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Judge: U. of Michigan law school’s admissions policies unconstitutional
A federal judge ruled March 28 that the use of race in admissions at the University of Michigan law school is unconstitutional.
The law school case is separate from a case involving the use of race in undergraduate admissions at the universities of Michigan and Washington. In 91-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Bernard A. Friedman rejected Michigan’s argument that it needed to use race to recruit a diverse class. He said such a goal was not in the interest of the state to remedy past discrimination, nor was it recognized by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is preparing to hear UGA’s appeal of a ruling by U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield of Savannah, who said the use of race as a factor in undergraduate admissions is not a compelling interest.
Undergrad receives Fulbright grant
Ecology undergraduate student Leslie Alexander has been named winner of a Fulbright Grant. She will spend the 2001-2002 academic year conducting research in Japan.
Alexander will be studying an urban forest reconstruction program, which uses exhaustive catalogs of Japanese vegetation to design the number and distribution of an urban forest stand. Ideally these stands diminish the effects of air, visual and noise pollution.
“My project will study stands of four ages, one of which will be a ‘standard’ or what will most closely resemble a natural primary growth forest,” says Alexander. These stands are located around shrines throughout Japan.
Other stands for the study will be between five and 35 years old. Using a transect sampling method, Alexander will catalog each species, its number, distribution and diameter. She will also be looking at the forest canopy, shrub layer and herb and ground cover.
Upon her return, Alexander plans to pursue a master’s degree in ecology at UGA. “My plans are to see what opportunities Japan opens for me, but I am also quite interested in using the data I collect for a thesis,” says Alexander.
The Fulbright Grant provides funding for all expenses and is intended to provide students an opportunity to pursue an academic objective and learn as much as possible about another culture.
Moot court teams bring home honors
Moot court teams from the School of Law brought home honors from two national competitions--the American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Competition and the 11th Annual Vanderbilt National First Amendment Competition.
UGA’s ABA team, second-year law students Drew D. Baiter, Lauren E. Sheridan and Tiffany S. Rowe, reached the quarterfinals of the ABA tournament, held last month in Chicago. Baiter was selected as the tournament’s best oralist, and the team won third best brief.
The team argued the hypothetical appeal of a woman challenging a law prohibiting those convicted of domestic violence from carrying a firearm; her defense attorney had also slept through much of the trial, raising further questions regarding ineffective assistance of counsel. Third-year students Samuel C. Burch and Laura J. Hill coached the ABA team, and Holly A. Pierson, an attorney with the Atlanta law firm of King and Spalding and a former moot court member at UGA, served as adviser.
UGA’s Vanderbilt team, third-year students Gardiner G. Thompson and Renee Y. Little, reached the finals of the national invitational, but lost to South Texas in the final round. That hypothetical case concerned the constitutionality of an after-school program administered by a church on public school grounds. The competition was held last month in Nashville. |
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