Not only does the headline imply under-represented students aren’t students, but it creates an inappropriate association that these students are somehow related to white students not graduating. Even if that were the case, I would expect to see the study that said so before you advertise it. Not to mention the article only offers the numbers of students graduating from year to year and the percentages given are percentages of the increases associated with these numbers from year to year, not percentages of the population each year. How many students of all colors are in the system not graduating? How many white students are in the system not graduating? This should be a yearly percentage issue, not numbers, as there can be multiple factors contributing to final numbers.

Badger Herald, please take care with diversity issues - their importance makes them sensitive! Though I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt on this one, you’d hate to be labeled the ignorant, careless, student paper.

As for the comment made about affirmative action - I do not know a single student of color receiving scholarship/aid that doesn’t meet university standards and most of these same students far exceed the standards. Just because their skin colors factored into the decision does not mean their ACT scores did not. Yes, it’s true that in some situations a white student with the same test scores isn’t eligible for that particular scholarship, but that doesn’t mean we have low standards for our students of color. The university isn’t just handing out money based on racial status without regard to intelligence.

As for study groups and programs, many of them are labeled as “diversity” functions, but you are allowed (and often times welcomed) to come even if you are white. I’ll bet that while you may be made uncomfortable by weird looks in some situations based on the social standards you’re challenging, you could still show up and maybe even make some new friends so that you realize these students are people and not your enemies. If you looked around a little bit I think you’d be surprised to learn that the system is not out to hurt white people.

As for affirmative action in general, there is still a great disparity between the number of white college students in Wisconsin and the number of minority college students in Wisconsin (especially at our very own UW!) that is disproportionate to the college-aged population of each racial group in the state. You may say, “well then they need to work harder, make more money, and do better in school,” but it’s not that simple.

Education breeds education, not just for financial reasons but social reasons, and those populations who already have a higher number of college educated individuals are likely to continue in that trend. As a first generation college student, I can assure you that many young people and their parents take their good fortune for granted. There are more boundaries to certain groups of people than just getting some money together and deciding to go to school.

Coming from a community not saturated with college experiences you have to deal with breaking solidarity as you leave, discovering options on your own which others are informed of, and isolating uneducated people who are important to you. Upon arriving at campus, there’s the constant strain of not having an intimate mentor such as a parent to look to for help in college-related matters, the people from your pre-university life not understanding your new life, social elitism from certain long-time university families, not finding the support of students who come from your background on campus as easily as majority students, flack from other students telling them they don’t belong, and the motivation to continue in spite of all of this. So let’s not pretend this is easy for under-represented students.

Back in the context of affirmative action based on race. Now that we’ve established the under-representation of Wisconsin minority groups AND the difficulties of under-represented groups, the only way we can try to start to even the score (as it should be evened considering white people are not scientifically proven to be smarter than people of any other race) is to spend some time investing in the under-represented populations with both financing and support (which includes low-income students of all races) for the good of everyone.

Affirmative action is not reparations for slavery like some people think (not to mention it applies to other groups than just African Americans). The simple way of saying it is that if you are white, you are more likely to be handed the opportunity to attend college than your counterparts of color, which is unfair, so why not try to increase the likelihood of students of color having that opportunity?

The problem isn’t that we should have fewer scholarships for minorities, but that we should more scholarships in general!