That's a line from a song -- a very appropriate one -- Long Time Comin' by Crosby, Stills and Nash. It's all I've been thinking about for the last two weeks.
The [first] Michigan decision was a crushing blow to affirmative action. But it's not the big one, the one that has admissions officers running scared, the one that has me sitting here day after day not knowing what to say to you. It's the #$#@~% USNWR report and its effect on the admissions game!
Deans are threatening admissions officers -- hold the medians or lose your job. Committees are turning down applicants with numbers lower than medians. Committees are turning down applicants with numbers higher than medians -- they won't come here anyway, so why bother? Gotta raise our yield rate to raise our ranking!
I'm told that Philip Shelton, the President of Law Services, has suggested abandoning the LSAT altogether, or using it only to establish a minimum criterion for admission.
At the same time that the Michigan court is claiming that diversity is not a compelling goal, the USNWR article on women in the law has proven the claim of diversity advocates -- that the law must and will change as its practitioners do. Fifteen years ago I decided that I would change the world by changing who gets to be lawyers. I knew that different decision-makers would make different decisions. According to USNWR, this is already obvious.
On a societal level, the changes promised by Brown v. Board of Ed. are beginning to show at the graduate level. More and more minority applicants are applying with top LSAT scores. The effect on succeeding generations will continue to compound, as better-educated, more affluent minority parents send their kids to better schools. And historically, that's been the signal for the backlash. As soon as you see an oppressed group gaining power, fight like hell!
I thought about retiring. I spoke to a number of admissions officers about it. Their advice was to keep fighting, but to realize the fight would be harder. I keep reminding myself of what one admissions officer said: minorities need people like me now more than ever. So I'm hanging in for another few years, at least until the Michigan case makes it through the Supreme Court. And maybe the USNWR madness will come to an end.
As the song said, it's been a long time comin,' it's gonna be a long time gone. But until it is, I'll count myself among the dwindling numbers fighting the frighteningly vindictive greed of applicants who are angry that some minority might get a crumb that they wanted, and the fears of law schools that they will lose prestige and therefore money if they drop a notch in the rankings.