Heaven help us if the UW, or any serious university, ever starts to admit students using only a GPA and a GRE score. Nice to see our legislators aren’t above race-baiting in their quest to “improve” higher education.

It is only illegal to discriminate against someone based on race, it is not illegal to give preferential treatment to someone based on race! When will you racist legislators understand that!

“Hintz added the policy matches the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, which gave the University of Michigan the ability to allow race to be a factor in admissions.”

That is all well and good but it has nothing to do with the state statute. The highest authority on if holistic admissions violate state law is the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Giving preferential treatment to a certain race is equal to discriminating against all other races. Looks like you got into UW based not on the merit of your reasoning skills.

I’m not a legal scholar, but isn’t the US Supreme Court a higher authority than Wisconsin State Statute? I mean, Wisconsin State Statutes say it’s illegal to have an abortion, but they are still legal in Wisconsin because of the US Supreme Court. Keep studying anonymous poster #3

“Heaven help us if the UW, or any serious university, ever starts to admit students using only a GPA and a GRE score.”

This comment is fundamentally flawed because it assumes that race plays no role in determining one’s GPA or GRE (or ACT or SAT) score. Problem is, if you go sit in an elementary school in the suburbs, you’ll notice the sole black kid in the class raising his hand over and over again - he knows he knows the answer - but the white teacher, blinded by his blackness, fails to call on him again and again. Of course this doesn’t happen at every school, but it happens at some. And until it happens at no school, we must continue to consider things like race and socioeconomic factors in our admissions process.

I think ACT and SAT scores only serve to discriminate against dumb people. Nice going, UW, you’ve hurt the feelings of all Wisconsin idiots.

11:09am, so by allowing the black student in your scenario entrance to college helps the white teacher stop discriminate how???

assuming that every person of color is disadvantaged and that every white person has some super advantage is narrow minded. i say they should look beyond color and take in account the socioeconomic background of students. i didnt grow up on the streets, but i sure as heck grew up in a trailer park. not everyone who is white grew up in suburbia. admitting someone based strictly on the color of their skin IS discriminatory if the person had every advantage, while a white kid living in rural squalor didnt.

education is not black or white.

its grey. figure it out.

Nonono, you do not understand, discrimination is when you raise the standards for one while keeping the others the same. Preferential treatment is when you keep everyone else the same, but lower the standards for the one.

For those who do not get it, I am being sarcastic. Someone has to say, in simple terms without flowery language and legalese., what the Regents were thinking when they made this rule.

Using race to reward one person and punish another is discrimination- period. Are we going to tell another whole new generation that it’s alright to discriminate because it somehow evens a historcial score?

Dear 11:02am, I agree you are not a legal scholar. The Supreme Court has final say on federal law and Constitutional issues. The Michigan case, Grutter v. Bollinger, was a challenge of if the admissions policy was Constitutional. That law is settled; it does not violate the Constitution to use holistic admissions.

However, Wisconsin state law may bar the use of a racial factor in admissions. The federal courts, including the Supreme Court, will not have final authority as to what our state law says. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has final say on that matter.

There are very few blacks who attend the UW. Why is this? There is a simple answer to this. It is not a debate. It is a simple psychological reason. Think.

Applicants to the UW are admitted on the basis of qualifications and no one is admitted on the basis of race. There is no racial preference for students of color. If there is a racial preference, obviously it operates in favor of white students given that the campuses are overwhelmingly white.

The admissions policy allows UW campuses to consider the entire student, his/her academic record, social development, leadership skills, special talents, and other related factors. No one assumes every white or black person—or any other for that matter—-is in one category or the other.

Whites have been and continue to be rewarded for white skin color, many gaining attribution of positive characteristics they did not earn or “merit”. Whites do not have to worry about their interests and needs being met…they live in a sea of white world…day in and day out. Systems, individuals, and institutions supporting whites and their needs are on autopilot.

Apparently some people believe if there is a seat to be had, it should be granted to any white students. It’s interesting that no critics are challenging the admission of white students who have lower test scores, grades and class rank that many of the students of color. Why is that? Perhaps racism, white entitlement, dominance and superiority complexes????

The U.S. Supreme Court may overturn Grutter later this year.

Whites have already benefited from the social status (arbitrarily) attributed to their race. Helping out races that don’t have this privilege doesn’t hurt anyone, it just helps those who have been hurt by being born into a race with less advantage.

Instead of adopting racial quotas/preferences, UW should just treat everyone fairly. They should begin by fixing the Barrows case. This would be fair and would show that race is not a fac-tor in UW actions. All should be treated fairly, no preferences or discrimination will be used here. However, I believe a new chancellor will be needed first to clean up this whole situation.