Black Law Student Association

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America…

We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights…

I have a dream that one day America will live up to its creed and treat all men equal…

The above passages are not meant to be direct quotes; they come from memory. Many Americans, minority as well as majority, view the passages as fundamental to the American system of ordered liberty.

One of my first memories of school is just finishing pledging allegiance to our flag; a vigorous conversation ensued between us, an integrated classroom of five-year-olds, and our teacher. We wanted to know why we pledged allegiance to our flag. The teacher’s answer was compelling; she said the flag stands for freedom and opportunity, and that we could be anything we dreamed of being. “Even President?” a student asked. The teacher replied yes.

Growing older, I realized the things our teacher told us that day did not always hold true for all segments of our society, to achieve the things of which we dreamed we would need the opportunity to prepare ourselves, to educate ourselves, to make that dream come true. The problem is, not all of us get that opportunity.

Although the problem of equal educational opportunity is of national dimension and concern, the greatest contribution any of us can make is to solve the problem where we live.

The authors of this opinion, members of the Black Law Student Association (BLSA) at NIU’s College of Law (NIUCOL), write this to alert the NIU community that equal educational opportunity does not exist at the NIUCOL and to seek the aid of the NIU administration in intensifying efforts to solve this problem.

Many black students face particular difficulties with our educational system. Most are raised with few black role models and discouraging societal messages; it simply does not occur to many that college, much less law school, is an option for them.

For black students raised in poverty, lack of money adds to problems; if they do decide they want to become attorneys, their families are unable to help them afford the necessary education and they are completely dependent on public sources, i.e., loans, grants, etc., for their funding.

Because many blacks in this country are subtly discouraged by society from seeking a degree in an advanced field such as law, and because they lack the funds to do so, we must be prepared to go a little further in our efforts to assure that they are represented equally in our law school.

Blacks are not represented at the NIUCOL in nearly the proportion they represent within the general population. Eight black students currently attend NIUCOL; they comprise 2.7 percent of the student body. Blacks comprise 13 percent of the northern Illinois area population.

To its credit, NIUCOL has put forth considerable effort to rectify this inequity. These efforts have produced a large jump in the number of black applicants: fully 14 black students have been accepted for the 1990-91 academic year. However, these laudable results are in danger of being seriously undermined by the fact that the NIUCOL is as yet unprepared to offer these students financial aid comparable to that offered by other Illinois law schools.

It is of note that of the 14 accepted black students, only three have deposited (accepted the invitation to attend). Southern Illinois University College of Law offers its black applicants full tuition waivers plus $200 per month in stipends. The University of Illinois College of Law offers its black applicants substantial financial aid packages.

NIU has the only state law school in the region, and it has a responsibility to serve the needs of its constituency. Instead, it is allowing other law schools to usurp its role. In sharp contrast, the NIUCOL has offered only a very limited number of tuition waivers to select few applicants, and no stipends whatsoever.

Many of the students accepted by the NIUCOL have indicated they will not attend specifically because of the dearth of financial aid offered here, despite the fact that NIU is closer to their homes.

NIU has a charge to afford educational opportunities to qualified black students as well as to give educational access to black students that, but for this public institution, would not have the option of higher education. In our view, NIUCOL is failing in both these areas.

Because the NIUCOL adminstration has asserted on several occasions that no additional funds are available for this purpose, the BLSA has requested a joint meeting with the dean of the law school and the NIU provost, but has received no response.

It is by now clear the problem is larger than NIUCOL and requires attention at the university level. The fact that the law schools at U of I and SIU have received significant funding for minority recruitment suggests there may also be money available for similar purposes at NIU, but further effort is required in order to discover ways to get it.

The BLSA would sincerely regret seeing the commendable efforts of the law school administration to recruit local black applicants come to naught because it can’t compete in financial assistance with law schools in other areas of the state.

Because they have little choice but to go elsewhere to attend law school, equal educational opportunity is not being offered to blacks in northern Illinois.

NIUCOL BLSA is a chapter of the National BLSA. The NIU chapter’s membership consists of the eight-member black law student population. The association exists to promote the advancement of minority issues and serve as a bridge for the minority law student and the law school administration at each of the respective institutions across the nation.