The Importance of Student and Faculty Diversity in Law Schools: One Dean?s Perspective

• Author: Kevin R. Johnson
• Position: Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies, University of California at Davis School of Law; A.B., University of California, Berkeley; J.D., Harvard University.
• Pages: 1549-1577

1549

The Importance of Student and Faculty

Diversity in Law Schools: One Dean’s

Perspective

Kevin R. Johnson

I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1550

II. THE EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS OF STUDENT DIVERSITY ........................ 1551

A. GRUTTER V. BOLLINGER ............................................................... 1552

B. POLICY ARGUMENTS AGAINST RACE-CONSCIOUS ADMISSIONS

SCHEMES ....................................................................................... 1554

III. EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS OF FACULTY DIVERSITY ................................. 1556

A. THE BENEFITS OF FACULTY DIVERSITY TO TEACHING ....................... 1557

B. THE BENEFITS OF FACULTY DIVERSITY TO LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP ....... 1562

C. PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN MEASURING FACULTY DIVERSITY .............. 1563

1. How Much Diversity? The Need for a “Critical Mass” ....... 1563

2. Who Counts? ........................................................................ 1564

IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF A BROAD CONCEPTION OF DIVERSITY TO A

LEGAL EDUCATION .............................................................................. 1566

A. BROAD NOTIONS OF DIVERSITY IN BAKKE AND GRUTTER ................. 1566

B. DIVERSITY IN TIMES OF (RACIAL) LIMITS ......................................... 1569

V. INCENTIVE SYSTEMS FOR LAW SCHOOLS AND DEANS, THE U.S. NEWS

RANKINGS, AND THE QUEST FOR DIVERSITY ......................................... 1572

VI. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 1577

 Dean and Mabie–Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies,

University of California at Davis School of Law; A.B., University of California, B erkeley; J.D.,

Harvard University.

1550 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 96:1549

I. INTRODUCTION

My contribution to this symposium on “The Future of Legal Education”

sketches one dean’s thoughts on the case for the importance of diversity in

law schools.1 Let me begin with two questions. In these times, can a truly

excellent law school have a homogenous student body and faculty? Can we

truly—and do we want to—imagine a top-twenty-five law school comprised of

predominantly white men?

Law-school deans at virtually each and every turn receive direction and

guidance on how to achieve a more diverse student body and faculty.2

Before being selected for the job, most law deans, as well as most other

campus leaders, will have had a career in which they were conditioned to

express their deep and enduring commitment to diversity. Despite this oft-

stated commitment, the racial diversity of law-school student bodies and

faculties leveled off in the early twenty-first century.3

Before becoming a dean, I firmly believed—and continue to believe—

that racial, socioeconomic, and other kinds of diversity among students and

faculty is critically important to ensure excellence at any law school. In my

estimation, for reasons outlined in this Essay, diversity and excellence are

inextricably interrelated, mutually reinforcing, and well worth striving for by

any law school worth its salt.

In an increasingly diverse nation and integrated global political

economy, who would want to be a dean assigned the unenviable task of

defending homogeneity within a law school to the public, faculty, and

students? To the contrary, I have advocated that both student and faculty

diversity should be factored into the multivariable formula employed by the

1. I presented this paper at a February 2011 symposium organized by the Iowa Law

Review on “The Future of Legal Education.” UC Davis law students Joanna Cuevas Ingram, Janet

Kim, and Aida Macedo provided helpful research and editorial assistance. Some of the t houghts

presented in Parts II and III were adapted from Vikram David Amar & Kevin R. Johnson, Why

U.S. News and World Report Should Include a Diversity Index in Its Ranking of Law Schools,

FINDLAW (Mar. 12, 2010), http://writ.news.findlaw.com/amar/20100312.html [hereinafter

Amar & Johnson, Student Diversity], and Vikram David Amar & Kevin R. Johnson, Why U.S. News

and World Report Should Include a Faculty Diversity Index in Its Ranking of Law Schools , FINDLAW

(Apr. 9, 2010), http://writ.news.findlaw.com/amar/20100409.html. In 2010, I served as chair

of the Association of American Law Schools (“AALS”) Committee on the Recruitment and

Retention of Minority Law Teachers and Students. Portions of this paper were presented at the

AALS 2011 Annual Meeting on a program sponsored by this Committee, which included la w

deans discussing the challenges of diversifying law faculties.

2. See, e.g., AM. BAR ASS’N, DIVERSITY IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION: THE NEXT STEPS? 17–24

(2010).

3. See LAW SCH. ADMISSION COUNCIL & AM. BAR ASS’N SECTION OF LEGAL EDUC. &

ADMISSIONS TO THE BAR, ABA–LSAC OFFICIAL GUIDE TO ABA-APPROVED LAW SCHOOLS 870

(2010 ed. 2009) [hereinafter ABA–LSAC OFFICIAL GUIDE] (presenting data of total law-school

minority enrollment from 1987–88 through 2008–09).