Still, Vorenberg maintains that support for scholarly diversity has been one of his goals during his tenure as dean--and he says he is convinced that intellectual pluralism will result from some of the changes proposed in the long-range planning report. For example, both individual effort and Law School funding will be devoted to hiring more international law experts and to integrating a global perspective into the basic curriculum, he says.

"We think increasingly that we are dependent on other countries in the world, especially with the coming changes in the Economic Community," says Sander. "Working international elements into the basic courses will require more faculty."

The law faculty has "about 10 members who care a lot about the international field," says Vorenberg. "We need more than anything another three, four or five for whom it is the most important work." He adds that he would support the creation of fellowships to encourage graduates to pursue interests in international law.

Some colleagues say Vorenberg's commitment to academic diversity is most clearly seen in his support for the clinical studies program, which supplements classroom work with hands-on advocacy experience. Having started its clinical studies program in the early 1970s, Harvard is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field. The program has evolved and, under Vorenberg, grown over the years; currently it includes such projects as a legal aid clinic to help AIDS patients.

"Under Dean Vorenberg's leadership this law school became the major center of clinical legal education in the country," says Professor of Law Lance M. Liebman.

The long-range planning report "is premised on the notion that clinical placements and offerings will increase," says Director of Clinical Programs Daniel L. Greenberg.

"It presents ways to secure and expand the clinical program," says Kaufman. But a major challenge, he adds, will be funding any new projects; clinical programs already occupy a huge share of the school's budget.

Administrators and faculty members insist, however, that innovation is not going to be put on hold while the school plans the enormous capital fundraising drive required to accomodate the proposals.

Next year, a Criminal Justice Center will be created to parallel the Legal Services Center, in which law students gain practical experience by handling civil cases in Jamaica Plain. Only the start-up money for the new center has been allocated, according to Greenberg, so a skeleton administration for the center will be established next year. Students will not be able to participate in the center until the following academic year.

These individual plans for expansion at the Law School are components of Vorenberg's broader program to bolster the size and heterogeneity of the faculty, a change the outgoing dean says is necessary to offer better educational opportunities.

Since Vorenberg was named dean, about one-third of the current faculty has been appointed, he says. And the dean's "very serious" commitment to diversity is also reflected in the number of women and minority professors who have been tenured during the past eight years, Liebman notes.

In 1987, the Harvard Association of Black Faculty and Administrators, co-chaired by Professor of Law Derrick A. Bell, awarded Vorenberg the C. Clyde Fergusen Award for his "contributions to enhancing diversity in the Harvard community." The group cited a 50 percent increase of minority representation on the Law School's faculty and staff.

Vorenberg "has certainly been a leader in increasing diversity on the faculty," says Bell.

According to the school's spokesperson, Michael Chmura, the number of tenured women has grown to five, and the single minority professor who was on the tenure track when Vorenberg assumed the deanship has been joined by three tenured Black scholars and two junior professors who are minorities.

"I think the increased diversity has already made a distinct difference in the school and in our ability to think and teach about important subjects of great concern to those groups," says Vorenberg, who will officially step down from his post on July 1.