Supporting objectives of the Black Law Students’ Association

During the month of June, in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, the Allard Chapter of the Black Law Students’ Association met with Dean Dauvergne and presented a series of recommendations for changes at Allard Law to assist in confronting anti-Black racism at the law school and, therefore, within the legal profession.  

Allard Law is pleased to be engaged in this dialogue and to work in support of the BLSA’s recommendations, beginning immediately. As our first steps towards these objectives, Allard Law has committed $15,000 for the academic year 2020-21, with the following specific goals for this year. These goals will be advanced with the support of the Allard Law BLSA Chapter.

1. Bring forward the BLSA memorandum of recommendations for discussion and action (via faculty committees) at Allard faculty council in September or October 2020.
2. Host a one day conference for prospective Black law students as part of our recruitment efforts this year.
3. Devote some of this funding towards hiring students to run LSAT prep tutorials for interested Black undergrad students. 
4. Share available data on applications to Allard via the Equity Committee
5. Early in the academic year, discuss with the Equity committee and equality seeking student groups alternative formats for equity, diversity, and inclusion programming during 1L. 
6. Using UBC resources, offer opportunities to faculty and staff for anti-Black racism training. 
7. Ask our Research Committee and our Development team to investigate and promote opportunities for funding research that focuses on anti-racism.
8. Commit to identifying further action items for the 2021-22 academic year to be shared with Faculty Council in March or April 2021. 

The law school recognizes that these objectives are first steps, that will need to be advanced and supported in the years to come. 

Attached are two important documents that form the basis for these commitments: first, the BLSA statement (PDF) following George Floyd’s killing; second, the BLSA memorandum delivered to Dean Dauvergne in June 2020 (PDF).