More than two years after Florida ended affirmative action policies in its state university system, two new law schools aimed at increasing the number of minorities in the legal profession are set to open at institutions with high black and Hispanic enrollments.
At Florida A&M University, a historically black college, the new college of law is scheduled to open its doors to students next fall, while a public law school will also open at the Hispanic-dominated Florida International University.
Although the demise of affirmative action led some to worry that minority representation at state universities might decrease, law school administrators claim that the new institutions were never intended as a response to state actions that struck down the race-based preference policies.
"This has been an ongoing battle for the African-American community to restore the law school that was wrongfully closed," said Percy Luney Jr., dean of the new Florida A&M law school in Orlando.
He explained that the Florida Legislature had shut down a previous law school at the university in 1968, relocating its entire library to Florida State University on the last day of exams. Luney called the school's closing "a travesty for the African-American community" and said that there had been many attempts to re-establish it for the past 20 years.
Dean of Florida International University's College of Law Leonard Strickman agreed that the issue of affirmative action had little to do with school's creation.
"The movement has been led by the Hispanic community in South Florida, who wanted to have more accessible education for their kids," he said. "The drive for a public law school well predated [Jeb] Bush becoming governor."
Florida's affirmative action policies were replaced two years ago by Gov. Bush's "One Florida" plan, which grants in-state students in the top 20 percent of their high school graduating classes automatic admission to state universities. State law schools are not obliged to admit these same students, however.
Critics predicted the move would lead to significant drops in non-white enrollment, but figures released last year by the state showed that the number of minority freshmen entering the Florida state university system actually rose five percent over the previous year.
Strickman believes such issues are relatively unimportant at Florida International University's law school.
"It seems to me that we don't need affirmative action here," he said. "We're able to apply reasonably uniform standards and still come up with a diverse class."
Although neither new school will be taking race into account in admissions, Strickman believed the alluring price tag -- for in-state residents, around $5,000 -- would help attract students from a variety of backgrounds without sacrificing the quality of instruction.
Luney, who said it was too early in the admissions process to predict the eventual racial makeup of Florida A&M's College of Law, thought the school would likely draw many black students "who will come to it because they feel they will be treated more fairly" at the historically black institution.
While the creation of the two schools by the state legislature was primarily intended to bolster the number of black and Hispanic lawyers -- who comprise only two and six percent of the Florida bar, respectively -- Luney said that the soaring costs of private law schools provided additional motivation.
Currently, Luney said, there is a "lack of lawyers willing to go into public service" due to debts incurred during law school. In his view, the low cost of tuition at the two schools and the strong emphasis placed on "serving the public in the truest sense of the word" will produce graduates eager to enter government and pro bono service.
The creation of the two law schools in 2000 was initially opposed on the grounds that they would represent an excessive tax burden on state residents and would ultimately fail to increase the number of minority lawyers.
Since that time, the schools have weathered budget cuts and lean applicant pools: Florida A&M has only received around 100 applicants for a mix of 75 full-time and 30 part-time spots, while Florida International University has received almost 300 for 60 full and 60 part-time spaces.
Still, Strickman felt that the schools will eventually achieve positive public recognition.
"Our academic programs are going to be attractive to a lot of people, and we're likely to be as diverse as any law school anywhere in the United States," he said. "I think that diversity is going to be appealing -- not to everybody, but to a lot of good people we want to have here."
