Antiracism Coordinating Committee
In Fall 2020, then UIC Law Dean, Darby Dickerson, created the Antiracism Coordinating Committee to:
- Vet potential non-academic programs and projects related to antiracism,
- Help ensure the Law School's accountability to fulfill promises made regarding antiracism, and
- Design and coordinate the antiracism audit the Law School has committed to conduct as part of the AALS Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project.
Today, the committee is an essential tool in addressing systemic issues at UIC Law. ARCC not only ensures accountability from the past, but seeks to innovate for the future.
2023-2024 Committee Members Heading link
Members of this Committee will be annually appointed.
- Mr. Clarence Glenn, Chair
Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - Ms. Gabrielle Richards (’18)
Assistant Director, Admissions - Mr. Michael Seng
Professor of Law
Director, Fair Housing Legal Support Center
Co-Director, Restorative Justice Project - Ms. Meliss Morales
Assistant Registrar - Ms. Samantha Westby
- Ms. Joy Roberts-Caldwell
Associate Director, Career Services - Ms. Keisha Ann Lopes
Law Student - Ms. Ameera Salem
Law Student
Committee Reporting Heading link
On April 12, 2021, the Antiracism Coordinating Committee offered an update related to its campus antiracism audit and progress related to student demands.
Initiative Progress & Status Updates Heading link
In response to law student concerns, departments and related authorities have provided the following information and status updates on current initiatives.
Administration Updates Heading link
| Initiative/Concern | Project Status | Related Information |
|---|---|---|
| Implement student and faculty anti-racism committee |  | At the beginning of Fall 2020, Dean Dickerson created the Antiracism Coordinating Committee with the following charge: -Vet potential non-academic programs and projects related to antiracism, -Help ensure the Law School’s accountability to fulfill promises made regarding antiracism, and -Design and coordinate the antiracism audit the Law School has committed to conduct as part of theAALS Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project. Additional information about this committee can be found at the top of this webpage. |
| Expand Student Involvement on Campus Committees and Create Greater Transparency |  | Background Students requested that Law School committees reflect the perspectives and involvement of students beyond the SBA. Students requested that Law School committee information, remedies, and appointments be made public to the student body and remain accessible to track UIC Law’s progress. Status/Progress Details SBA members are assigned to existing Law School committees. Further representation would require a faculty vote. In lieu of this, the SBA has been encouraged to report public information and share Committee happenings with the student body on their website or through email. |
| Create Student and Faculty Oversight for Discrimination Complaints |  | Status/Progress Details Third parties, including students or faculty, are not involved in University Office of Access & Equity (OAE) investigations, which includes complaints of student or employee misconduct. This suggestion could be examined at the UIC Senate level. Another alternative is to invite parties to use the restorative justice process if they are interested. This would allow for some form of reconciliation or closure. |
| Create an Antiracist Curriculum and Campus Environment | | Background Historically, encouraging participation in new surveys has posed a challenge; however, several established surveys, which include diversity-focused questions, already have a significant amount of student participation. These include the annual LSSSE and UIC Office of Diversity surveys. Information from those surveys can be gathered and compiled into a separate report. Existing information is available at https://diversity.uic.edu/data/equity-dashboard/. One goal is to determine a way for students to know which faculty has adopted antiracism components to their course. The faculty should continue to consider how to address this student concern. |
| Consultants to Provide Antiracism Training to Faculty and Staff | | Background Full-time law faculty and staff with adjunct faculty status are required to take annual mandatory implicit bias training, which includes an introduction to implicit bias, research evidence on the impact of bias across disciplines, and practical strategies to mitigate the negative effects of bias in everyday life. The training is part of a long-term effort by the University to provide faculty and staff with training on a regular basis. Further details on additional training for faculty and staff will be provided as it develops. The most recent, "Understanding Implicit Bias and Exploring Mitigation Strategies Virtual Workshop” has been offered on Feb 9, March 8, and April 27. Throughout this year, further trainings will be offered as well as mandatory trainings. Status/Progress Details UIC Law's Antiracism Coordinating Committee is engaged in facilitating a AALS-modeled Antiracism Audit. The Law School's personalized audit will address several questions related to students' experiences with discrimination, in the classroom, and with peers and will explore equity and inclusion practices within the institution. You can review the AALS model audit questions at https://www.aals.org/about/publications/antiracist-clearinghouse/#audit. |
| Implement more diversity on Antiracism Coordinating Committee | | This is a goal we will work on. |
