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MILLENNIUM SHOWDOWN FOR PUBLIC INTEREST LAW 33
community can be positioned to encourage outcomes that undermine diversity.
In the name of survival imperatives, e.g., maintaining American Bar Association
(ABA) accreditation standing and stabilization, accreditation standards can be
utilized to justify the gradual but determined recruitment of a different student
population. In the instance where the enrollment of racial minorities drops, the
smaller minority population may find itself isolated, alienated in an environment
that once was supportive. Changing student profiles, heightened hostility toward
non-conforming minorities, and decreased employment opportunity for minorities
in non-clerical positions may all be symptomatic of an unspoken but determined
effort to restrict the presence of non-whites.
IV. MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE: RECLAIMING THE MISSION AND RELOCATING
THE WOLF
A. The Role of Mission
Vision is central to life and living. Without a vision there can be no life or
direction. 241 The millennium public interest advocate must be a part of preserving
the vision and communicating it clearly to each generation of advocates encountered.
Vision serves as both motivation for the work and the standard by
which all conduct or performance is judged. Authority must be transferred from
those who would override or derail the vision to those who would perform the
daily tasks associated with keeping America free for everyone. The rhetoric of
equality must be transformed into energy that fuels day-to-day living for all people
throughout this country. The functioning of institutions positioned to influence
the core of American life must reflect the commitment and consciousness
resulting from careful consideration of the desired outcomes and the effort required
to achieve those ends. There must be a detailed plan, describing how the
organization will progress.
Institutions that lack formal plans and strategies to diversify the work force
and student body are destined to retain the dominant class demographics. There
is neither an expectation nor the capacity to determine accountability or progression
toward diversity. "Wolves" bound politically in the past to at least the rhetoric
of equality and cautious maneuvering may proceed boldly to overlook
diversity considerations in hiring, institutional development, and in student recruitment.
Senior management staff or committees are gatekeepers protecting
the quest for "neutrality." To the extent that there is the successful suppression of
all discourse except that needed to bring about the desired "neutral" end, institutional
health is compromised in several ways.
There are telltale signs when institutional rhetoric has intoxicated or seduced
its proponents. People of color continue to be the individuals afforded the lower
241 Smith, supra note 237.