"One of the difficulties is that it does cut into the amount of time you can use for research and you get no credit for it," University of Minnesota Law Professor Gerald Torres says. "It's a hard position to put young minority professors in."

"I spend an enormous amount of time in people time," Morris says. "That leaves me hours behind [in research]."

In order to devote enough time to their research, minority professors find they have to say `no' to student requests for counseling. But many say that turning students away is not the solution. "It's a very painful thing to do because you do feel that you're here to impart knowledge to students and interact with them," Harvard's Edley says.

"It's hard to say no because you know that there's not always someone out there who can help them," adds Rachel S. Moran, acting professor at the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

Across the country, law school deans agree that this remains a very serious problem. "I think [minority professors] are called upon in doing more counseling than their white counterparts," Pitofsky says.

"Some very special demands tend to be made on minority faculty members," says University of Pennsylvania Dean Robert H. Mundheim. "I think that we have to be sensitive to that problem and be protective of those faculty members."

Edley says that although his relationship with his Harvard colleagues is good, he finds "more skepticism, more hostility" among his Harvard Law students

"I have only on rare occasions felt uncomfortable in my relationship with my colleagues, but there have been many times when I've been unhappy with my students," he says. "One can't help but feel a sense that there's a special burden to overcome in terms of having credibility with students."

Areva D. Bell, a third-year law student, says that this problem of credibility exists for both minority professors and students at Harvard: "I think we all feel that pressure that you have to be twice as good," she says.

Both Harvard Law Dean James E. Vorenberg '49 and Professor Bell refused to comment on the situation of Black professors at Harvard Law.

Losing Minority Lawyers

Minority law professors also say they are increasingly concerned about the high rate of turn-over in their ranks. Minority faculty members estimate that in the past six years, 43 per cent of their fellow lawyers have left the teaching profession altogether. They cite the increasing hostility from students and faculty--and the burnout from the excessive demands on their time--as probable reasons for their colleagues' departures.

"My suspicion is that it's because the environment is harsher," Delgado says. "The environment is not as warm [for minorities] as it is for non-minorities."

"I think that nothing is as hard as being the single minority law professor," Givelber says.

This hostile environment may also deter promising minorities from teaching law, many fear. "Those of us in the business are extremely concerned that prospective minority lawyers who would become future law professors not be discouraged from pursuing access to the profession," Carty-Bennia says. She believes that incidents such as the Bell controversy "send a message to the best and brightest of minority graduates that this is not a business that takes them seriously."