By Connect Mason News Director Elizabeth Stern

GMU is heralded for its diversity, which is why some may be surprised to find out that the American Bar Association has been threatening to pull GMU School of Law’s accreditation since early 2000 on account of a low percentage of minority students.

With a population of 503 full-time students in 2007, GMU School of Law ranks 38 in the top 100 law schools in the nation. A recent GMU Gazette article purports that it has now climbed to 34.

Of the entering students in 2000, 6.5 percent were minorities, according to a recent op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal. In 2002, 10.8 percent were minorities, which rose to 17.3 percent in 2003 and 19 percent in 2004. The article reported that this number just barely satisfied the ABA when the choice was made to give the law school reaccreditation in 2006 under the condition that “particular attention” would be paid to GMU’s efforts to expand diversity in the upcoming years.

The op-ed states that, while the law school insists that “very active effort” had been made to recruit minorities, the ABA had “serious concerns” and claimed that the school seemed “unwilling to engage in any significant preferential affirmative action admissions program.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, "The ABA summoned the university's president [Alan Merten] and law school dean [Daniel Polsby] to appear before it personally, threatening to revoke the institution's accreditation."

The Wall Street Journal claims that the ABA had complaints about the numbers of students in minorities who attended the school. “Of the 99 minority students in 2003,” the ABA objected, “only 23 were African American; of 111 minority students in 2004, the number of African Americans held at 23.” 63 African American applicants had been admitted, the article said.

The law school responded by lowering admissions standards for minority students, according to the article. In turn, this could tarnish the school’s reputation. Like all law schools, GMU School of Law insists on admitting students who take and score within a certain percentile on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT).

The op-ed also claimed that a study conducted several years ago revealed that “31 percent of respondents conceded to political scientists Susan Welch and John Gruhl that they ‘felt pressure’ ‘to take race into account in making admissions decisions’ from ‘accreditation agencies.’”

If accreditation is revoked from the school, the government will cease providing federal funding.