The Last Laugh Is Dean Clark's

What a difference a year can make.

Last June, the future seemed bright for student activists at the Law School who held several protests urging the school to diversity its faculty. Besides gaining the attention of the school's community from several well-attended rallies, they also attracted a national spotlight when Weld Professor of Law Derrick A. Bell vowed to take an unpaid leave of absence until the school tenured a Black woman.

The euphoria proved to be short-lived, however, as the student activists were dealt a series of setbacks this year. Both in the courtroom and within Griswold Hall, where the office of Dean Robert C. Clark is located, the protesters ran into dead ends.

The first blow came late in February, when a Middlesex Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by 11 members of the Coalition for Civil Rights (CCR), a two-year-old umbrella group for women and minority groups at the Law School.

The CCR filed suit in November against the Law School, charging that the School discriminates against women and minorities in its faculty hiring practices. In a 38-page document, the signees specifically alleged that the school uses a set of criteria to evaluate prospective faculty members that are biased against women and minorities.

The students argued, for example, that those who were editors of law reviews while in Law School were more likely to become law school professors--but were also much more likely to be white, heterosexual males.

Besides charging that the Law School was guilty of discrimination, the students also claimed that they themselves were among those harmed by it. But Judge Patrick F. Brady, after hearing preliminary arguments made by Harvard lawyers, said that the students in fact did not have proper legal standing to file a suit, and dismissed the case.

"The students are not affected in a legal way," says Allan A. Ryan, the attorney who argued the case for the University. "We have readily acknowledged that issues about the composition of the faculty are entirely appropriate issues to be discussed and debated... within the Law School community."

Administration officials were also quick to point out that although the Law School has only three Blacks and five women among its tenured ranks, approximately 45 percent of tenure- or tenure- track appointments have been extended to those groups in the past decade.

The other major setback for the CCR came later in the spring, after what has come to be an annual rite--a sit-in Clark's office. Thirteen days after students occupied the Dean's office on April 10, Clark sent a stern letter to all students and faculty members warning that such "future disruptions" would lead to suspensions or even expulsions.

"The nature of the letter was to point out that they violated the rules and responsibilities," says Law School spokesperson Michael J. Chmura. "One knows so that if one is inclined to do so again, one realizes that a disciplinary proceeding will result."

Another controversial aspect of the incident was the fact that police officers had taken pictures of protesters, which were subsequently used to identify them. Clark sent the letter precisely to avoid criticism of targeting those students whose pictures had been taken, Chmura says, adding that the dean took a strong stand on this issue because it was the first time that students conducting a sit-in did not let other pass through the area they occupied.

"This was a blockade--it is a distinction that we need to be clear about," Chmura says.

Needless to say, the student activists remain unhappy about both the letter and the photographs, and vow that if Clark's actions have any effect on them, it will be to make their protest even more vigorous.

"What is required is more civil disobedience, more media attention for the university," says Morris A. Rattner, a third-year law student.

As they look to next year, the student activists bemoan the lack of a woman of color among the school's visiting faculty members, many of whom are considered for tenure shortly after their stay at Harvard. In recent years, the school has brought in a number of women and minorities as visiting professors.

Looking to the Future

Meanwhile, the school will again have to do without the presence of one of its full-time minority faculty members: Derrick Bell. The popular Constitutional and civil rights lawyer, who earlier this year was awarded the Feminist of the Year Award by the Feminist Majority Foundation for his protest, will be spending the year at New York University Law School as a visiting professor.

If Bell decides not to resume his Harvard teaching duties for the year after next, Clark has the right to recommend his dismissal.

Despite their resolve to intensify their efforts, the student activists aren't predicting when their day will come.

"I have a feeling that it sort of goes in cycles," Ratner says. "My fear is that students are beginning to adjust to a certain intransigense by the administration."

Adds Ratner, "Every issue has its day."