Home Press Center Racial Discrimination Found at Virginia Law Schools

Racial Discrimination Found at Virginia Law Schools

Wednesday, 24 April 2002

Contact: Roger Clegg (703)421-5443 Two of Virginia’s Three Public Law Schools Use Severe Admissions Discrimination      A detailed, 50-page study released today by the Center for Equal Opportunity concludes that racial discrimination is widespread in Virginia law school admissions.  The report focuses on the three Virginia public law schools -- the University of Virginia, William & Mary, and George Mason University -- and reveals odds favoring black applicants as high as 731 to 1.     CEO president Linda Chavez will discuss the study at a press conference at the Marriott Hotel in Richmond, Virginia, at 1:00 p.m on Thursday, April 25th.  Chavez and the study’s authors, Dr. Robert Lerner and Althea Nagai, will discuss the significance of the report and provide suggestions for how policy makers should react to it.      For UVa and William & Mary, the study finds overwhelming evidence of racial discrimination.  Indeed, the degree of discrimination at UVa is the worst that CEO has ever found.  Earlier CEO studies have examined undergraduate and medical school discrimination across the nation.  They use admissions data obtained from the schools themselves under freedom-of-information laws.     Chavez called on the state schools to end their policy of racial discrimination.  “It is appalling to find such discrimination at public law schools, of all places,” she said.  “The Constitution and civil rights laws guarantee equal protection and nondiscrimination, yet the state and its law schools ignore these principles.”     At UVa, the odds favoring a black candidate over an equally qualified white candidate in 1999 were 731 to 1.  To put it in other terms:  A student with an LSAT score of 160 and an undergraduate GPA of 3.25 had a 95 percent chance of admission if he or she was black, but only a 3 percent chance of admission if white.     The study’s executive summary is attached.  The entire study will be available on CEO’s website, www.ceousa.org, or can be obtained by contacting the Center.  CEO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Section 501 (c)(3) research and educational organization that studies civil rights, bilingual education, and immigration issues nationwide. DOWNLOAD STUDY HERE