Reasons for HLS's Rightward Drift?

OrinKerr has an interesting post summarizing an article on the rise of conservative politics at Harvard Law School, and the contributions of the Federalist Society.  Kerr writes:

I went to Harvard during Bob Clark’s deanship, and I think it’s fair to say that (at least to the students) he didn’t seem to be a forceful agent of change.  However, in a particularly intriguing passage, Hicks determines that Clark reshaped the admissions criteria somewhat so that ended preferences for those who “had taken time off, engaged in public works, or participated in other significant outside activities or experiences.” According to Duncan Kennedy, those policies had “contributed to the liberal-radical strength” during James Vorenberg’s tenure as Dean.  The absence of those policies, and increased focus on LSAT scores and GPAs, apparently led to more conservative students being admitted. (See pages 701-02)  If the admissions policies really did change that much, I think this is a notable explanation.  Still, I would want to know more before making a conclusion one way or the other.

I also went to HLS under Dean Clark.  (Kagan became dean the year that I graduated.)  I do think that there are two other things that Clark did.  First, he seems to have stopped the hiring momentum of the CLS movement.  By the time that I arrived, they were no longer radicals poised to storm the gates.  Rather, they seemed like rather sad and bitter failed revolutionaries who were ghettoized in HLS's somewhat-less-than-stellar jurisprudence area while the law and economics jocks hired by Clark grabbed the lime light.

My second bit of Clark information is more specific.  Under Dean Clark, HLS made the decision not to discount the grades of Brigham Young University.  The argument was that many intelligent students go to BYU for religious reasons, and hence the student body is more competitive than one would otherwise think given the university's overall profile.  Prior to this move, any BYU GPA was discounted because getting a 4.0 at lowly BYU wasn't nearly as impressive as getting a 4.0 at chronically grade inflated Harvard.  Or so the argument went.  If -- as I suspect is the case -- the decision not to discount BYU GPA's extended to other religious universities, then one would expect a larger crop of religiously conservative students.  Of course, under the old rules Mormons from BYU might still have benefited due the two years of missionary service that many Mormons perform, although, I would not be surprised if missionary work was not counted under the Vorenberg formula.

Of course all of this is nothing more than idle speculation.  I fully agree with Orin that without more actual data it is really hard to say what does or does not matter.

Comments

[Mathew]

Nate,

Can you provide a source for how you know BYU's grades were no longer discounted and how this came about? I know, for instance, that Mary Ann Glendon is often credited with changing the policy, but when asked about it directly for a paper on Mormon's at HLS by Ryan Poulsen, she denied having anything to do with it.

[Nate Oman]

I may have heard it from Ryan Poulsen, but I recall hearing it from someone at BYU as well (although not the Glendon part). It sounds as though this may simply be another LDS urband legend. Was Ryan able to find out if the discounting story (as opposed to the Glendon story) was true? I always thought it made sense of the fact that there were lots of BYU grads at HLS, but few UofU grads.

[Mathew]

Ryan told me that HLS (via admissions) denied that any change had been implemented--an answer he didn't believe given the sharp increase in BYU admits beginning in the nineties.

As for the reason behind the paucity of UofU grads? Isn't it obvious:)

[Ryan Poulson]

Joyce Kearl, the dean of admissions, told me that she had no knowledge of any policy change with respect to BYU.

She seemed very uncomfortable after I asked the question. I got the impression that it was a taboo subject. So, who knows. The data definitely suggests a policy change.

I think your perceived shift at Harvard is more representative of a nationwide shift away from radicalism than just an HLS shift. Go to Boalt today, you will be hard pressed to find any guerillas or brazen revolutionaries. No one is building a People's Park there these days either.

And it is Poulson not Poulsen.

[This comment has been edited]

[KK]

What kind of data did you have in mind?

And do you have a way to design its collection? It doesn't have to be perfect, but some thoughts would be good.