Report: TSU Law School Admissions Too Easy The American Bar Association is asking Texas Southern University's law school to raise admission standards, effectively shutting the door to many black and Hispanic students that would likely not have been accepted at other state law schools. The request comes as part of a seven-year accreditation review of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law by the ABA. The law school, created in 1946 to allow blacks to attend a publicly funded law school, trains a majority of the state's black and Hispanic law students. Experts said that many TSU law students and graduates would likely not have been accepted at other state law schools because their college grade point averages and entrance exam scores were too low. "The attrition rate is unconscionably high, and the bar passage rate remains the lowest among all law schools in the state of Texas," the Chicago-based ABA said in a report obtained by the Houston Chronicle. The report, citing statistics from the July 2000 Texas bar exam, said that 52 percent of TSU law school graduates passed the test on their first attempt, and 33 percent passed on subsequent attempts. The state-passing rate for those taking the exam for the first time on the same date was 82 percent, and 42 percent on second attempts. Of the 331 students who entered the TSU law school in the fall of 1999, only 201 maintained the required 2.0 grade point average needed to stay at the school by the end of the 2000 academic year, the report said. That gave the school a first-year attrition rate of 40 percent, more than four times the national average of 8.9 percent. Admissions standards have already been raised slightly to meet ABA concerns, said John Brittain, dean of the law school. He expects the school to retain its ABA accreditation, which is required by the state. The school must submit a plan to the ABA by November. Brittain said that he believes it is possible to raise admission standards to weed out many students who would not graduate or pass, but still provide an opportunity to attend law school to minorities who otherwise might not qualify. "Raising admission standards presents a dilemma for the state of Texas because it has abolished affirmative action in higher education," Brittain said. "The Thurgood Marshall School of Law is performing a special mission for the state by allowing many students to attend law school who would not have gained admission to other law schools. "We want to continue fulfilling this historical mission of serving minorities. We have to do a little bit of both, raise admission standards and take educational risks." In the 1999-2000 academic year, TSU officials said that the school enrolled 92 percent of all black first-year law students attending the state's four public law schools and 52 percent of the first-year Hispanic students. In recent years, the average Law School Admissions Test score for students admitted to TSU has been 142, significantly below the national average of 150, the ABA said. The median grade point average for students admitted to TSU's law school has ranged from 2.67 to 2.76, compared with the national average of 3.06 to 3.10. The ABA report also said that TSU's law school does not have adequate resources to educate the large classes of approximately 300 students it has admitted in recent years. The ABA report said that the law building is too small, classes are crowded and that there is not enough space for clinical programs or student organizations. Brittain said that the university has pledged to spend $5 million to renovate the law school building and is considering spending another $5 million to build a new wing. He also said that the school will provide more training for the bar exam, strengthen its research and writing programs, and increase library funding. For more information, log onto the Thurgood Marshall School of Law Web site at www.tsulaw.edu.