NEWS
Regents discuss admissions, minority report
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Also by Julia Westhoff:
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by Julia Westhoff
Monday, April 8, 2002
UW System schools have resumed their regular admissions process since March?s admissions freeze, UW System President Katharine Lyall said at the Board of Regents meeting Friday.
At the time of the freeze, 124,100 students — 94 percent of the planned target for Fall 2002 — had been admitted system-wide. After receiving assurance the budget of UW would not exceed Gov. Scott McCallum?s recommended $51 million, the Board of Regents authorized schools to admit 5,500 more students. Since Wednesday, over half of the additional students have been admitted, and Lyall said the remainder should be notified soon.
“The process is proceeding briskly and I believe we will reach the 5,500 [full time students] within the next week or so,” Lyall told the Regents.
Lyall said the university will know the final budget outcome after all students are admitted and will consider whether additional admissions are warranted at that time.
The Board also accepted the 2001 Minority and Disadvantaged Student Annual Report Friday amidst discussions of definitions regarding minorities and minority recruitment.
During the discussion, the Board reviewed the definitions used to describe minority students and the goals of Plan 2008, UW System?s 10-year plan to increase campus diversity.
Cora Marrett, senior vice president for academic affairs, explained that definitions of minority students in the report are established by state statute, which requires the UW System to report on them each year to the governor and state legislature.
Regent Fred Mohs questioned the use of race in admissions, but said he enthusiastically supports Plan 2008 because it promotes inclusiveness and does not call for using racial preferences in the admissions process.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said the university?s flagship goal is to continue to improve recruitment of students of color, until the proportion of entering minority students at least matches the proportion of Wisconsin high school graduates of color who are qualified for admission.
“Race is relevant,” Wiley said. “I don?t think we?ll ever stop paying attention to it. But we have never admitted anyone on our campus, or anywhere in the UW System, who is not qualified. But we do recruit qualified students of color.” The board also discussed deferred maintenance of UW buildings. For the 2001-03 biennium, the UW System?s backlog of deferred building maintenance is estimated at $800 million, according to Nancy Ives, assistant vice president for capital planning and budget. Regent Roger Axtell wondered if UW buildings were safe with that level of deferred maintenance. Ives and UW-Platteville Chancellor David Markee said UW buildings are safe, despite the backlog of maintenance projects. Ives said UW spends about $115 million a year on an ongoing cycle of maintenance needs.