Office of Admissions Updates Heading link
| Initiative/Concern | Project Status (If Applicable) | Related Information |
|---|---|---|
| Why is there a disparity in scholarship awards? | N/A | Background The Law School awards both merit-based scholarships to entering-students and donor-funded scholarships to continuing students. The majority of the Law School’s scholarships are awarded at the time of admission to students based on merit, of which LSAT scores have traditionally been a strong indicator. The disparity in entering-student scholarships reflects the array of matriculants’ LSAT scores. The Law School also awards a number of donor-funded scholarships, and a considerable percentage of these scholarships are awarded to Black students (approximately 28% in 2019-2020). As reported in the 2019 ABA 509 Report, Black students comprised 10.68% of Law School’s student body and received 6% of scholarship funding. It should be noted, however, that these scholarship statistics do not fully account for all of the Law School’s Black students. The ABA 509 Report calculations does not include students of more than one race (even though one is Black), students who are Black and Hispanic, or Black non-resident aliens in the “Black” category. (This information was current as of Spring 2021. Updated information will be provided for Fall/Spring 2021-2022.) Status/Progress Details The Office of Admissions is now weighing non-LSAT merit indicators more heavily in the calculation of entering-student scholarship awards. |
| Address the number of Black students in each section. | N/A | Background Students are assigned to their section during registration. (All evening students are assigned to the same section.) Admissions takes great care to ensure diversity—not only racial diversity—across all sections; however, sections can change due to factors outside of the Law School’s control. For example, some students register but do not matriculate, and some students matriculate but withdraw. |
| Address the low number of Black students at the Law School. | N/A | Background According to the 2019 ABA 509 report, Black students comprised 10.68% of the Law School’s student body. The ABA does not include students who report more than one race (even if one race is Black), Blacks who are Hispanic, or students who are Black, non-resident aliens, so the actual percentage of Black students is actually higher. UIC Law has a higher enrollment of Black students—in absolute numbers and relative percentage—than all other Illinois law school, and our Black student enrollment exceeds the national average of accredited U.S. law schools. The Office of Admission greatly values diversity and will continue to put significant effort into recruiting and admitting Black law students. |
| Scholarship Appeals Policy | background | Background Please note the majority of scholarships granted are merit based, unless a donor has specified that a student should receive a scholarship based on need. Recommendations The ARCC recommends that the scholarship appeal policy be revised to reflect current practices. Any future scholarship appeal policy should consider students who receive merit-based scholarships as well as students who are seeking a scholarship for the first time--based on merit or need. |
| Scholarship Appeals Pre-Admission | background | Our office considers requests for re-consideration to yield strong admits we might otherwise lose because they really want to attend UIC Law but received a stronger offer at another school.Request for scholarship re-consideration is a common practice in the law admissions world and is advised by certain pre-law organizations like Access Lex. Some schools, including one of our main competitors, do not allow negotiations. Due to the significant implications of adopting one approach or the other, I suggest that this topic is re-visited when the new Dean starts at the school. |
| Scholarship Appeals Process | background | Background The policy adequately describes the factors that are considered by the committee. Additional factors that the Dean may want to consider adding to the policy are 1) contributions to the law school community, 2) lack of prior scholarship awards, and 3) other compelling factors (as a catch-all). In practice, it is rare for someone who has a class ranking that is lower than the top 30% to receive a new or increased scholarship if they do not have one of the other enumerated factors or do not make significantly greater contributions to the law school community than other students. |
| Scholarship Appeals Process | | Recommendations AARC suggests a re-examination of the purpose of the scholarship appeal process and its primary objectives. Our understanding is that it was primarily developed to provide relief to some students who did not meet the scholarship retention requirement due to extenuating circumstances, to provide an opportunity to students who significantly out-performed their incoming indicators, and to assist students who might be unable to continue in school without assistance due to the inability to obtain financial aid. It was not meant to create a general tool for students to repeatedly request additional scholarship for performing well in school.Students who do not meet the scholarship retention requirement are advised about how to appeal their scholarship loss when they are sent notice of non-renewal. Additionally, students who reach out to the Admissions office to ask about obtaining more scholarship are routinely referred to this policy. Posting this policy in ECommonsshould also help to disseminate this information to students |
