The Klan also agrees that race should be a factor. Luckily, for you, racism is only a one-way street. Reverse racism teaches everyone a valuable lesson about pity and misdirected blame.

Shouldn’t there be some data on affirmative action by now? Shouldn’t you be able to show us that it had a positive effect on the nation? Do the minority students succeed, become productive employees, make money, become roll models, and return to their humble roots to save their community?

Or, are you turning away white students with potential who could have actually made a difference? Perhaps you should compare the black students at UW Madison to the white students at UW Milwaukee.

Maybe the first year should be affirmative action-based, but subsequent years are based solely on merit.

Willingly breaking state and federal law, as well as opening up the university system to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in legal fees…nicely done, ladies and gentlement.

I wish you the best in your next move; voting to raise tuition 25% next year.

You are really looking out for the students and the university.

Regents, Please admit me. Im not white. I can give you a “diverse learning environment.” Thank You, Minorities

With this in place, I guess that if a white guy gets in we’ll know he’s got REALLY good grades, test scores, class ranks or any combination of the three. Too bad he will never be able to be diverse, but into every life a little rain must fall.

“With this in place, I guess that if a white guy gets in we’ll know he’s got REALLY good grades, test scores, class ranks or any combination of the three.”

Given the caliber of a lot of white students who are accepted, I’d say that only the bottom of the barrel, i.e. students who normally wouldn’t succeed here anyway, has to worry.

Using race as a factor is just a part of the game that admissions people play.

It seems that if we wanted to foster diversity we should give more weight to a lot of other factors:

What about white students from foreign countries? White students from inner-city schools or from low income families? What about students with unique skills or talents?

The admissions committee is concerned with “diversity” by asking this question: Is the candidate African American or Latino?

Sorry whites and Asian Americans, you don’t get the added “diversity” bonus because you are too well represented at the school.

Based on Wiley’s comments, it is clear that he wants the APPEARANCE of diversity. Years ago, UW photoshopped a black student into a photo of UW fans for an admissions brochure. This whole game is all about appearance.

People complain that they don’t see enough “minority faces” around campus. Well I have news for you: you are living in Wisconsin where most people are white.

What will it take to satisfy you? Must the UW have each race represented exactly as it is in the population? In that case, admissions personal should let in fewer Asian Americans because they are over-represented when compared to the white population.

Using race as a factor in admissions is a joke and I hope the UW gets sued.

So, do you think someday the straight A white kids who didn’t get into Madison will hold a grudge against the B-grade minority kids who did get into Madison? Do you think this will help or hurt race relations?

Will you have a doctor treat you when you know that they were accepted to medical school to fill a quota, not because they were the best and brightest?

The free market is still the best solution to any problem. Fighting the free market will only result in failure. The UAW, enemy #1 of the free market, has caused the American auto industry to mortally suffer.

To the comment regarding tuition hikes: Can we once and for all remember 2 things? 1) UW tuition is already laughably low in comparison to the Big 10 or any other respectable public university; 2) Rising tuition is directly related to the drop in state funding for the UW. Our fine lawmakers have been cutting funding to the UW for over a decade. If you want to blame the regents on tuition, remember to include the UW haters in the legislature.

Since you are so clever in thinking about race and admissions, perhaps you could apply your genius to recognizing the ramifications of state budgets as well.

I would laugh if my heart were not so heavy. Today's affirmative action = institutionalized racism.

These comments disgust me. Go educate yourselves on affirmative action instead of just passing judgement on it without really knowing what it’s all about. I bet all of you have benefitted from your white priviledge so much… look at the racial make up of this school, of your (probably) upper middle class communities, and of the professional workforce in general. What is the color most predominantly represented? Why do you think that is? Are white people inherently smarter and harder workers? Or is it because racism is so ingrained in our culture? This holistic process is not going to harm your chances at all, it will ultimately try to help various people from a variety of backgrounds have the opportunity to earn a degree from a prestigious university… they’re not going to choose someone that wouldn’t succeed on this campus, people will be qualified. Maybe it will slowly help to unravel the institutionalized racism that plagues all structures of America. As a white student who realizes all the priviledge I’ve received in society, I applaud the regeants efforts to change the admissions process.

“Are white people inherently smarter and harder workers?”

Yes and no. The culture of whites is different than blacks, obviously. It’s the culture difference that we have to confront. Right now, blacks expect pity and want everything given to them because their great, great, great, great grandfather was a slave.

If you want to be a success, sell out. If you have to: dress white, talk white, be white. Don’t expect white America to accept you as you are. White America doesn’t accept hill billies or carnies as they are, so why should they bend the rules for black culture?

“A new study suggests that genetics may contribute to the high rate of African-American babies who are born early.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17074389/site/newsweek/

Not that heredity could be the cause of anything else.

denial is the biggest defense of racism, a university with so few minority students is guilty of racism, affirmative action only attempts to level the playing field,whoever said “blacks expect pity and want everything given to them” is a racist, denial will not change that

“a university with so few minority students is guilty of racism”

BS, it’s guilty of being in a state with few blacks who give a damn about education and a very cold winter.

Denial will not change that.

“a university with so few minority students is guilty of racism”

If you’ll take the time to lookup the facts, you’ll find that the UW-Madison has MORE racial diversity (11.5%) than the state of WI (9.9%).

UW-Madison stats: http://www.wisc.edu/about/facts/community.php

Wisconsin stats: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/55000.html

Incidentally, UW-Madison also has a higher percentage of women (52.7%) than the state of WI (50.5%) but I don’t see anybody campaigning to admit more men.

From now on, please check the facts before posting.

according to YOUR stats there are 2 black students to every 89 white students - I think that matches my definition of so few minority students - somebody needs to take statistics again

ok, Mr. or Ms. “so few blacks who give a damn about education,” why do you deny your racism? own up to it

“according to YOUR stats there are 2 black students to every 89 white students - I think that matches my definition of so few minority students - somebody needs to take statistics again”

There is simply no logic in your previous statement that our university is guilty of racism because of, “so few minority students.” You can define “so few minority students” however you like. The fact still remains that UW-Madison has more racial diversity than the state of WI.

What, you’re suggesting that the percentage of minorities at UW-Madison needs to be higher than the percentage of minorities in the state of WI???

Again according to YOUR stats there are 6 African Americans to every white person in Wisconsin. Last I checked 6 was more than 2. So you are incorrect in stating that there is more diversity in the university than in it’s home state.

Lol. Stop pulling numbers out of your ass. According to wisc.edu and census.gov UW-Madison has 11.5% minority students, while the state of WI has 9.9% minority residents.

Since when is 11.5 less than 9.9???

Now you’re the one who needs to take stats again.

UW undergrads DO need more exposure in dealing with people of different races and backgrounds, unless they’re planning on spending the rest of their lives working in Wisconsin. And I seem to recall the legislature bemoaning the flight of UW graduate to other places….hmmmm. Corporate recruiters (from that oh-so-virtuous free-market world) complain about UW’s lack of diversity and don’t even come to the job fairs here as a result.

So yes, the UW needs to have a higher percentage of minority students than the state has as a percentage of minority residents. It would be interesting to see what the Census numbers on % minority residents are if you limit it to college-age or younger residents.

Of course, it is true that there are only so many minority students who want to come to UW-Madison. Great students of all races get good offers from different places (that wasn’t supposed to rhyme).

If you aren’t sure about what inequalities exist in the world, go shopping with a black friend sometime at the mall and enter the stores separately and observe the employees. Or think about the last time you thought “gee, he/she is so articulate” about a student who wasn’t white, and ask yourself why you don’t think the same thing about every white student you know (especially those who start drinking on Thursday night).