School for lefty

As I have been telling many many people that I talk to about issues of diversity, law school, acaemia, or anything similar, empirical evidence is starting to emerge that shows that our societies obsession with affirmative action, along with a few other factors have led to an interesting situation: The vast majority of academics are left leaning. Some claim this is not problematic or that there are bigger diversity issues to worry about than political affiliation.

I will conceed that there is one greater diversity issue: income. I feel that if we are ever going to assemble "truely representative" law school classes than the single most important factor we should use in assessing diversity is the variation in the income level of the families that a university's students come from. Race, gender, sexual orientation, and other factors are all minor compared to income level. In fact, an AA candidate from the top tax bracket has probebally (I do not actualy know because I am not an AA candidate or in the top tax bracket) experienced very little that is different from a non-AA candidate in a comperable bracket, while a poor applicant, regardless or race, has a very unique view to offer.

This aside, ideology, especially among faculty has a far more drastic impact on the variety of viewpoints brought to a classroom that other factors. If the "new" justification for AA is that we need to promote a variety of viewpoints and achieve a "critical mass" to better the learning envoironment, then shouldn't having a faculty (aka the group with the most control over learning) come from diverse\representative backgrounds be more of a priority? How is a student that goes through law school having 1 conservative professor for every 4 or 5 liberal professors creating a balanced person? It isn't.

Its time we stop obsessing over AA as a means to creating more well rounded individuals and start focusing on the composition of the faculty, aka the people that actually attempt to shape the though processes and view of students. Either that, or we need to come up with a better reason to support AA than "it is needed to foster a positive learning environment."

Finally, for some additional reading on this idea, I want to encourage you to take a look at an article by a liberal Yale law professor about the topic:.... http://www.law.yale.edu/outside/html/Public_Affairs/686/yls_article.htm

Have a good night everybody!