The number of blacks attending the Law School has dropped substantially since the mid-1990s, despite efforts by administrators to maintain a racially diverse student body.
Michael Signer, a third-year Law student and the founder of the U.Va. Committee for Progress on Race, said in a lengthy letter in the Washington Post's Oct. 19 Outlook section that the number of black students entering the Law School had dropped by 50 percent.
"In the past few years, the Law School's 350-member entering class has included, on average, only 20 black students," Signer said in the letter. "Yet from 1986 to 1995, each entering class had, on average, 40 black students."
Given the relatively small number of students involved, some fluctuations in the number of blacks attending are inevitable, according to Law School Dean John Jeffries Jr.
"Those numbers bounce around a little bit from year to year," Jeffries said.
Yet to the extent that the decline represents a genuine trend and not a statistical aberration, the cause is not readily evident.
Jeffries said the Law School has consistently sought a diverse student body, meaning admissions policies are not the cause of any decline in black students.
Instead, administrators said the decline in black Law students could be a product of the increasing financial burden imposed on students.
Over the past few years, the Law School has received smaller and smaller shares of its funding from the state, both because legislators in the midst of a budget crisis were cutting funding for higher education and because administrators were pursuing a self-sufficiency plan in order to gain more independence.
Though the Law School remains a public institution, it no longer receives any funds from the state and now charges students tuition rates that more closely resemble those at other private institutions than at public schools.
As the cost of tuition has increased -- it currently stands at $23,798 per year for in-state students and $29,201 for out-of-state students -- the amount of money dedicated to scholarships and financial aid has been unable to keep pace.
Administrators said these increasing costs may be deterring blacks, who are less likely to have the personal wealth to afford the higher costs, from applying.
"Our scholarships are way, way behind," said Susan Palmer, Law School associate dean for admissions, who supplied Signer with the statistics he used in his letter.
Jeffries said the lack of funds for financial aid is a concern not only because it may be deterring prospective black students, but also because it limits the accessibility of the Law School more broadly.
"Financial aid for students is now our top priority," he said.
Other factors also may be leading blacks to go elsewhere. Palmer said because the University is in the South and far from any big city, blacks sometimes are reluctant to attend.
In his letter, Signer called on the Law School to increase its scholarship funding and to expand its outreach efforts to minority communities.
In an interview, he said he thinks administrators are dedicated to achieving this goal.
"They're listening very carefully to the desires of students and alumni," Signer said. "They've been great about it."
Jeffries and Palmer both said they have such a commitment.
Palmer said exposure to diverse views is important for Law students and that racial diversity helps ensure that various perspectives are represented in classroom discussions.
Jeffries agreed.
"The ability for lawyers to be leaders and decision makers is enhanced by having a diverse class," Jeffries said.
Others disagree that racial diversity should be a goal of the Law School's admissions policy.
Curt Levey, director of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Rights, said racial diversity does not ensure diversity of viewpoints and that by considering race in admissions colleges and universities ignore important principles of colorblindness.
"We have a very important moral and constitutional principle that you don't judge people based on the color of their skin," Levey said.
Though the Supreme Court's decision in Grutter v. Bollinger explicitly gave law schools the right to seek a racially diverse student body, the debate over the role of race in admissions is by no means dead.
Levey said affirmative action opponents, sensing that public opinion may be on their side, are likely to pursue ballot measures that would prevent admissions officials from considering race -- a strategy they are contemplating in Michigan.
Though Law School administrators disagree with Levey's argument that race should not matter in admissions, they agree that other sorts of diversity are important.
Palmer said the Law School seeks a student body that includes people of differing ages, political ideologies, sexual orientations and socio-economic statuses in order to give students exposure to the most different perspectives.
"Diversity is not just a matter of skin color," she said.
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