No Hand-Outs

WE ENDORSE increased minority participation in the Harvard Law Review. Such growth, must not, however, spring from any minority-conscious admissions policy. Broadening the admissions criteria beyond excellence in academic and written work might well achieve this desirable goal, but it would also stigmatize certain minorities as collectively inferior to other, better represented groups. Those who call for a greater diversity of perspective imply that because in the past minorities have been underrepresented on the review, they can never meet the present standards in numbers sufficient to guarantee them a visible role on the Review--unless they are given a handout. But nearly every student at the Law School, minorities included, is capable of doing the work required of review members.

Moreover, the Review should not make provisions for minorities because of their disadvantaged backgrounds.

Like all other students at the Law School, these students have shown their ability to overcome overwhelming obstacles just by attending Harvard Law School. Competing for and making the Law Review, a process which we hope does not involve pervasive discrimination, should present them with no more of an obstacle than admissions did.

Election to the review is one of the highest honors that a law student can receive. A membership policy based on considerations other than academic excellence only diminishes its value for all students, including the minorities whom the broader criteria are supposed to benefit.