[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald Photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]With graduation looming for many University of Wisconsin students closing out their undergraduate careers, business recruiters across the nation begin to appear on campus looking for new employees.

Although recruiting at a top public university like UW undoubtedly gives corporations a highly qualified pool of candidates, some businesses have speculated the student body is not diverse enough for their recruiting preferences.

One business even took the drastic step to stop recruiting at UW altogether, because of the lack of diversity among the student body. However, the move was only temporary.

Regardless of continued recruitment, concern is growing among national corporations that the UW student body is not diverse enough for a career in business. These companies believe having experience working and living in a diverse environment is a valuable quality for their potential employees.

"Corporations and non-profits … they want to hire in a pool of candidates that's diverse in terms of racial diversity [and] ethnic diversity," School of Business Career Center Director Steve Schroeder said. "In terms of what companies tell us, yes, it's a major issue, but it's not just in Madison."

The UW System Board of Regents recently confirmed its commitment to promoting racial diversity on all of its campuses, allowing race to be included as a factor in admissions decisions systemwide.

However, UW System Spokesperson David Giroux emphasized the policy is one that had already been in place for years at UW-Madison.

"This is a core part of one's educational experience," Giroux said. "That knowledge comes expounded from people from a number of cultural backgrounds, regional backgrounds, people who bring different viewpoints to the discussion."

According to Engineering Career Services Director Sandra Arnn, the UW engineering department experienced firsthand the consequences of a lack of diversity a couple years ago when Proctor & Gamble in Green Bay stopped recruiting on the Madison campus.

However, the drop was only temporary, Arnn said, and since then, no businesses have stopped recruiting at the engineering school solely for diversity issues.

"[They] went to University of Illinois and schools in Michigan instead," Arnn said. "After a year they called and asked to come back because they wanted Wisconsin students. They had trouble keeping students from Michigan and Illinois there."

This past fall, Arnn said 250 businesses appeared at the engineering school's career fair — the largest number so far for the school — but she reiterated the importance of building a qualified and different pool.

"The bottom line answer is that no companies have stopped recruiting at UW because of this," Arnn said. "However, many companies [know] how important diversity is for future recruiting."

According to Schroeder, the business school has not seen a drop in the number of businesses recruiting at UW because of the lack of diversity on campus.

At the beginning of March, the school had 401 companies looking to hire university business students.

The concern from businesses, however, has pushed Schroeder and other administrators to increase diversity within the school.

This includes changing the school's approach to admissions.

Instead of forcing UW students to apply as juniors, the Business School now allows "exceptional" freshman candidates to apply directly into the school.

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