Robert Morse, director of data research at U.S. News & World Report, is the principal architect of that magazine's annual ranking project: America's Best Graduate Schools which ranks American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law schools (the rankings).l U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News) has been publishing the rankings since 1990 and Mr. Morse has played the preeminent role in developing the current methodologies that are used in the rankings as well as playing an active role in survey design, methodology changes, discipline changes, and monitoring data collection. It is fair to state that Mr. Morse is not only the public face of the rankings, he is also the primary defender of its methodology and validity. Over the years, he has become a familiar face to legal educators as an honest, open and staunch proponent of the rankings. 

Hence, it was no surprise that Mr. Morse appeared at the program: Opening Doors: Making Diversity Matter in Law School Admissions, which is the subject of this symposium, to defend the validity of the rankings and to explain specifically why U.S. News does not include diversity as a weighted evaluative metric in evaluating law schools in the rankings. Although I was unable to attend the conference due to a conflict, I perused with interest the slides that Mr. Morse shared with the audience that day and his written remarks on why U.S. News does not include diversity as an evaluative metric in the rankings

 
Citation
Alex M. Johnson Jr., Including Diversity in U.S. News’ Rankings: One Small Step in the Right Direction, 27 Journal of Civil Rights & Economic Development, 167–202 (2013).