The assistant dean of the SIU School of Law cannot pinpoint a reason for a declining minority enrollment within the school but says SIU cannot compete with the scholarships offered by private schools in Illinois.

Our strategy is to recruit the best possible students of all ages, races and sexes, George Norwood, assistant dean for Admissions and Student Affairs, said. We do not have any separate type of admissions policy for minorities.

A breakdown of the School of Law enrollment indicates a gradual decline in the percentage of minority students joining the law program each year.

Advertisement

This semester, the enrollment at the School of Law is 354 students, 63 of which are minority students. The breakdown of each year is as follows:Of the 114 third-year students, 26 are minorities;

Of the 119 second-year students, 24 are minorities;

Of the 121 members of the entering class, 12 are minorities.

Because of the small sizes of our classes here at the school, the loss of even one minority student can affect the enrollment by an entire percentage point, Norwood said.

Law school enrollment, in general, has been declining across the country since 1990 or 1991. There has been a decrease in the number of applicants. Fewer students are applying to law school.

The decline in students applying for law school places increased pressure on a number of schools across the country to maintain enrollment, Norwood said. With a smaller pool of applicants, the schools that have the most to offer will most likely recruit the most students.

Public schools, especially small ones such as the School of Law here, cannot offer the scholarships that a private school can, Norwood said.

Advertisement*

There are nine law schools in the state, six of which are private.

Loyola University School of Law in Chicago, one of the six, sends representatives throughout the country to recruit students. For the 1997-98 school year, 59 percent of Loyola’s student body is made up of out-of-state students, according the school’s web page (www.luc.edu/schools/law).

About 70 percent of the entering students at the SIU School of Law are residents of Illinois, according to reports from the School of Law Office of Admissions.

Norwood said SIU School of Law sends recruiters across the country to talk to prospective students. In recent months, SIU recruited from schools in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. The school will recruit in Cincinnati this weekend.

Norwood said he could not establish the direct cause of the decline in applicants, but said the School of Law is committed to retaining its students. He also said the School of Law is utilizing all its resources to recruit the best students possible.

And Norwood said the number of scholarships SIU School of Law can offer may increase with a new experimental budget system implemented this year. Under the new budget system, which eliminated tuition waivers, graduate assistants are paid an hourly wage of $8.50 instead of receiving tuition waivers.

The controversial budget change allows the School of Law to keep its tuition dollars to better itself. Some of the money from tuition waivers is being used for financial aid and scholarships with the remainder going to improve the school’s resources and facilities.

I don’t know the exact effect of the new budget on enrollment, Norwood said. I don’t think it would be fair to say that it is the direct cause of the decrease in the number of minority applicants though.

The school also has been taking steps to increase minority enrollment.

Minority law student associations at the School of Law sponsored seminars throughout the semester to help increase the number of minorities in the school.

On Oct. 11, the organizations sponsored a Minority Law Day, a four-hour seminar designed to introduce minorities, as well as anyone else interested, to the basics of applying to law school, and then try to sell them on SIU’s School of Law, Norwood said.

Minority law student organization leaders could not be reached for comment.

Undergraduates interested in the School of Law met in the Lesar Law Building to listen to speakers who offered information about what career choices exist with a law degree, as well as how to finance law school and how to prepare for the Law School Application Test and the application process.

Norwood said he sent the information regarding the Minority Law Day to more than 300 pre-law advisers across a six-state area, encouraging them to inform their students about the event.

The Admissions Committee reviews each applicant’s completed file. The committee places emphasis on the applicant’s Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) score and undergraduate grade point average.

The committee considers other factors when evaluating an applicant’s file, Norwood said. Factors such as difficulty of curriculum, demonstrated leadership ability, strong and informative letters of recommendation, overall character, maturity and motivation and the ability to contribute to the overall diversity of the law school community are also taken in to consideration when evaluating an application.

Our mission is to be the best public law school in the country, Norwood said, by recruiting the best possible students we can.