Diversity, Equity, Inclusion: A community imperative

By Carla Meyer

At UC Davis Law, diversity, equity and inclusion are fundamental yet never fixed concepts.

Over the past three years, the law school added a DEI Fellow, Alexis Elston, developed an ongoing Racial Justice Speaker Series and established an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and Celebration, among other initiatives aimed at ensuring everyone feels welcome at King Hall. 

These measures do not reflect a new campaign, but represent “a real, conscious effort to capitalize on our successes in DEI issues over time,” UC Davis Law Dean Kevin R. Johnson said. “The recent developments have really focused on refining a good thing.”

Throughout its history, UC Davis Law has promoted justice and equality for all. In 1969, the law school, led by students, named its brand-new building Martin Luther King Jr. Hall to honor the civil rights giant who had been killed a year earlier.

Yet the law school’s faculty remained entirely white two decades later, before Johnson and two other professors of color, Evelyn Lewis and Arturo Gándara, were hired in 1989, Johnson said.

“The real incredible change that took place is the diversification of the faculty to what it is today,” Johnson said. Under the direction of Johnson, the law school’s dean since 2008, and his predecessor, Rex Perschbacher, UC Davis Law built a “majority-minority” faculty – rare for a top-tier law school.

The other sea change, Johnson said, was the transition from “a predominantly white student body, over the same time period, to a majority-minority student body today.” The long-running King Hall Outreach Program and other recruitment initiatives that encourage students from all backgrounds to apply to King Hall assisted this progress.

The law school’s DEI success consistently draws national recognition. In 2019, The National Jurist ranked UC Davis Law No. 2 on its list of most diverse law schools. In 2020, preLaw Magazine recognized Davis as the No. 3 law school for racial justice. The Princeton Review’s most recent “Best Law Schools” rankings place UC Davis Law at No. 5 for faculty diversity and No. 2 in resources for women.

“Once you realize those kinds of changes have been made and you have reached the kind of ‘critical mass’ you have been seeking, then the question is retention and ensuring success,” Johnson said. “You think, ‘How do we make things even better?’”

In early 2017, the law school added in-house psychologist Dr. Margaret S. Lee -- a development “you might not think is DEI-related, but is,” Johnson said. “Part of my thinking was, ‘You have a majority-minority student body, and the stresses and strains on students of color is well-known in law school. Having that support is important.”

Later that year, King Hall introduced its groundbreaking First Generation Advocates program, which pairs first-generation college graduates – usually around one-fifth of first-year students each fall – with faculty mentors to help ease the transition to law school.

“I was really struck by the first FGA event I attended – just to see all the faculty of color and first-generation faculty who came out to support students,” said Emily Scivoletto, who became UC Davis Law’s Senior Assistant Dean for Student Affairs in August 2019.

A Concerted Approach

Scivoletto had directed UC Davis Law’s Academic Success program from 2008-2010, before moving on to leadership positions at the University of San Diego and UCLA, serving as associate dean for academic and student affairs at the latter law school.

She started her second Davis position with new DEI-positive elements already in play in King Hall. Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Afra Afsharipour had shepherded innovative new courses including Implicit Bias and the Law, and the Law Students Association had introduced the position of vice president for DEI, first held by Montserrat Garcia Juarez ’21.

“The opportunity I saw was to establish a systematic program for diversity, equity and inclusion that would bring (Student Affairs) and the groups who wanted to do this kind of work together,” Scivoletto said.

That first semester, “Dean Johnson really set the tone,” she said. “He talked about how important it was to support our students,” and put money behind it. Johnson approved funding for the senior leadership team to meet with diversity consultant Michelle Silverthorn, who discussed best practices for administration and held training sessions for students, staff and faculty.

“These trainings and conversations led to greater involvement from community members in DEI programming,” Scivoletto said.

The most immediate and visible example was the inaugural MLK Day of Service and Celebration in January 2020. The event was conceived before Scivoletto’s arrival, through a request from the Black Law Students Association the previous spring to create an annual commemoration of King’s legacy.

Scivoletto helped form a new “MLK Day Working Group” of volunteers, so “BLSA would have school-wide support,” she said. “We ended up with a good system that now is three years running.”

That first MLK Day included a talk by Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods, volunteer opportunities at Fourth & Hope, a Woodland nonprofit that serves the unhoused population, and a workshop to assist Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients. It also went a long way toward making first-year student Kalan Andrews ’22 feel at home.

