National Jurist - September 2007 - (Page 18)

Diversity key in Whittier appeal Dean Neil Cogan is trying to get his school off probation. His efforts may say a lot about the future of diversity in law schools. PHOTO BY MELISSA STOTTLEMYER N eil Cogan collects rocks, and keeps them on his desk at Whittier Law School, where he has been dean since 2001. They are souvenirs from several trips to Israel, where his school, based in Costa Mesa, Calif., runs a popular study abroad program. This April, about 15 miles from Jericho, Cogan picked up a few more rocks while walking in a nachal — a stream that runs only in the spring, and is dry the rest of the year. Walking in a nachal is for Neil Cogan a little like guiding a law school in the 21st century — an issue facing By Paul Hughes the school can take him one way or another, knock him down or sweep him away. “We have a different mission and we hope the community will understand,” Cogan said. The school — with Quaker roots and a desire for ethnic diversity — pursues a rich mix of students. But its quest for diversity has led it into trouble with the American Bar Association’s law school accreditation committee. Minority students have traditionally struggled on the bar exam compared to the overall student population, and Whittier’s bar pass rate was as low as 31 percent in 2003. As a result, the ABA placed Whittier on probation in 2005. Whittier recently improved its pass rate to 59 percent in 2006, and then sued the ABA in a failed attempt to get its probationary status revoked. Whittier, which was originally accredited in 1985, claimed in its lawsuit that the ABA’s probation violated its due process rights and had placed the school at the “precipice of ruin.” The suit stated that Whittier had suffered “grave harm to its financial condition and reputation.” “Whittier has been placed on probation for one simple fact: The ABA has been unhappy with their bar passage rate,” Whittier’s lawyer, Paul Kiesel, told the New York Law Journal in May. “But they never told Whittier, or any other law school, what an acceptable bar passage rate is.” When the school’s ethnic diversity was at its height — the class that entered in 2000 was 51 percent non-white — the he can. But he has been forced to admit fewer at-risk students in order to improve the school’s first time bar passage rates. Whittier’s bar pass rates have almost doubled in the last three years in California. And pass rates in California are the toughest row to hoe. In other states, Cogan says the school is at or above those states’ averages. Whittier has partly accomplished this through an extensive prep program for incoming and current students. T h e A c a d e m i c Su c c e s s Program is required at the school. It includes training in all elements of law school, from class prep and time management. And it starts before a student does, with extended descriptions and direct advice on the Whittier website, and a summer program for entering students. “Not all these kinds of students succeed the first time on the bar exam, but when they do, they’re damn good attorneys.” Cogan says many of the school’s students are the first generation in their families to speak English, or to attend college. It follows that they need extra help to write a law school exam or take the bar exam. Whittier Law School Dean Neil Cogan A regularly scheduled 2006 says Whittier has a different mission, ABA visit produced what Cogan which is to be the best school for as many calls a stellar report, with praise for diverse students as it can. Whittier’s improvements, as well as the programs that got them there. resulting first time bar pass rates for that Cogan plans to continue to make his class was only 31 percent. case to the ABA. In the meantime, the Since being placed on probation by the school is staying true to its commitment to ABA in 2005, Cogan says Whittier has diversity. had to boost its focus on currently reigning “Our whole vision when we started standards of admission — namely, LSAT was we’re a school available to a whole variscores and GPA. ety of people from different backgrounds, Cogan said he wants Whittier to be the make-ups, credentials, and so on — and best school for as many students’ needs as that continues,” he said. 18 THE NATIONAL JURIST September 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of National Jurist - September 2007

National Jurist - September 2007 Contents Free Speech Disturbing the Peace For the Record Judge Approves $49 million BAR/BRI Settlement Law School Causes Emotional Stress, Study Finds New Textbook Breaks the Mold Southern Illinois Settles Lawsuit with Christian Legal Society Ave Maria Law Professors Protest School’s Move The Firm Report Student Hoax Shuts Down Hastings Law NCCU Grad Expands Her Program for Troubled Kids Hawaii Grad Finds Excitement in Saving Whales Diversity Hampering Whittier Accreditation? The Paper Chase Chronicles The Supreme Court: An Insider’s View Detroit Mercy’s Innovative Changes Pay Off Career Hotline The J.D. Files

National Jurist - September 2007

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