Comprehensive Student Demands for a More Diverse, Accessible, and Practice-Oriented NYU School of Law

These demands were written primarily by members of the Coalition on Law & Representation (“CoLR”) and were drafted over the course of a year. They are the product of extensive conversation at the law school and research on the issues and efforts to effect change at other law schools. Many of the demands listed in this document were first raised by NYU Law students whole decades ago. This document is an attempt to unify these demands and to track the progress of student advocacy and law school accountability. It is divided into four sections, each with its own vision statement, preamble, and specific demands.

These sections are:

I. Student Admissions & Financial Accessibility
II. Diversity in Identity & Critical Legal Perspective of Professors
III. Practice-Oriented Teaching
IV. Inclusive Campus Spaces

Glossary of terms

DIVERSITY: Diversity includes race, sex, class, ethnicity, religion, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, immigration status, educational background, geographic origin, national origin, and criminal legal history.

UNDERREPRESENTED: Those who are underrepresented in the legal profession and in law school education, including but not limited to people who are low-income, LGBTQIA, Black (including members of the broader diaspora but especially descendants of enslaved persons), Latinx, Native & Indigenous, Asian and South Asian, non-citizens, women, people with disabilities, first-generation undergraduate students, first-generation graduate and people with prior criminal justice involvement. This also includes low-income New Yorkers.

I. Student Admissions and Financial Accessibility

We believe that NYU School of Law should be an accessible institution committed to funding and supporting students who are underrepresented in the legal profession and whose communities are most targeted by unjust systems. We hope to belong to a community that includes and actively seeks to recruit and enroll a diverse student body. We also hope to see NYU continue to prioritize, build, and expand its programmatic and financial support for students committed to public interest law.

Recognizing that the NYU School of Law J.D. Class of 2020 was only:

• 14.5 percent Asian
• 7.5 percent Black/African-American
• 9.8 percent Latinx
• 2.8 percent South Asian

Recognizing that the total number of students of color in the student body in 2016–17 was 30%, even though in the United States, people ages 18–34 are 44.2% people of color;

Recognizing that there are close to zero transgender students of color in the law school;

Recognizing that diversity is important, not just for the aesthetics of law school brochures or for the benefit of white students, but to:

• Provide access to elite institutions for students who have not historically been able to attend them
• Ensure that underrepresented students who attend are not tokenized, because they are part of a meaningful community
• Provide a pathway for ensuring the legal profession as a whole becomes more diverse

Recognizing that Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School, and the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law accept the GRE in lieu of the LSAT for admission to their school;

Recognizing that Harvard Law School awards 10–15 students project fellowships and seed grants each year, a $1 million a year commitment;

Recognizing that in 2017, 14 students applied for the one available NYU Public Interest Project Fellowship;

Recognizing that NYU Law already provides funding for up to a year for students who are not able to obtain a job through launch grants (which are commonly known as “PILC welfare”);

Recognizing further that there is a significant racial gap in students who pursue public interest careers, with white students creating a disproportionate majority;

Recognizing that student contribution for students participating in the Loan Repayment Assistance Program increased from $5,000 for the Class of 2017 to $15,000 for the Class of 2018 without any transparency or announcement to the NYU Law community;

Recognizing that professors as a whole have not attained a diverse and representative mix of research assistants and teaching assistants;

Recognizing that research assistants and teaching assistants are models for other students and that a lack of diverse students in these positions perpetuates the inaccessibility of these positions;

In specific, we demand that NYU School of Law:

Increase the number of underrepresented students who are admitted and matriculate by:

1. Enrolling the number of underrepresented students necessary to match their representation within their age group in the United States;
2. Allocating substantial funding for admitted underrepresented students to enroll in order to meet the above goal;
3. Establishing a scholarship for the admission and full financial support of transgender women of color, transgender people of color, and transgender people generally;
4. Accepting the GRE in place of the LSAT;
5. Funding LSAT prep courses for underrepresented students, particularly low-income New Yorkers;¹
6. Supporting the mentorship of high-school and college students, particularly low-income New Yorkers, as part of a law school pipeline program with practical resources in order to make NYU School of Law an attainable option for these students;
7. Adding a clear process for requesting application fee waivers;
8. Organizing Admitted Students Weekend, or ASW, specifically for underrepresented students. The school should take the lead with organizing such programming and not leave it up to the affinity groups, including events at all the weekends;
9. Reaching out to these students by using LSAC data to contact them and encourage them to apply; and

