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California’s ban on race-conscious admissions policies in public institutions could give some law schools seeking to enroll minorities an edge over the UCLA School of Law, some public officials say.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling green-lighting the consideration of race in higher education admissions will not directly affect the School of Law as a result of Proposition 209 – a voter-sponsored initiative that, among other things, banned the consideration of race in admissions in California’s public universities starting in 1998.

Leo Trujillo-Cox, the School of Law’s director of outreach, said Proposition 209 hampers the UCLA law school’s efforts to admit a diverse student body.

“Having to operate under a different system of rules than all other private schools and most other public schools makes it difficult, on a lot of levels, for UCLA to achieve its own goals,” he said.

Following Proposition 209, enrollment of underrepresented minority students decreased at the University of California, and although the School of Law has acted “aggressively and imaginatively,” the level of minority enrollment has never returned to its pre-1998 status, Trujillo-Cox said.

Aside from outreach programs to compensate for the loss of affirmative action, Trujillo-Cox said the School of Law restructured its admissions procedures to closely examine applicants’ socioeconomic background, which often correlates with race.

“We redid our admissions process to be as sensitive (as possible) within the constraints,” he said.

Still, the percent of minority students enrolled at the School of Law falls below that of some private law schools including Stanford Law School and the law school at the University of Southern California, whose minority enrollment rates are close to 43 percent.

Bill Hoye, associate dean of USC Law admissions, said USC’s law school considers race as a factor in admissions because a diverse classroom gives students “a richer educational experience.”

Students applying to Stanford Law School have the option to provide their race, but Stanford Spokesman Jack Hubbard said the law school does not look at race when deciding whom to admit.

“We’re very much behind affirmative action, but we deal with each application on an individual basis,” he said.

And even some California law schools facing the same constraints as UCLA have managed to recruit more minority students than the UCLA School of Law.

UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall has a student population consisting of 34.8 percent minorities – about 6 percent higher than the percentage at the UCLA School of Law, according to the American Bar Association’s Law School Admissions Council’s Official Guide to ABA-approved Law Schools.

UCLA law Professor Richard Sander said some public law schools in California have been able to recruit more minorities than UCLA because they implement policies some say are at odds with Proposition 209.

“I don’t really think outreach has anything to do with it. What differentiates schools is their willingness to violate the law,” he said.

Sander attributes the School of Law’s lack of diversity to its stricter adherence to state restrictions.

“Schools that believe they should be somewhat in compliance with the law will have lower enrollment rates,” he said.

But Robert Berring, Boalt Hall’s interim dean, said Berkeley’s law school has managed to attract minority students using a number of methods – none of which violate Proposition 209.

“We are so closely watched by everybody. Our numbers are monitored, our processes are watched,” he said, adding that if Boalt Hall didn’t comply with the law, “people would come down on us like a ton of bricks.”

Berring said Boalt Hall sends admissions office representatives to schools with large minority populations to increase its pool of minority applicants via recruitment.

One method used to increase minority enrollment is to have alumni groups, law firms and bar associations offer scholarships for minority students, Berring said.

This method complies with the law because it isn’t the university offering the scholarships, he added.

Regardless, California’s ban on affirmative action could make the UC system’s law schools “seem a less friendly place” for minorities than private ones, Sander said.

First-year law student Brandon Guzman said some students are reluctant to enroll in a law school lacking ethnic diversity.

Guzman added that diversity is beneficial in the classroom because students of different ethnic backgrounds bring unique perspectives on law.