Group: NU law college biased against whites

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By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

Surveying his classrooms at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law, Nestor Marante doesn’t often see faces like his.

“It can be a little hard,” admitted Marante, a third-year law student who is Cuban-American.

Marante, in fact, is part of a small share — 10 to 15 percent — of the college’s 400-plus students who are non-white.

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That’s why the Florida native was a bit shocked by accusations the law college has been discriminating against whites and Asians in favor of blacks and Hispanics in its admissions process.

“I don’t know how much discrimination actually goes on,” Marante said.

But the Falls Church, Va.-based Center for Equal Opportunity says it conducted a study that found the College of Law has engaged in racial preferences by admitting black and Hispanic students with lower grades and LSAT scores than white and Asian applicants.

The group released its study Wednesday, less than four weeks before Nebraskans are scheduled to vote on a ban on some forms of affirmative action.

According to the study, in 2006 and 2007, the law school rejected 389 white applicants even though they had higher grades and LSAT scores than the average black admittee.

That, says the center’s president and general counsel, Roger Clegg, is discrimination.

And, Clegg said, it’s something voters should remember on Nov. 4 when they weigh in on the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, which would put a constitutional ban on race- and gender-based affirmative action in public hiring and admissions decisions.

“This is something that the people of Nebraska should be concerned about,” he said.

College of Law Dean Steve Willborn dismissed the study, saying his college never supplied Clegg’s group with the data it purpotes to cite. The group denies that charge.

Willborn did, however, acknowledge the law college considers race as one factor in its admissions decisions as a way to help diversify its student body.

That practice is consistent with the 2003 Supreme Court ruling that said colleges have a “compelling interest” to pursue diversity on their campuses.

And the law college considers a host of factors beyond race, Willborn noted: whether a student has lived overseas, whether a student speaks a foreign language, whether a student was an NCAA athlete and so on.

“We do provide preferences to people to make sure we get a diversity of people at the law school,” he said. “We want a group of people who can really debate things well from a diverse set of experiences... That makes it a good law school for everybody.”

For example, in a course Willborn teaches, students discuss drug testing. A former NCAA athlete, he said, could share his or her personal experience with the class.

Similarly, a discussion on whether police stop blacks more often than whites would benefit from a black student’s perspective, he said. Or a discussion on economic policies in China could get input from a student who’s lived there.

“You really need to think when you admit a law school class, ‘How are they going to fit together as a group?’” Willborn said.

In 2007, according to the Center for Equal Opportunity, whites comprised 84 percent of law college applicants and 85 percent of admittees. Blacks, meanwhile, comprised 5 percent of applicants and 4 percent of admittees; Hispanics were 5 percent of applicants and 5 percent of admittees; and Asians were 7 percent of applicants and 6 percent of admittees.

If those numbers are accurate, Willborn noted, the law school’s admittees roughly reflect its applicant pool. But Clegg questioned whether, based on grade point averages and LSAT scores, all admittees were equally qualified.

Test scores and grades aren’t the only factors that show how qualified an applicant is, Willborn countered.

His argument was echoed at an afternoon debate between Clegg and David Kramer of the pro-affirmative action group Nebraskans United.

“Personality matters. Background matters. Experience matters,” Kramer said during the heated debate.

Further, asked whether such a small number of minority students at the law college justifies a change to the state’s Constitution, Willborn said: “You can write in the obvious answer for me.”

Clegg believes some of discrimination at UNL goes unreported.

He said he supports colleges’ quests for diversity, but not if they come at the expense of civil rights.

“You have to say, ‘Is it worth it?’” he said. “...The answer is no.”

His group found no statistical evidence of discrimination in undergraduate admissions at UNL.

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.