Increase support for public interest students by:

1. Expanding the NYU Public Interest Project Fellowship to 15 fellowships a year, with priority given to underrepresented students, and the amount of funding increased to $50, 000;
2. Creating at least 3 post-graduation seed grants to support underrepresnted students in creating innovative organizations that address social justice needs;
3. Providing full upfront scholarships for public interest students, which they would have to pay back if they choose not to do public interest for the five years after law school, prioritizing underrepresented students during implementation;
4. Alternatively or in the meantime, increasing accountability and transparency of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program, or LRAP, including releasing data about participation and guides to help students and prospective students understand the program, and
5. Raising the coverage provided by and standards for the calculation of Standard LRAP to match Integrated LRAP;² and
6. Eliminating the student contribution required of students who participate in the LRAP program.

Increase support for underrepresented students interested in becoming producers of diverse legal scholarship by:

1. Increasing the number of underrepresented students invited to apply to the Furman Academic Scholarship as well as the Furman Public Policy Scholarship;
2. Tracking and reporting the diversity of teaching assistants and research assistants to ensure implicit bias does not prevent students from equal access to an academic track.

II. Diversity in Identity & Critical Legal Perspective of Professors

We envision an NYU School of Law that functions as a rich academic and practice-oriented hub of legal education. We envision a school where the academic discourse reflects the critical perspectives of underrepresented people and communities. We see this to include academic ideologies currently underrepresented in the legal profession, such as LatCrit, Critical Race Theory, Critical Gender Theory, Rebellious Lawyering, Queer Legal Theory, Disability Justice, and Critical Legal Studies. We acknowledge that faculty members’ diverse backgrounds do not automatically inform their scholarship. However, we see the presence of diverse scholars in our law school as a prerequisite to challenging dominant perspectives.

Recognizing that as of June 2017³ the law school currently has, out of 115 total academic & clinical tenure or tenure-track professors, only:⁴

• 7 Black professors (7.1%)
• 4 Hispanic / Latinx professors (4.0%)
• 3 East Asian professors (2.0%)
• 1 South Asian professor (<1%)

Noting further that as of June 2017 the law school currently has, out of 85 tenured or tenure-track doctrinal professors, only:⁵

• 4 Black professors (4.7%)
• 4 Hispanic / Latinx professors (4.7%)
• 2 East Asian professors (2.4%)

Recognizing that 89.8% of academic & clinical tenure or tenure-track professors and 92.9% of tenured or tenure-track doctrinal professors are white.

Recognizing that between 2012 and 2017 only three lateral offers and zero entry-level offers were made to Black candidates;

Recognizing that NYU Law has primarily offered professors of color teaching positions as adjuncts and through the Lawyering program, neither of which provide a meaningful opportunity to obtain tenure at the law school;

Recognizing that the few professors of color are often tokenized or overburdened with diversity work that should be distributed throughout the law school;

Recognizing that professors of color have the ability to challenge harmful stereotypes about who can be a legal academic;

Recognizing that NYU Law currently offers:

• No courses on LatCrit, Rebellious & Community Lawyering, Critical Legal Studies, Critical Gender Theory, or Queer Legal Theory,
• One course on Critical Race Theory, offered only one semester a year;

Recognizing that the current doctrinal course syllabi do not pay sufficient attention to these diverse perspectives and how the law impacts diverse communities;

Recognizing that the number of professor alumni placed at schools around the country is a key factor in the U.S. News & World Report Law School ranking algorithm; and

Recognizing that each year the school pays each faculty member hundreds of thousands of dollars and also provides fringe benefits, such as housing.

Recognizing that there is a significant need for faculty at NYU Law who seriously engage with critical legal scholarship and whose teaching and scholarship challenge dominant and “elite” legal discourses related to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and disability; and

Recognizing that legal institutions uphold structures and ideologies of white supremacy, cis-heteronormative patriarchy, ableism, imperialism, and capitalism, and that critical legal thought and scholarship is necessary for challenging and deconstructing these oppressive structures and ideologies;

In specific, we demand that NYU School of Law:

From now on, make a majority of tenure-track offers to professors from communities underrepresented in the legal profession;

We propose the following timeline:

• At least 3 Visiting Professors meeting the above criteria by Fall 2018
• At least 2 Tenure-Track Professors meeting the above criteria by the end of the 2019 Academic Year

By 2020, hire 5 tenure-track professors whose teaching and scholarship offer critical perspectives on issues of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and disability which are grossly underrepresented in current course offerings at NYU Law.

