 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Welcome Message from the President
|
A Libelous Accusation
The American Bar Association’s accreditation committee simply would not let go of its accusation that our admissions system was discriminatory.
The March 1981 inspection report claimed that giving admissions points for a master’s degree discriminated against minorities because minorities were underrepresented among people holding master’s degrees.
"So what?" was my answer. Minorities were underrepresented among holders of bachelor degrees as well, and yet every law school required a bachelor’s degree as a condition of admission. And every law school asks about post graduate degrees on their application form. Why do they ask, except to affect the admissions decision?
We felt that giving bonus points for a master’s degree was more likely to favor applicants who needed to bolster their LSAT score in order to be accepted. This meant that it was a self help opportunity which especially benefited minorities.
They made the same type of argument about sponsorship agreements. They said that giving bonus points to an applicant who was sponsored by a lawyer discriminated against minorities because there were fewer minority lawyers available to act as sponsors.
After listing many black judges and lawyers who enthusiastically sponsored candidates for admission to Cooley, I wrote:
"Not only are minority lawyers interested and willing to sponsor candidates for admission, but non minorities are equally anxious to help minority candidates.
"The sponsorship agreement provides a sensible approach to the problem of affirmative action. It does not create different numerical score levels to accept certain races or ethnic minorities. It does not indulge in the haughty arrogance of the "special" programs of lowered standards and racially segregated tutoring which have proven so unsatisfactory in other law schools.
"Every student at Cooley knows that he or she was accepted on a color blind basis, and that he or she is measured by a color blind, anonymous grading system, and that the diploma he or she will receive will be as real and well earned as any other.
"There are no second class applicants, second class students or second class graduates at Cooley."
We gave bonus admissions points to applicants who had scholarships, too. The ABA agreed that a student who had financial help should have a better chance of success in law school. But they insisted that this factor also discriminated against minority applicants, claiming that minorities are less likely to win scholarships than non minorities.
We told them that the truth was exactly the opposite. There were several scholarships available exclusively for minority students, and these clearly were not biased against minorities.
We didn’t ask a candidate’s race on our application. We did however, ask if they would like their application called to the attention of persons or organizations which affirmatively assisted various named minorities.
We didn’t have many scholarships based purely on academic attainment. In any case, students who might qualify for academic scholarships typically wouldn’t need bonus admissions points to be accepted at Cooley.
I pointed out to Jim White in a November 1981 letter that the allegation of racial discrimination was libelous. Our admissions brochure spelled out that Cooley did not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, age, and so on. To say that we discriminate was to say that we lied in our publication.
White responded in early December, telling me that he would bring my letter to the attention of the accreditation committee at its next meeting, then scheduled for May 5-7, 1982.
I was incensed. I wrote him immediately spelling out in no uncertain terms that his conduct was actionable. Not only was he going to let the charge of racial discrimination linger for five months before calling our response to the attention of the committee, but he also copied his letter to me to John E. Bauman, Executive Director of the Association of American Law Schools, for the apparent purpose of adversely affecting our application for membership in his organization.
I concluded by saying that I didn’t want to rattle the sword of threatened litigation. That would be for the Cooley board of directors to decide.
Then I rattled it anyway, saying:
"You should be aware that the loss to Cooley Law School and injury to its reputation caused by the publication of this false accusation may well be aggravated by a deliberate refusal to reconsider and retract for a period of five months."
Admissions | Financial Aid | Academics | Grand Rapids Campus | Rochester/Oakland Campus
Library | Bookstore | Information Technology | Clinical | Career Services
Faculty | Students | Alumni | News & Events | Overview | Search Cooley | Contact Us
This Page was last updated on:
07/28/2006