalist Society.

But the referendum campaign went beyond group-sponsored endorsements and condemnations of the measure: posters encouraging support for the amendment were defaced, and Levy received abusive letters and telephone calls from opponents.

"I think you and your untermenschen are full of it," read one letter. 'Untermenschen' is a term Nazi leaders used to describe Jews and other non-Aryan groups.

More recent, less-publicized incidents have further shown students' concern over perceived gender and racial insensitivity.

In March, the Women's Law Association wrote to a visiting professor, charging that he repeatedly used sexist language in his lectures and in a textbook he authored. The professor responded with a sharp criticism of the group's claim, saying "this whole affair...reeks of McCarthyism."

And women law students say another setback came when it was revealed last month that the Law School administration had covered up an alleged rape case since December without taking the case beyond the school's private administrative process into the courts.

"If the charges are true, I would hate to see a good year marred by the administration being afraid to take a stand for women and bowing to fears of legal retaliation from the accused," says Lisa C. Ferrell, a representative to the Law School Council. "A lot of women are afraid of this."

Student Concerns

A survey conducted by the Law School student dean search committee last fall revealed that students' top concerns regarding the appointment of a new dean included insensitivity to gender issues and a lack of personal attention in academics.

Respondents attacked one of the law professors reportedly under consideration for the deanship. "The most strident criticism focused on [the professor's] lack of sensitivity to students and on his perceived sexist attitude in the classroom," read the committee's report. Another candidate was called insensitive to minority concerns.

The report also noted that students want the next dean to concentrate on academic concerns, such as reducing class size.

"Having smaller classes, especially for the first year; working with professors and having individual work recognized rather than having everything depend on one exam at the end of the year; and receiving more feedback are improvements that all students would like," says Ferrell.

And these requests have each been addressed in depth by the newly appointed dean despite the earlier criticisms of him. Clark says a main focus of his education reform will be an attempt to improve the quality of the school's training by increasing students' exposure to professors.

The poll's findings indicate students gave Clark mixed reviews. But in fact, Clark's receptiveness to the survey results is so far the most visible response to the student activism.