Diversity Resources

Diversity Resources

This page provides links to relevant and related websites, reports, court filings and news articles related to affirmative action, legal and societal problems and solutions related to it. Some of the links can be found elsewhere on this site, while others provide useful information that may not have corresponded to the particular issues highlighted within the contents of this site.

American Bar Association Speaks Out 2006

The Pipeline Problem

Reconsidering the LSAT

Affirmative Action

The Affirmative Action Cases

Voluntary Integration cases

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ABA

American Bar Association Speaks Out

(adopted by House of Delegates in August 2006)

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There is no one single cause that leads to the disparaties in representation of diverse groups in higher education. There is also no simple solution. The following links address the Pipeline Problem, the Fear Factor and the LSAT Problem.

The Pipeline Problem

A large factor contributing to the lack of diversity in higher education in general, and in the law school context in particular,

is the shortage of qualified minority high school graduates applying to four-year universities. This is often referred to as the "Pipeline Problem." The issue has been summarized thusly: "To the extent that lower college attendance by black and Hispanic students is attributable to lower college readiness rates, it cannot be attributed to insufficient financial aid or inadequate affirmative action policies."

The Next Generation: Can law firms help these kids make it to law school? from Minority Law Journal, Fall 2006

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What's Wrong with the LSAT

St. John's Law Review Winter 2006

Misuse and Abuse of the LSAT: Making the Case for Alternative Evaluative Efforts and a Redefinition of Merit

by Phoebe A. Haddon and Deborah W. Post

http://academic.udayton.edu/thewhitestlawschools/2005twls/chapter2/LSA%20Practices.pdf

LSAC calls for schools to reassess use of LSAT

SALT on the LSAT (2003)

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Affirmative Action

The Civil Rights Project at Harvard

www.affirmativeactionadvocacy.com

Focus on Affirmative Action, A project of the African American Policy Forum

13 Myths About Affirmative Action: A Special Series on a Public Policy Under Siege:

www.aapf.org/focus

Washington Post Special Report on Affirmative Action

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/affirm/affirm.htm

Affirmative Action Timeline

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmativetimeline1.html#2000

University of Michigan's Undergraduate Admissions Point System

The African American Policy Forum March 27-28 Affirmative Action Conference

(transcripts from 2003)

FairChance

http://www.fairchance.org/

The History of Affirmative Action Policies

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The Cases

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc University of Michigan Affirmative Action

From Bakke to Grutter and Gratz by Katherine C. Naff

LandmarkCases.Org Background on Bakke

Bakke Amicus Briefs

University of Michigan Admissions Lawsuits Websites

http://www.umich.edu/pres/aate/

http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/admissions/new/

Articles related to the Amicus Briefs:

APA Submits Amicus Briefs

ASA Submits Amicus Brief

Princeton Joins Amicus Briefs

The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the

essence of a rich and rewarding human experience.

We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different

hopes, different dreams.

Attaining a diverse student body is at the heart of the Law School's proper institutional mission

"Attaining a diverse student body is at the heart of the Law School's proper institutional mission, and its "good faith" is

"presumed" absent "a showing to the contrary." Id., at 318-319, 57 L Ed 2d 750, 98 S Ct 2733. Enrolling a

"critical mass" of minority students simply to assure some specified percentage of a particular group merely because of

its race or ethnic origin would be patently unconstitutional. E.g., id., at 307, 57 L Ed 2d 750, 98 S Ct 2733.

But the Law School defines its critical mass concept by reference to the substantial, important, and laudable educational

benefits that diversity is designed to produce, including cross-racial understanding and the breaking down of racial

stereotypes. The Law School's claim is further bolstered by numerous expert studies and reports showing that such

diversity promotes learning outcomes and better prepares students for an increasingly diverse workforce, for society, and

for the legal profession. Major American businesses have made clear that the skills needed in today's increasingly global

marketplace can only be developed through exposure to widely diverse people, cultures, ideas, and viewpoints.

High-ranking retired officers and civilian military leaders assert that a highly qualified, racially diverse officer corps is essential to national security. Moreover, because universities, and in particular, law schools, represent the training ground for a large number of the Nation's leaders, Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 634, 94 L. Ed. 1114, 70 S. Ct. 848, the path to leadership must be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity. Thus, the Law School has a compelling interest [***322] in attaining a diverse student body."

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