In 1998, the University of Wisconsin launched a plan to increase diversity on its campus. Throughout the semester, The Badger Herald will be looking at the strategies UW has implemented to achieve those goals. In part one of this series, the Herald looks at the plan's first two goals: Reach children at an earlier age and increase the number of Wisconsin high school graduates of color who apply, are accepted and enroll at UW System institutions.

It was not easy for Gerardo Mancilla, a University of Wisconsin senior, to leave his tightly knit community four years ago and be the first person in his family to attend college.

It was not easy for him to go from a predominantly Mexican neighborhood on the Southside of Chicago to a university campus that is 77 percent white.

So Mancilla takes a little offense when people tell him he's "got it easy."

"The stereotype I hear from my peers is, 'oh, you're a minority, that's the only reason you got in,'" Mancilla said. "It's a huge misconception on campus."

Fortunately for Mancilla, he came to UW with a support group of other students who share similar backgrounds and who were going through similar experiences.

Mancilla enrolled at UW with a group of students from "Posse," a national program that helps groups — or "posses" — of gifted students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds enroll together in universities across the country.
According to university officials, UW became involved in the Posse program in 2002 as a way to address the university's Plan 2008 goals of increasing diversity on campus.

The first two goals of the plan are related to recruitment: increasing the number of students of color who apply and eventually enroll at UW by targeting potential students at a younger age.

As part of its recruitment strategy, UW established its branch of Posse and its own university recruitment program called the Pre-college Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence, or PEOPLE, which is a sequential college preparation program for under-privileged students in Wisconsin.

UW administrators said the results of these programs, along with other UW administration recruitment strategies, are evident in the numbers.

"In recruitment, we've done pretty well," Bernice Durand, associate vice chancellor for diversity and climate, said in a recent interview. "We've made a lot of progress."

According to UW enrollment numbers, since UW launched Plan 2008 in 1998, the number of targeted minority students — which UW defines as Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan Native or Southeast Asian — who apply to UW has increased by almost 80 percent and their total enrollment has increased by more than 40 percent.

Durand, who coordinates UW's Plan 2008 efforts, said over half of the increase in targeted minority first-year students at UW from Fall 2001 to Fall 2004 is credited to the PEOPLE and Posse programs.

The PEOPLE program began in 1999 and involves bringing under-privileged students from Wisconsin elementary, middle and high schools to the UW campus for comprehensive education programs during the summer.

"It gives students boots straps they never had to pull themselves up," Lisa Ray Johnson, who helps coordinate UW's high school PEOPLE program, said. "It provides campus-wide support … to show [the students] they can attain a higher education."

Students who are eligible for the PEOPLE program remain in the program through college, and must maintain specified levels of participation requirements.

One of the rewards of going through the program is a five-year scholarship to UW that PEOPLE students are eligible for if they satisfy UW's enrollment requirements.

According to Walter Lane, a UW assistant dean who organized the PEOPLE program at UW, 117 students from the program are currently enrolled at UW and 1,088 students are currently in the program from the elementary-to-college level.

"It offers more than just a summer away from home," Gina Garcia, a third-year UW student who has been in the program since the summer of 2000, said. "It helps you develop academically and socially."

The Posse program brings in university representatives from across the country to meet with high school students from major urban cities like Chicago and Los Angeles.

After an extensive interview process, the university representatives select a group of 10 or 11 students who are also interested in the university and offer them a four-year scholarship.

The idea behind the program is for the students to enroll together.

"It's like being part of a family," Mancilla said about his "posse." "Being a minority on campus is always hard … and it helped make it easier for me on campus."

It is exactly what PEOPLE and Posse organizers had hoped for.