Originally published in Student Lawyer magazine, February 2006 (Vol. 34, No. 6). All rights reserved.

Arkansas Dean Honored for Diversity Efforts

by Karen Taylor

James Miller, associate dean of students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Law Center, works hard not only to recruit a diverse student body, but also to make sure students of color succeed in law school. The ABA Law Student Division rewarded his efforts last August at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago with its Henry J. Ramsey Award for Diversity.

Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen is a 1979 graduate of the law school. He says Miller’s commitment to diversity will lead to significant results in the legal profession.

“Alumni of color view Jim Miller as an ally in our quest to create a more inclusive legal profession,” Griffen says. “Jim is not only serious about enrolling students of color. He wants those students to succeed in law school, enter the profession, and serve with dignity and honor. Alumni of color help Jim recruit students of color because he shares—at the intellectual, moral, emotional, and spiritual levels—our passion for inclusion and diversity.”

Miller was nominated by Carol Goforth, the school’s associate dean for academic affairs.
“Jim Miller understands the importance of family, the importance of learning and caring about our applicants as individuals, and the importance of considering individual needs,” Goforth says.

“This is a time-consuming process, and is only successful because Jim and his staff genuinely do care that there is a fit between the needs of an applicant and the programs available at the law school.”

Other faculty members appreciate Miller’s ability to personally reach out to all kinds of students.

“If Jim is not on the road, he comes in every morning before 7 a.m. and stays late when he needs to, just to be able to make personal contact with potential students,” professor Cynthia Nance says. “That sense of having a friend, someone to turn to, someone who will listen and care about you, is a big thing when you are recruiting a poor kid from the Delta, who is the first one in his or her family to graduate from college, much less to think about a professional career.”

Leon Holmes, a 3L and president of the Black Law Students Association, agrees. “Dean Miller has been the catalyst for improving diversity at the law school, but more than that, he has helped show not only the law school and the legal community, but also the wider community, that diversity means much more than new faces,” he says. “He has shown that it means extending community to these new people.”

Miller was quick to share credit for the award with the entire community at the University of Arkansas. “For Jim, the award is about hundreds of students and alumni who are now practicing law or using their legal education in other ways because he convinced them that this was a good place for them, and he worked to see that this would in fact be a good place,” Goforth says.

The award is named in honor of former dean Henry J. Ramsey Jr. of Howard University for his commitment to issues of inclusiveness and study of the law. The award recognizes excellence in activities that have contributed to the ABA’s Goal IX, “to promote full and equal participation in the legal profession by minorities, women, and persons with disabilities.”

Karen Taylor, a second-year student at Brigham Young University Law School, is Student Lawyer’s student editor.

Law Student Division Annual Awards: How to Apply

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