Posted by on Friday, April 4, 2014
Welcome to this week’s Diversity Dish and Happy Friday! This week the news is short but very interesting. Professor and Associate Dean at American University Washington College of Law Tony Varona attacks the U.S. News and World Report law school rankings on the grounds that they hurt diversity within law schools. We encourage you to read the full text article – it’s a great piece. Next week the Diversity Dish will be on hold as we will be in Seattle with many of you at the NALP Annual Education Conference. Don’t forget to register for the NALP / ALFDP Diversity and Inclusion Summit! Enjoy this week’s Diversity Dish, Happy Friday and if you aren’t already, follow us on Twitter @CourtneyDredden.
4.3.14 Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs at the American University Washington College of Law, Tony Varona, writes in the NYU Review of Law and Social Change, on how ironic it is that the highly valued U.S. News and World Report Rankings completely ignore the diversity of law schools in its assessment. Verona argues that, “U.S. News actually rewards less diverse schools for admitting less diverse classes, and altogether ignores the clear learning advantages at the more diverse schools.” This happens even as the importance of a diverse student body is almost universally accepted. The magazine says that it doesn’t take diversity into account in part because of the difficulties of figuring out how to quantify it without penalizing historically minority institutions. Varona acknowledges this difficulty but says it is surmountable. Varona closes by noting that, “there is no disputing the reality that U.S. News’s anti-diversity ranking methodology has led to more homogenous and less effective law school classrooms, harming all of our law students and producing a less sophisticated, worldly and diverse legal profession–a result that hurts us all.” Varona makes excellent points regarding the rankings and provides a perspective that we’ve not yet heard.