| Scholarship Awarding Process | | For the last 18 months, the committee has compiled appeals submitted during the semester, and met after rankings and grades are distributed. To manage student expectations regarding the response time of their appeal we suggest outlining a timefram for the appeals process and setting deadlines for appeals within each term. |
| Is there a separate pot of appeal money for merit based appeals v. need/personal circumstance based appeals? | | Some donors have specified that need is one factor that should be considered when awarding their scholarships. The ARCC recommends that the law school to encourage donors to fund need-based scholarships. |
Career Services Office Updates Heading link
| Initiative/Concern | Project Status (If Applicable) | Related Information |
|---|---|---|
| CSO Diversity Mentor Program | | UIC Law launched an inaugural Diversity Mentor Program in Fall 2021 that built on the law school’s history of providing access and opportunity while reinforcing the pipeline to diversity in the legal profession. The Program was consistent with the law school's core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, reflecting that we are committed to being culturally aware, sensitive, and responsive to the needs of our students. The mentor-mentee relationship was designed for students to obtain job search advice, learn about their mentors' career/work experiences, have discussions regarding the transition to the professional world, and other topics that may arise. The mentors were attorneys from various practice settings including law firms, corporations, unions, and government. |
Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Updates Heading link
| Initiative/Concern | Project Status (If Applicable) | Related Information |
|---|---|---|
| Provide students and faculty access to antiracism resources. | | Background The Law School community can find a number of collected resources throughout the other pages of the ODEI website. One example is the UIC Law Librarians' Antiracism Library Guide (created in Fall 2020) that links to scholarship on various topics like Chicago race relations, Whiteness, and the economic impact of slavery and discrimination. You can access the guide at https://libraryguides.law.uic.edu. It will be updated periodically, but feel free to make suggestions. Resources can also be accessed from the ODEI homepage. |
| Provide access to a website with student demands and antiracism updates. | | Please visit the Law School Diversity Transparency Project webpage for information and updates. |
| Hire up to five graduate assistants. | | Status/Progress Deails By the end of Spring 2022, ODEI had four graduate assistants. Three assistants graduated in Spring 2022. As of Summer 2022, ODEI has one graduate assistant who will be continuing through Spring 2023. |
| Create ongoing forums for Black students to hear concerns, perspectives, experiences, and solutions, and create actionable plans from the forums. | | Background Since 2020, the Law School has created a number of events and forums to educate and engage the campus community on issues and concerns related to racism and becoming an antiracist. Spring 2022 February 9, 16, & 23 – Black History Month Speaker Series: Student Mental Health and Wellness February 23 – Peace Circles coordinated with the Resotrative Justice Project March 7-11 – Diversity Week Keynote: Clint Smith March 17 – ARCC Townhall Spring 2021 February 18 & 25 – Social Justice at UIC: On Campus, and in the Community March 11 – Diversity Week Keynote: Paul Butler April 12 – ARCC Townhall Fall 2020 October 2 – Student Meeting with Chancellor Amiridis October 27 – Student Forum with Dean Luma November 5 – Faculty Panel on Economic Segregation & Inequality Summer 2020 June 8 - Bakari Sellers, My Vanishing Country June 15 - Tony Romanucci, Attorney for George Floyd’s Family June 17 – Faculty-Led Discussion on Violence by Police July 8 – Faculty Town Hall on White Supremacy and Racism at the Law School July 15 – Student Forum on Antiracism July 24 – UIC Student Life and Support Working Group Graduate Panel |
Other Antiracism Initiatives at UIC Law Heading link
| Initiative/Concern | Project Status | Related Information |
|---|---|---|
| 1L Antiracism Curriculum Project | | UIC Law supported the development and implementation of the 1L Antiracist Curriculum Project (1LARCP), which consists of 11 video modules and 8 Teacher’s Manuals to advance antiracist teaching in the 1L curriculum. The 1LARCP debuted in Fall 2021. To learn more about this project: https://news.law.uic.edu/promoted/uic-law-launches-first-year-antiracist-curriculum-project/ |
| Peace Circles | | In February 2020, ODEI partnered with Restorative Justice Initiative to have a peace circle on student mental health and wellness. There were 3 breakout rooms with circle keepers from the RJ class at UIC Law. Each breakout room had between 5-8 students. Each breakout room has questions that were prepared by Grad Assistants and the RJ class. |
| Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Law School Campus Climate Committee (DEICC) | | DEICC created faculty reading groups in Spring/Summer 2021 that engaged Critical Race Theory/Critical Race Feminism, and antiracist/anti-subordination scholarship to (1) improve classroom climate; (2) prepare the faculty to teach the 1LARCP; and (3) prepare the faculty to more effectively teach existing course materials that discuss these subjects. |