Returning to Law School, Continuing the Debate

Returning to campus after a spring of emotional turmoil over issues of race and gender, Harvard law students say they expect another year of friction between activists and the administration, and within the faculty itself.

Dean of the Law School Robert C. Clark has already distributed a letter appealing for a "more open and respectful" discussion to heal deep divisions in the community.

"The events of last spring were disturbing and difficult for many members of this community," he wrote. "It has become apparent that the ways in which we deal with each other ought to be improved."

Clark was referring to a bitter, intense debate over a controversial parody of the feminist writings of Mary Joe Frug, a professor at the New England School of Law who was murdered in 1991.

The parody, which appeared on the anniversary of the scholar's death, added fuel to the ongoing debate over the school's efforts to hire women and minority professors.

Derrick A. Bell, Harvard's first Black tenured law professor, continued his unpaid leave of absence protesting the absence of non-white women on the senior faculty.

The term was also marked by an unsuccessful student lawsuit against the Law School, a series of sit-ins and disciplinary hearings, and open skirmishing between various faculty factions.

Many students, critical of Clark's response to the Frug parody, called for his resignation and booed him during Commencement ceremonies.

Several student activists interviewed last week said they intend to continue debating the issues and pressuring the Law School.

"We're not going to wait until spring this year. We're not going to start from scratch," says Julie A. Su, a member of the Coalition for Civil Rights.

Su is optimistic about working with the administration. She says Clark has adopted a different tone this year, one of receptiveness to student input.

"I don't think it will be as bad [this year]. I have faith that people learn lessons," she says.

But the students are prepared to take action if necessary. First-year law students are aware of the conflict and seem willing to participate as well.

"Although things were bad last year, I don't think students would shy away from bringing things to the forefront again," Su says.

Law School Council President Marie-Louise Ramsdale agrees. "The administration likes the fact that from year to year, students leave," she says. "But eight out of nine of us are back. This is not a dead issue."

"I haven't seen a lot of changes. No minorities have been hired. We're not starting on a tremendously positive note," she says.

Ramsdale says coalition members stayed in touch over the summer and have not lost momentum. They plan to gather information from other schools on their minority hiring policies this year.

"You will see a much more organized approach from the CCR this year. We're much less fragmented," she says.

Several students active in the debate were disturbed by the school's decision to take disciplinary action, though minor, against some sit-in participants last spring.

Elizabeth A. Moreno, a member of the coalition, says the University ignored a tradition of treating sit-ins as an acceptable form of protest. "Harvard has decided to go back to the fifties," she says.

"Nobody from the far right to the far left thinks that the administration listens to them or cares about them. It's worse now than ever before," Moreno says.