Law School Forum Draws 300

More than 300 people attended a forum Wednesday aimed at calming heightened tensions at the Law School.

The forum, moderated by Assistant Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. and attended by Dean Robert C. Clark, was intended to give the assembled crowd a chance to voice its opinions, and to solicit concrete proposals for fostering an improved community atmosphere.

The forum was held in the wake of an ongoing controversy about minority and women faculty hiring, as well as a controversial Law Review spoof that lampooned slain feminist law scholar Mary Joe Frug.

"I see myself here basically to listen," Clark said. "I see there's a lot of tension here, witting and unwitting."

Clark apologized for having talked to the Wall Street Journal for an article that appeared in that paper recently, but did not retract his comments, which suggested that the tension at the Law School was due, in part, to the insecurities of minorities.

"It seems to me that [affirmative action hiring] leads to an increased level of activism than would other wise occur," Clark said. "But it was wrong of me to say it because in the kind of journal it appeared in it was bound to have a bad effect."

Clark added that he did not mean to be "dismissive to these students" and said the Law School was "better off for all the diversity we have tried so hard to achieve."

Almost all who spoke--both on the panel and in the audience--agreed that the Law School was not a pleasant place to be during this time of turmoil. "I don't like coming to work," said Professor of Law Todd D. Rakoff. "It seems to me out of control. A lot of people are fighting as if they want a divorce."

Peter M. Cicchino, a third-year student who heads the Committee on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues, urged Clark to issue a statement asking Professor Derrick A. Bell, Jr. to return to Harvard. Bell took an unpaid leave of absence to protest the absence of a Black woman on the faculty.

Cicchino also asked the dean to drop administrative board charges against students who held a sit-in outside his office last month. The suggestions gained much applause.

Many students have expressed criticisms of the dean in recent weeks, and some have urged him not to appear at graduation.

But President Neil L. Rudenstine, in a separate interview yesterday, said he hoped the conflict would soon be resolved.

"It would be very important for the dean to participate in the graduation ceremonies...and I would think and hope that most students would want to participate with the dean and the faculty in their graduation together if we're talking about trying to build towards an institution that is less conflicted than it is right now," Rudenstine said.