Scholars at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills, UCLA, and the University of North Carolina Greensboro find that racial diversity in law school enrollments provides educational benefits for students, their institutions, and for society as a whole. The study, “Does Race Matter in Educational Diversity? A Legal and Empirical Analysis,” appears in the summer issue of Rutgers Race & Law Review.
The authors of the study concluded that “exposure to a diversity of viewpoints prepares the students to be better lawyers, making them more ‘culturally competent.'”
Charles E. Daye, the Henry Brandis Professor of Law and deputy director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina and lead author of the study, asserts, “Our conclusion is that, because race matters and contributes to educational diversity, it would be a tragedy if educational institutions were told that the race of applicants could not be in any way considered. There is no other factor that will adequately target the qualities needed in a student body in which the students can interact and learn from each other and learn the way others see the world.”
Professor Daye is a magna cum laude graduate of North Carolina Central University. He earned his law degree at Columbia University.
