Miller Receives Law Diversity Award for 2005

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Jim Miller, associate dean for students for the University of Arkansas School of Law, has been given the Henry J. Ramsey Jr. Diversity Award for 2005 by the American Bar Association’s Student Law Division. The award was announced during the Division’s banquet Aug. 5 in Chicago.

    “We are so pleased that Jim Miller has been named the recipient of such a wonderful distinction from the American Bar Association,” said Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Bob Smith. “We all know how critical his role has been in making the University of Arkansas’s Law School one of the most diverse in the nation.  Now the nation will be reminded of this in a very special way.”

Miller joined the Law School faculty in 1976. He received a bachelor of science in business administration in 1965 from the University of Arkansas and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1976.

A native of Danville, Ark., Miller taught journalism and social studies in the Dardanelle, Ark., school system before returning to the university to study law. He was named assistant dean of the Law School in 1976 and was named associate dean for students in 1995.

“Jim has been single-handedly responsible for student recruitment to the law school,” said Carol Goforth, associate dean for academic affairs and the Clayton N. Little Professor of Law. “He has also been the primary source of support for students in academic difficulty during most of those years and has therefore been a critical component to our retention efforts over the years. It is difficult to overstate just how important Jim’s role is to the law school and the university.”

The American Bar Association’s Student Law Divisions Diversity Award serves as a testament to Dean Henry J. Ramsey Jr. of Howard University for his lifetime commitment to issues of inclusiveness and his efforts to increase the quality of the practice and study of the law. The diversity award serves to recognize excellence in activities that have contributed toward the achievement and advancement of women, minorities and persons with disabilities in the profession.

In her letter of nomination, Goforth details Miller’s recruitment efforts of the past three decades and the dedication he has shown to inclusiveness and diversity within the law school. Below is a table of student enrollment in the law school during the past five years:

                        2001            2002          2003           2004          2005

Enrolled          143              179             169             163             143

Minorities        27 (18.9%) 40 (22.3%) 33 (19.5%) 39 (23.9%) 37 (25.9%)

  *Black           15                24                22                28                25

  *Am. Indian    7                  9                  3                   1                  5

  *Asian            3                  5                  3                   7                  4

  *Hispanic       2                  2                  5                   3                  3