60 Law Students Hold Vigil for Diversity

About 60 students gathered yesterday for a silent vigil in support of faculty diversity at Harvard Law School as faculty members trickled into a meeting to vote on whether to tenure a visiting woman professor.

Law students held fluorescent-colored paper signs with slogans reading "Diversity Now" and "Good Enough for the Cabinet but not for HLS" at the Pound Hall vigil--the latest in a three-year student movement to demand the tenure of more minorities and women.

The tenure candidate considered at the meeting was one of two female visiting professors up for a tenure vote, according to Marie-Louise Ramsdale, a third-year student and president of the Law School Council.

The names of the professor voted on could not be confirmed. Ramsdale said one woman is a visiting professor from Yale and the other might be Visiting Professor Elizabeth Warren from the University of Pennsylvania.

Warren, however, said last night she does not know if she is under consideration.

Though students said they do not know who the tenure candidates are, they said the need for increased faculty diversity is a pressing one.

"The fact is that we're back and we're going to stay on and keep on fighting," said Linda J. Dunn, a second-year law student and co-chair of the Women's Law Association.

The silent protest was a joint effort by seven different student groups, including the Coalition for Civil Rights, the Asian-American Law Association and the Women's Law Association.

Although many students said they are not seeking the implementation of quotas for faculty hiring, they said the scarcity of minorities and women on faculty indicates discrimination in the hiring process.

"The argument that the problem is the [lack of minorities and women in the] applicant pool does not work anymore," said Elizabeth G. Moreno, athird-year student. "We don't have any quota inmind. We just want the hiring process to result inmore minorities and women.