Reportedly Admitted Under Program for Underprivileged : Quayle’s Law School Entry Questioned

Republican vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle, a member of a wealthy newspaper family, was on the defensive again Friday over a report that he won entry to law school under a program aimed at minorities and needy students.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer said Quayle, already accused of using privilege to avoid service in the Vietnam War, was admitted to Indiana University Law School under an educational opportunity program for minorities, the economically disadvantaged and “other students of different viewpoints and backgrounds.”

The paper said Quayle’s wealthy publishing family had been an important donor to the university between 1966 and 1974, the year Quayle was graduated from the school.

Quayle’s spokesman, Jeff Nesbit, denied that the experimental program under which Quayle went to law school was aimed solely at the underprivileged.

“It was not exclusively an affirmative action program. It was for kids who didn’t make the first cut, but showed promise,” Nesbit said.

He added: “In Dan’s case, it was his graduation from DePauw, one of the finest schools in America. Rehashing all this stuff that happened 20 years ago is silly. It’s time to move on.”

Raises Democratic Hopes

The new flap over Quayle, who has already weathered a major storm over charges he used family influence to win a spot in the home-based National Guard during the Vietnam War, raised Democratic hopes that the youthful Indiana senator may yet prove a political liability for Republican presidential candidate George Bush.

His Democratic counterpart, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, told reporters aboard his plane on Friday: “I don’t know the particulars of Sen. Quayle’s situation and how needy he might have been.”

Cleon Foust, dean of the law school when Quayle was admitted in 1969 and a key source in the Plain Dealer report, said the special admission program was aimed at “disadvantaged minorities.”

But he said his recollection might be faulty. “Dean Frandsen (the current associate dean of the law school) tells me it was not an affirmative action program.”

Law school spokeswoman Charlotte Wright said that she was seeking information on the program, which no longer exists, and that school officials were not immediately prepared to comment. She also voiced annoyance over Quayle’s insistence that the school keep his academic records private.