Require all 1Ls to take a course on interpretive methodologies that would introduce them to LatCrit, Rebellious & Community Lawyering, Critical Legal Studies, Critical Gender Theory, or Queer Legal Theory, in addition to overrepresented interpretive methodologies such as Law & Economics. This course should be taught by experts whose scholarship is within these fields.

Develop a Critical Legal Perspectives Program (CLPP) in partnership with the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, the Latinx Rights Program, and the All-ALSA Coalition, that draws on various critical legal schools of thought including LatCrit, Critical Race Theory, Critical Gender Theory, Rebellious Lawyering, Queer Legal Theory, Disability Justice, and Critical Legal Studies. CLPP will establish an academic course of study which will offer students training on critical legal theory and practice. Through CLPP, NYU Law will recruit visiting and tenure-track professors whose teaching and research offer critical perspectives on race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. In furtherance of this mission, NYU Law shall:

• Allocate at least $5 million to establish CLPP (figure based on similar program or center endowments); and
• Set a timeline for hiring faculty members for CLPP by Fall 2018.

Provide that SBA and All-ALSA Representatives on the Personnel (Academic) Committee be given a vote in preliminary applicant selection, at minimum.

III. Practice-Oriented Teaching

We envision an NYU School of Law that trains its students to be practicing lawyers, not merely legal academics. We believe the goal of every course should not only be to teach students a theoretical understanding of the law, but also how to implement it in real-world practice. We envision a school where legal education challenges dominant thinking on how lawyers should relate to clients and communities, and where students are encouraged to innovate, experiment, and repurpose traditional legal tools for social change.

Recognizing that research shows that underrepresented students’ grades increase more significantly in 2L and 3L years, compared to their more privileged counterparts, as they become more comfortable with the unfamiliar foundational content, expectations, and environment;

Recognizing that learning through practice is fundamental to developing lawyering skills.

Recognizing that innovations in litigation and progressive legal thinking are most often directly tied to practice-focused academics;

Recognizing that first-semester students at Yale are graded on a credit-fail system;

Recognizing that making mistakes is an essential part of learning through practice;

Recognizing that the prevalent system of evaluation at our school consists of one issue spotter exam at the end of the semester that does not allow students to track their progress and make appropriate adjustments in time;

Recognizing that the skills taught in the Lawyering course are equally, if not more, important than the other courses in the first-year curriculum;

Recognizing that NYU Law has been a leader in practice-orientated teaching, through clinics, the Lawyering program, and certain simulation courses; and

Recognizing that NYU Law should continue to be an innovative law school and that, in order to do so, the school must place itself at the vanguard of practice-oriented teaching instead of simply maintaining the status quo.

In specific, we demand that NYU School of Law:⁶

Build practice-oriented doctrinal course offerings by:

1. Filling 75% of positions for tenure-track professors for doctrinal courses with candidates who have spent a significant amount of time (at least over three years, excluding clerkships) as practitioners.
2. Incorporating practice-oriented skill-building exercises into every class offered.
3. Educating doctrinal professors on the importance of practice-oriented teaching.
4. Providing doctrinal professors with the tools and trainings necessary to implement practice-oriented teaching.

Support students dedicated to practice-oriented learning by:

1. Providing a notation for practice-oriented doctrinal courses in the course listings.
2. Developing a list of practice-oriented courses, including simulation courses, for students to refer to when making class selections.
3. Adding more simulation courses so that more students can have the opportunity to enroll in them.
4. Grading classes on a credit/fail basis for the first semester of law school.

IV. Inclusive Campus Spaces

We envision an NYU School of Law that is for and shaped by its students, where the School’s resources are directed towards fostering every student’s growth, safety, inclusion, participation, and wellbeing. We aspire to transform our school into a truly inclusive space, one with official and enforceable policies and procedures that ensure the safety and inclusion of all students, both in and out of the classroom. We expect these measures to be driven by student voices, but not by unpaid student labor.

Recognizing that law students, year after year, express feeling alienated as a result of identity-related bias, both in and out of the classroom, and that research shows this causes them to suffer academically.

Recognizing that research shows student identity is a major determinant of law school experience.

Recognizing that 1L doctrinal classes expect at the outset knowledge about court systems and legal concepts that many students have no prior exposure to.

