Racial diversity in legal education: Do racially diverse educational environments affect selected attitudes of white first -year law students?

Abstract

Litigation challenging affirmative action policies in higher education has highlighted a major gap in the research literature. Although studies indicate that racially diverse educational environments positively affect undergraduate student educational outcomes, similar studies at the professional school, and specifically law school, level do not exist. The conceptual model for this study is based on a social-psychological, developmental perspective that considers whether first-year law students' social and professional service values are influenced by one or more diverse law school environments. Data were collected from full-time students and faculty at six accredited law schools chosen to provide variability in the sample on three dimensions: racial diversity of the first-year law school class; existence of law school-sponsored diversity programming; and the presence of faculty who conduct research on racial and ethnic issues or incorporate such materials in their first-year classes. Multivariate analyses were used to determine the effects of each of four diverse environments on six dependent variables. After controlling for all independent variables in the model, neither faculty diversity emphasis nor institutional diversity emphasis were significant predictors of any of the follow-up attitudes. Structural diversity did significantly influence attitudes concerning whether race limits opportunities for people of color and whether the death penalty should be abolished. However, in both cases, the greater the percentage of minority students, the less favorable White men were toward these two attitudes. Finally, the influence of three separate student diversity experiences was measured: student cross-race interaction; classroom exposure to diversity issues; and attendance at one or more racial awareness workshops. One or more of these variables significantly influenced three of the follow-up attitudes. The results show that faculty and institutional diversity emphasis alone are not sufficient to influence first-year law students' attitudes. And, although structural diversity provides an environment for cross-race interaction to occur, minority student presence alone influences White male students toward more negative attitudes in some cases. In-class exposure and out-of-class cross race interaction did significantly influence selected attitudes. While this study provides some evidence that racial diversity in legal education influences student attitudes, substantial follow-up research is necessary to understand the nature and degree of influence these environments have on key legal education outcomes.