Statement on Diversity

Message from the Dean on Diversity

At Northwestern Law, we are proud of our extraordinarily active and diverse community. We are proud because we have successfully attracted a student body whose entering class includes as many women as men, whose proportion of minority students is greater than that of most other law schools, and whose regional roots span the geography of the nation.

In large measure we owe our success to our unique admissions program. As the only major law school to strongly encourage all applicants to interview we treat each applicant as an individual, enabling us to recognize interpersonal skills and other attributes that are beyond a written applications power to convey.

Once our students begin their legal education, we also work hard to ensure their success. Ours is a close-knit collegial community of students who support one another rather than compete against each other. More than 30 student organizations thrive on campus, individually and collectively responding to students' myriad interests, backgrounds, and needs. Northwestern Law is also one of the few major law schools with a member of the Student Affairs team dedicated to promoting and facilitating Diversity Education and Outreach; the Director of Diversity Education and Outreach is here to provide support to minority students as they pursue their law degrees.

We are also constantly striving to expand the ranks of women and minorities among our faculty. We are not unlike most other major law schools in that further progress is needed in this area, but we have come a long way in recent years.

Our diverse, collegial, and supportive community is the hallmark of what we know as the 'Northwestern Law Difference.' The Director of Diversity Education and Outreach and the organizations profiled here are key players in keeping that difference vibrant and immediate for us all, faculty and students alike. We invite you to join us.

David E. Van Zandt,
Dean