The Race Dilemma at Berkeley Law

...In a report circulated earlier this year, AALSA stated that the special admissions program should attempt "to meet the needs of low-income Asian communities and the poor," not merely "to fill the ranks of the bar with yellow faces...

...Asians were removed from the pool earlier this year, because it was found enough would be admitted through the regular procedures...

...Nevertheless, most whites support the special admissions program...

...missions pool...

...When the state court denied a rehearing last month, it amended the original decision, ordering Bakke to be admitted immediately...

...Although some instructors may have negative feelings about minority students, the objective evidence suggests that most do not...

...Lawyers can help minorities as much in these jobs as in ghettoes, he said...

...That would mean the permanent end of the Boalt practice of placing black, Chicano and Native-American applicants in a separate adMICHAEL BERNICK, a past contributor, is studying law at the University of California at Berkeley...

...The court ruled that admissions need not be based solely on grades and MCAT scores to comply with equal protection laws...

...After this second ruling the general counsel for the University of California, Donald L. Reidhaar, instructed the institution's nine campuses to refrain from using quotas and announced he would appeal to the U.S...

...Allen Bakke, a white, was rejected in 1973 and again in 1974 (when there were 2,644 and 3,737 applicants...

...While there has been no set number of places for the different minorities, the admissions committee has sought to insure that they comprise 18-21 per cent of the entering class...

...It is not at all certain, for example, that a special admissions program based on economic disadvantage would admit minorities rather than indigent whites...

...Leavey Oliver, a second-year black student, pointed out that few minority applicants at Boalt came from the indigent communities, few actually practiced in these communities, and, in any case, there was no way to determine the sincerity of an applicant's expressed intentions...

...An alternate view was forcefully expressed at a meeting on admissions held immediately after Bakke...

...Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Bakke case has been the reaction of white students at Boalt...

...Supreme Court...

...Contrary to the popular view of Berkeley students, the whites here -especially the men-tend to hold views ranging from moderate to conservative on domestic issues such as social welfare programs and affirmative action...

...The decision, handed down in the case of Bakke v. Regents of the University of California, actually involved the Davis campus' medical school, where five admissions officers each had been ranking candidates on the basis of grades, Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores, recommendations, student activities, and an interview...

...In addition, as Vetter notes, there is the problem of verification...

...And since Bakke faculty supporters of the program have found widespread sympathy among colleagues...

...Despite the best efforts of all concerned, it is likely to prove difficult to devise an admissions procedure that will abide by the court ruling and still encourage minority enrollment...

...Many applicants will not know their parents' income-especially the relevant figures for the period when the applicant was growing up- and a few may falsify the data...

...Now the program may be eliminated and the number of minorities severely reduced because of a recent California Supreme Court ruling declaring race an unacceptable admissions criterion for publicly financed schools...

...the school could use factors such as economic or educational disadvantage or service to minority communities, but not race...

...We want persons who plan to practice in the community, where legal aid is so desperately needed...

...This seems not to be true...

...Final selections followed a cumulative ranking, except that 16 of the 100 slots available were reserved for members of minority groups...

...We say that is not enough...

...And Joyce Carrillo, chairman of La Raza -who has rejected offers from large firms to join a law collective after graduation-recently declared: "The administration at Boalt takes a person whose family is middle class, who has a 692 LSAT, who has graduated from Stanford, and whose last name is Gonzales, and claims that it is satisfying special admissions...

...He sued the University, contending that since he had a higher rating than many of the minorities accepted, the admissions procedure violated his rights under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment...

...They speak about the need for lawyers to assume a responsible role in shaping public policy, and of the dearth of minority lawyers...

...BLACK, Chicano and Asian students at Boalt see the state court decision as one more obstacle to integration of the legal profession...

...Over the past five years, the faculty has continually debated admissions criteria for white students-i.e., the relative value that should be placed on grades and Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores-but special admissions has never been questioned...

...Yet last spring Kadish, anticipating the court decision, appointed a committee to examine alternative special admissions programs...

...Prior to the Bakke case, the Asian-American Law Students Association (AALSA) and La Raza, the Chicano organization, had argued that preference should be given to Asians or Chicanos who either come from poor communities or are committed to practice in them...

...Then, in 1967, the school initiated a special admissions program, guaranteeing places for 70-80 minority students in each entering class of 280...

...QUESTIONING A QUOTA SYSTEM The Race Dilemma at Berkeley Law BY MICHAEL BERNICK BERKELEY UNTIL THE mid-1960s no more than a handful of blacks, Chicanos, Asians, and Native-Americans attended Boalt Hall, the law school of the University of California at Berkeley...

...Their individual associations have therefore been working on position papers defending the constitutionality of a race-based special admissions system...

...Similarly, Professor Jan Vetter, the chairman of the admissions committee, has recently begun studying "disadvantaged" criteria...

...He further argued that minorities should get jobs in major law firms and seek high government positions, so that they can earn their rightful share of the national wealth and be in positions where influential decisions are made...

...Few, however, expect the Court to overturn the decision...

...The admissions policy is effectively shaped by the law school faculty...

...Discussing this problem, Professor Jack Owens, a member of the Kadish committee, explained, "There seems to be an assumption that special-admissions students are also economically disadvantaged and that other students are not...

...The dean of the law school, San-ford Kadish, has frequently been attacked by students for not being committed to minority admissions...

...Many professors at Boalt believe that with special-admissions cases in courts throughout the country, the Supreme Court will hear Bakke and order a stay allowing the present admissions program to operate another year...

...At the same time, many among them would welcome a special admissions program keyed to the disadvantaged or community service principle if it would not cut their numbers in a state where less than 2 per cent of lawyers are from minority groups...

...The California Supreme Court agreed last September, 6-1...

...The presence of people from different backgrounds, they say, leads to a fuller understanding of the policy implications of laws...

...Members of the overwhelmingly white faculty are seen to be uncomfortable with nonwhite faces in the classroom, and to regard special admissions as lowering the academic standards and prestige of Boalt...

...Indeed, the one thing that seems clear in the wake of the confusion caused by Bakke is that few faculty or students at Boalt, colored or white, would care to return to the racial homogeneity of the past...

...Minorities and sympathetic whites at Boalt now fear the professors will use the court decision to get rid of all affirmative action...

...Many feel their education has been enriched by a diverse student body...