Andrews grew up in Prince George’s County, Md., where most residents and elected officials are Black, and where Andrews performed community service every MLK holiday through her church, which also would hold a town hall on racial justice issues that day.

“It was empowering to see those kinds of social justice-oriented things in my everyday life, and then be able to come to law school and see those same things being implemented,” Andrews said.

She already had been impressed by the MLK mural in the King Hall courtyard, which she saw on her first visit to the law school. Co-created by Reza Harris ’19, the mural was dedicated to the law school by Harris and the BLSA in spring 2019.

“I had never been to California before I came to law school, and I thought it was so cool that this law school values MLK this way,” Andrews said. A BLSA member, Andrews served as the LSA’s second VP for DEI and sits on the law school’s admissions committee.

A DEI Point Person

During her first semester in Student Affairs, Scivoletto invited students from various affinity groups to coffee – a practice that led to, among other actions, the deans’ office assisting the fledgling Vietnamese Law Students Association on events and helping the Lambda Law Students Association increase awareness of, and potentially add, gender-inclusive restrooms in King Hall.

Scivoletto had envisioned a DEI point person to work beside her and had talked with Johnson and Senior Assistant Dean for Administration Brett Burns about adding a new position.

But then the pandemic arrived, and “since we didn’t know what was going to happen, we said, ‘Let’s hire a fellow,’” Scivoletto said. “BLSA was also very interested in having someone there to work on these issues, and we felt the time was right.”

In June 2020, amid massive protests over the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, the law school launched a search, resulting in the selection of Elston, then assistant director of admission at UC Davis Law.

Elston, a 2015 law school graduate, said she brings to the job “my own experiences as a person of color attending a top-50 law school, along with my experiences working with some of our current students in other ways while I was in admissions, especially the BLSA.” 

Andrews was part of the selection committee that chose Elston.

“When all the things happened in 2020 with George Floyd and the different marches and rallies, I felt like a lot of law schools were not really listening or taking action,” Andrews said. “I really like that our law school took action and created Alexis’ role.” 

Elston immediately took a lead role on the annual MLK event, and in 2021, assumed direction of First Generation Advocates. While continuing its mentee program, FGA now offers Academic Success and professional development workshops and mentoring from the FGA Student Board.

Elston holds office hours for first-generation students or any student with DEI concerns. She also created a specialized implicit bias training for student organizations that hold tryouts or application processes.

Along with Johnson and Scivoletto, Elston guides the Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Formed in spring 2021, the committee contains faculty, staff, student and alumni representatives and plans to complete a draft of King Hall’s first DEI strategic plan this semester.

A Less Hierarchal Law School

Elston said she had been encouraged going into her new role by how accessible Johnson always has been to students. 

“When I first got to the law school, I was shocked at how easy it was to meet with the dean. I did not have that experience at my law school, let alone have (the dean) actively walk around the law school and talk to people.” 

“This law school is different from many others in being less hierarchal and more inclusive in decision-making,” Johnson said. “We have had a student on the educational policy committee for as long as I can remember – at least 30 years – and that’s pretty extraordinary.”

UC Davis Law also includes students on its admissions committee, which Johnson said he is not aware of any other law school doing.

“I think it’s amazing they even want a student’s perspective,” said Andrews, part of the admissions committee this year alongside classmate Arton Falahati ’22.

Along with a DEI fellow and committee, 2020-21 ushered in UC Davis Law’s Racial Justice Speaker Series, which, like the MLK Day event, became a permanent part of the annual law school calendar.

Created in response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the series brings in scholars from around the country to explore issues pertaining to all areas of law and communities of color. Speakers have addressed systemic racism in the criminal justice system, immigration law, corporate law and national security, among other topics.

“The series was designed to get people thinking and talking about these issues in a constructive way,” Johnson said. “These are hard issues for everybody. It would be nice if we had answers to them, but at a minimum, we should be talking about them.” 

In 2021, Johnson and Professor Raquel Aldana – previously UC Davis’ Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity -- assumed leadership of UC Davis Law’s Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies. Started in 2013 to honor late UC Davis Law Professor Keith Aoki, and based in critical race theory, the center now co-sponsors the Racial Justice Speaker Series, further enhancing its reputation for presenting thought-provoking lectures.

Diversity, equity and inclusion should be on everyone’s mind at the law school, because that awareness “benefits all of us,” Johnson said.

“Part of my job is to ensure DEI is embedded in everything we do, and to make sure there’s real substance to the kinds of things we’re trying to do, as opposed to window dressing.”