Bell, a former dean at the University of OregonLaw School, said law schools--intentionally orunintentionally--exclude minorities from thefaculty by considering only traditionalcredentials. Bell contends that as long asappointments committees require their facultymembers to have had Law Review membership orclerkships with Federal justices--activities inwhich he says very few minoritiesparticipate--qualified minority professors will beexcluded from the faculty pool.

"I think it's going to be necessary to take onthe issue about what are our standards forhiring," Bell said after the protest. "Do thestandards we've been following provide us with theLaw School we want? I think that if [minority]people with traditional qualifications come alongthey will hire them. Those people come along veryrarely."

Statistics are consistent with Bell's claims.According to Toni House, Supreme Court publicinformation officer, there has been one Blackclerk in the last two years--out of approximately70 total slots.

And the same is true at the prestigious lawjournals at many top law schools. For example, outof the 40 staff members at the Columbia LawReview, one is Black, Business Manager KristaThompson said. There are no Blacks among theapproximately 30 staff members who work for theUniversity of Chicago Law Review, said MarkSnyderman, the journal's executive editor.

To attract more minorities, Bell said,appointments committees should consider a broaderrange of qualifications for prospective facultymembers.

"We have to have a more realistic set ofcriteria," Bell said. "You can be a great teachereven if you weren't in the top 5 percent of yourclass and even if you weren't the editor-in-chiefof some major law review. Some of those people whomeet those traditional qualifications aren't goodteachers."

But Vorenberg says the Law School does notrequire only traditional qualifications and cites"a vigorous search process that looks at alldifferent sources of candidates, including peoplein practice, and a determination by the facultythat it wants to add to minorities in thefaculty," as evidence of the commitment tobringing minority professors to the Law School.

Bell says the Law School's minorityrepresentation is "about average."

"Most faculties have one or two Blacks, and wehave four," Bell says. "But we have such a largerfaculty than most schools."

The Law School's arguments still have notconvinced the BLSA membership, however, and theorganization's leaders have promised to push fortheir goals through the summer and next year