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UW’s search for diversity
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by Pedro Oliveira Jr.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
As the academic year comes to a close, many University of Wisconsin students are beginning to plan their summers, life after graduation or simply deciding on a major.
A group of UW administrators, however, has another task at hand: planning and potentially eliminating a long-range diversity scheme.
Plan 2008, the current plan created in 1998, is a UW initiative to increase the number of minority students who are accepted, attend and graduate from the university. But some administrators question whether the program has been effective.
According to 2007-08 Academic Planning and Analysis documents from the UW Office of the Provost, the number of undergraduate minority students enrolled at UW has increased from 2,469 in 1998 to 3,678 in 2007.
The current number of all ethnic minorities combined represents 12.6 percent of the approximately 29,000 undergraduates compared to 8.8 percent in 1998. The number of non-white graduate students has increased from 768 in 1998 to 861 in 2007, increasing from 9 to 9.7 percent of the grad school student body. The data excludes foreign students.
Provost Pat Farrell pointed to some positive progress but was hesitant to call the program a total success. Retention rates are up, and the gap between minority and majority students has decreased, which Farrell said is a “significant milestone.”
“I think our ability to draw a larger section of minorities has improved, and it’s much better than what it was 10 years ago,” Farrell said. “The successes that these students have are much more significant than 10 years ago. People put a lot of effort into making that happen.”
Despite the increase in admissions and retention rates in the past years, Farrell added evaluating whether the climate at UW is more minority-friendly is a not a quantifiable concept, though he sees signs of improvement.
“Things that I would tend to look at are some of the things that we’ve talked about: who comes, who stays and who doesn’t, and how successful they are when they are here,” he said. “If the climate is positive to all our students, it’s certainly going to be very helpful.”
If the climate is unfavorable, Farrell added, “even if we’re able to recruit students, they’re not going to stay, and if they are, they won’t be successful.”
Some UW professors, however, question the numbers used to quantify possible successes of Plan 2008.
UW music professor Richard Davis, who teaches a class on race, said Plan 2008 has not reached its goals of increasing a positive climate at UW because the community itself is not prepared for diversity.
“You have many administrators, professors and students who represent bigotry, (and) some of them will admit it to you — and they have admitted it to me,” Davis said. “They’re oblivious, they don’t have any consciousness of people who are not like them, and they don’t want to be around people who don’t look like them, because it makes them feel uncomfortable.”
Lee Hansen, a UW professor emeritus of economics, said he questions most of the ideas behind the institution’s diversity efforts. For him, given the time and money spent on diversity, UW has “not clearly accomplished a great deal.”
“In 1997-98, a big deal was made about this diversity plan, but if you look at the record, it’s not all that great,” Hansen said. “I’m not sure that there is a better plan that could be put into effect. In my view, the best plan would be to admit people on a race-blind basis and make student financial aid based on financial need, without regard to race and ethnicity.”
Hansen, however, said the problem is not necessarily something UW could fix, but is rather an underlying issue in the state of Wisconsin.
“One of the problems is that it’s a K-12 and family problem,” Hansen said. “There aren’t enough competitive minorities coming out of Wisconsin high schools to provide the proportional representation that lies behind the diversity plan, and there is no quick remedy for that.”
According to Hansen, many minority students would not be admitted at UW if they were to be admitted competitively, and for him, being accepted is about “excellence and competitiveness.”
“If the file folders in applications were not flagged by race, my guess is that a lot of the minorities would not be admitted,” Hansen said. “But because they’re flagged, they get a second or third look that other students do not get.”
In its search for diversity, UW has supported a number of programs that select and prepare pre-collegiate students for university life. One such program, the Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence, prepares middle and high school students of color and low-income students.
According to a fall 2006 study, 99 percent of PEOPLE students graduate high school, 67 percent of those enter UW, and 91 percent of those accepted stay and graduate. The program had a projected budget of less than $200,000 in 1999, which increased to nearly $5.2 million for 2006.
Damon Williams, who was recently selected as the new vice provost for diversity and climate, said while he has not officially had a chance to analyze the plan, he anticipates evaluating it. Whether a similar one would be implemented is a major component of the conversation he hopes to start.
“It is a document that has been a real powerful guide to have the university moving forward with issues of equity and diversity,” Williams said.
Williams said it would be important for UW to scrutinize where diversity efforts are, and where they should head in the next few years.
While Williams doesn’t begin his new position until fall, Farrell said he is “not a big fan” of creating another 10-year diversity plan.
“In some sense, while [a plan] adds some time pressure which is not a bad thing, it also tends to in some cases allows a little bit of relaxation because we’d have a lot of time to achieve things,” Farrell said.
Farrell added he would like to see the achievement gap between white students and minorities continue to shrink.
“I think we’ve made good progress; we still have a lot of things we can do, and most of us here in Bascom are sort with the same mind —Â we’re pleased with what we’ve made, but we understand there is a lot to go,” he said.
Hansen, however, said a new plan should just be scratched off UW’s list of things to do. He said between the 1950s and late 1960s all applicants were required to attach a photo to their application form. Today, being required to identify as a specific ethnicity brings up a different kind of discrimination, he added.
“I would just put a big ‘X’ on the whole box and refuse to write my ethnicity down,” Hansen said.
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 8:39am):
Thank you to Dr. Hanses for standing up to the discrimination and racism on this campus. Applications to the UW should be made completely color-blind and gender-blind, with the only difference being to account for different high schools.
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 11:24am):
"But because they’re flagged, they get a second or third look that other students do not get."
Because typical white people don't deserve more than a single look?
Perhaps more segregated organizations and/or facilities would help? But maybe a separate grading system is needed to ensure minority success.
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 1:33pm):
"I have a dream..... that one day my little children will be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. I have a dream...."
Couldn't have said it better, Mr. King! Racism and preferential treatments based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or phases of the lunar cycle should be forever tossed on the ash heaps of failed human experience. Let's all work together to implement that color-blind dream, once and for all, throughout the UW system and America! The sooner, the better....
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 3:08pm):
If your test and grades good enough you will get in (yes, even if you are white). That's the bottom line. If your scores and grades aren't good enough just accept it and move on, instead of blaming it on minorities and calling for race-neutral admission policies. But I guess psychologically, its easier for people to externalize their shortcomings instead of just accepting them.
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 4:49pm):
If your scores and grades aren't good enough (FOR A TYPICAL WHITE PERSON) just accept it and move on
If you are not white, move to door number 2 and play the race card to advance to the next stage!
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