University of Virginia Library

Legal Students Create
Black Law Association

By Peter Shea
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Black students at the University's
School of Law have formed the Black
American Law Student Association
(BALSA), it was announced yesterday by
Leonard McCants, Chairman of Public
Relations for the organization.

The group, aiming to represent the
views of the Black students at the
University's law school, will be affiliated
with National BALSA, Mr. McCants said.
NBALSA was founded at Yale University.

The organization, formed last Friday
by the 29 Black students in the law
school, has a number of objectives, each of
which centers around the "need for the law to
become more relevant to the Black
community," Mr. McCants said.

One of the goals of BALSA will be to
establish a program in which Black law students
will serve as counselors in court for local
Blacks. Mr. McCants explained that, while some
students have been participating in a similar
program for some time, the Black law students
have not been very active in the program.

"We also hope to try to bridge the gap
between the community and the law school,
particularly to deal with the unique legal
problems of Black Americans. We hope to
enable the law school here both to teach and to
serve the community. The University takes a lot
from the community but does not return so
much," Mr. McCants said.

Finally, Mr. McCants explained that the
organization aims to "increase the emphasis on
changing the curriculum to more relevant
courses, courses related more to the real
world."

Other objectives of BALSA will be to seek
increased recruitment of Black law students and
professors and to develop a program in which
Blacks in the legal profession will come to the
University to speak. Mr. McCants said that,
while there have been many excellent speakers
who have been brought here by the law school,
the law school has been derelict in the area of
Black speakers.

According to Mr. McCants, a seven-person
Policy Council will direct the activities of the
organization. Elections for officers and
chairmanships of the various committees were
also held on Friday. Skip Preston was chosen to
serve a one-year term as Governor, the
presiding officer of the group, while Gloria
Bolden was elected Secretary.

Besides Mr. McCants, other committee
chairmen elected Friday included Gwen Jones,
Committee on Admissions; Bobby Vasser,
Committee on Curriculum; S.D. Stith,
Committee on Finance; and Jack Granely,
Committee on Community Relations.