In response to the April 5 story on minority student recruitment and retention efforts at the NIU College of Law, minority student recruitment and retention are a high priority, and substantial progress has been made.

The story says the deadline for applications for Fall 1990 was April 16 and only three black and hispanic students had applied for the current cycle. In fact, the deadline is July 1 and as of April 5, 84 Blacks and Hispanics had applied for admission, and 26 had been offered it.

Two years ago, the faculty, dean and NIU provost agreed to dedicate five full tuition waivers per entering class to minority students beginning the first year of law school. These have been demonstrably successful in recruiting law students who otherwise would not have been able to attend.

Beginning in the Fall of 1989, the College of Law secured funds from the Rhoten Smith scholarship fund, which it matched with its own funds, to employ a second year law student for 15 hours per week whose time is primarily committed to supplementing minority recruitment efforts already undertaken by the admissions office. This might be one reason why minority applications have increased by 61 percent during the current admissions cycle.

The law school started the current year with 11 minority students in an entering class of 122. While an entering class which is 9 percent minority is not an occasion for celebration, it does represent significant improvement in our record of minority recruitment.

Minority retention has been considerably higher than the 50 percent suggested in The Star article. This year, the faculty adopted an academic support program which has made available to every entering minority student a faculty mentor and a structured program for monitoring and supporting academic progress.

The problem of increasing minority enrollment is shared by the vast majority of law schools nationally. Last year, the NIU College of Law invited the law schools at the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University to join with us in a consortium to administer a pre-law summer program for black and hispanic undergraduates; its goals are to stimulate interest in legal careers and provide preparation in analytical and writing skills essential to the study and practice of law. A proposal for funding directed to the Illinois Board of Higher Education by this consortium has received preliminary approval; final approval is pending.

There is no doubt that there is progress still to be made. The issues of identifying new resources beyond tuition waivers to support minority students, and improvements in the academic support program, are under active consideration. But, in my opinion, the record of our progress up to now is undeniable.

Leonard P. Strickman

Law School Dean