Recognizing that underrepresented students are less likely to have had exposure to legal concepts prior to law school, but that research shows alternative pedagogies are successful at decreasing the achievement gap.

Recognizing that, based on the Coalition on Law and Representation (CoLR) Climate Studies released in Fall 2013 and Fall 2014 underrepresented groups report a more negative campus climate.

Recognizing that every year students are subjected to speech that is triggering, offensive, or inappropriate in the classroom.

Recognizing that in order to attract and retain a diverse student body, NYU School of Law must affirmatively protect the safety of students on campus and affirm their identities.

Recognizing that the law school is not physically fully accessible to all members of NYU Law Community or to our invited guests.

Recognizing that the law school currently does not allow first semester 1L students to take a leave of absence and instead requires them to reapply to the law school entirely if they are unable to complete their first semester.

In specific, we demand that NYU School of Law:

Increase support, safety, and physical accessibility by:

1. Declaring itself a sanctuary campus and complying with the demands as listed by NYU Sanctuary, and available here.
2. Allowing student groups to have safe spaces, specifically, that they be allowed to have meetings and events that are only open to their membership.
3. Investing in making all law school spaces fully physically accessible for the NYU Law Community and invited guests.
4. Conducting anti-oppression and anti-bias trainings, led by a group or organization approved by students, funded by the school and required for all incoming students during Orientation. These trainings should, take place within each Lawyering section.
5. Changing current policy to allow 1Ls to take a medical leave of absence during their first semester and return to complete the semester.
6. Increasing student ownership of public spaces, for example in hallways, bathroom doors and lounges, in order to publicize events and share messages through non-permanent and non-destructive posters.

Increase classroom inclusion and faculty accountability by:

1. Requiring the Inclusion and Diversity Committee to continue to update the Inclusive Classroom Guidelines document every year and distribute it to faculty and students at the start of every semester, attached as an appendix.
2. Making attendance to NYU Zone Trainings, including Justice Zone, DREAM Zone, and Disability Zone, as well as any trainings created by the Office of Student Affairs on anti-oppression and anti-bias, mandatory for law students. Every student would need to complete at least two of these trainings beyond Orientation to graduate.
3. Hiring a full-time administrator dedicated to fostering inclusive classrooms, whose work includes but is not limited to: training professors in classroom bias, improving diversity in classroom participation, supporting faculty in using new technology and different pedagogical methods, and making office hours more accessible to students from underrepresented groups.
4. Creating a transparent procedure, possibly within the Bias & Harassment Policy, to hold faculty accountable to feedback from student evaluations, and creating mid-semester evaluations.
5. Requiring every professor to ask for preferred pronouns and pronunciations of all students’ names at the beginning of the semester when creating facebooks and seating charts.
6. Editing the NYU Picture Book to include preferred gender pronouns, phonetic spelling of names, and an audio recording of the student’s pronunciation of their name.
7. Requiring that all faculty include a reasonable accommodation statement on their syllabus.
8. Creating a centralized system for hiring teaching and research assistants, such as the existing system for research assistants, and making both systems required.
9. Requiring Professors to have their teaching and research assistants anonymously report their self-identified race, gender, ethnicity, LGBTQIA, and disability status, to the Inclusion and Diversity Committee each year, which must make the final statistics public.

¹ We specifically bring attention to low-income New Yorkers because we believe NYU benefits greatly from the brand of New York City, and contributes significantly to gentrification here. For this reason, the university has a responsibility to specifically seek out and support potential applicants from the New York City area who face barriers to accessing this institution.

² There are currently two LRAP programs: Integrated and Standard. Integrated covers everything that counts as public service by the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). The standard program covers what the Integrated program does not: non-US citizens and people who worked in public interest that PSLF does not count (such as unions, non-US non-profits, and public interest law firms). Right now, Integrated has a salary cap of $80,000, while Standard’s is much lower ($59,246 in 2017). This means students under Standard over time often have to pay more because they exceed the salary cap for full LRAP coverage.

³ This is based on self-reported data provided within the NYU Law June 2017 “Snapshot of Faculty Diversity By Sex and Race/Ethnicity” (“June 2017 Snapshot”).

⁴ These categories reflect what the school reports, and do not reflect the broad vision for representation we are advocating for.

⁵ “June 2017 Snapshot.”

⁶ We are interested in developing a set of demands that revolve around the Lawyering curriculum. Please contact CoLR at colr.nyulaw@gmail.com if you are interested in helping to draft these.