Who Gets In? The Quest for Diversity after Grutter

On March 8, 2004, the University at Buffalo Law School hosted its annual Mitchell Lecture,1 a panel discussion entitled, "Who Gets In? The Quest for Diversity After Grutter." The Mitchell Committee decided to focus this year's lecture on innovative proposals to ensure diversity in law school admissions in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which confirmed that race and ethnicity could be taken into consideration in admission decisions for diversity purposes. Noting that much of the debate about Grutter thus far has emphasized the decision's constitutionality or its implications for affirmative action, the Committee sought to have a different kind of conversation, one that explored new approaches to admissions that might aid law schools in admitting more diverse student bodies. To this end, the Committee invited five leading scholars, whose work, either analytical or empirical, could change or deepen understandings about the potential for and the obstacles to diversity in law school admissions post-Grutter. Their short presentations (each speaker had only twelve minutes to speak), which provoked a lively discussion, are presented in this edited transcript of the event together with selected excerpts from the question and answer period.