In a time when there’s a strong demand for racial justice in the United States, the CUNY School of Law has been named second in the nation for its racial justice program by preLaw Magazine.
“Dozens of law schools are adding offerings in the wake of racial unrest that has swept the nation. Yet, those that lead the pack have had such programs in place for some time,” preLaw Magazine said, addressing the list of schools who were granted the recognition.
Despite the recent civil unrest surrounding racial injustice, or more specifically, the death of George Floyd and other unarmed Black men and women killed in police custody, there’s been a rise in demand for studying legal racial justice.
“What all of the schools have in common is a commitment to racial justice issues that is supported through their curriculum and by their faculties,” preLaw continued.
Yvette Wilson-Barnes, the associate dean of student affairs at CUNY’s law school, said that student involvement is essential to the program’s success.
“It cuts across every dimension of diversity,” she said.
As the only publicly funded law school in New York City, CUNY’s School of Law prides itself on its mission: “Law in the Service of Human Needs.”
The school offers a clinical program that allows students to dive into their studies and, according to preLaw, focus on topics like immigration, family law, gender, disability and aging.
The magazine made its decision in choosing these top schools based on which programs offer the most racial justice opportunities, as well as the racial diversity of each program.
“We then weighted these factors, with relative clinics at 20%, centers at 20%, courses at 17.5%, journals at 10%, other factors at 7.5% and student body diversity at 25%,” preLaw said.
CUNY School of Law was only topped by Howard University.
Other schools on the list included the University of California Davis School of Law, which was ranked third; Georgetown University Law Center, ranked ninth and the University of Virginia School of Law, coming in 10th place.
