There is really no question about what the most controversial and hard-hitting issue on the UW-Madison campus is today. From protests to funding requests, minority and majority students alike have expressed interest in increasing diversity on campus. Today The Badger Herald concludes its week-long outline of the seven stated goals of Plan 2008, the system-wide initiative to increase diversity at UW schools across the state by 2008.

Plan 2008, a ten-year program started in 1998 which aims to increase diversity on UW campuses, names diversifying the student body as a whole and increasing pre-college programs as its number one and two goals, respectively.

The implementation of pre-college programs encourages partnerships between UW and high schools and helps the school reach out to minority children and their parents when prospective students are younger.

The most visible initiative of this goal is the PEOPLE program. The aim of this program is to prepare students of color in the Racine, Beloit, Milwaukee and Madison school districts for college-level academics. Organizers are also seeking a partnership with the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Participants of the program attend three- to eight-week summer workshops and apprenticeships on the UW-Madison campus, as well as skill-development sessions, college classroom experiences, campus orientation and cultural enrichment activities throughout the academic year.

The program has been modeled after pre-college programs such as Upward Bound, which boasts that 95 percent of program participants attend post-secondary institutions after high school graduation.

Deborah Brendt, co-chair of the Plan 2008 Oversight Committee, said PEOPLE is the most encouraging diversity project UW has endorsed to date.

“This program is genuinely expanding opportunities and building real bridges between the university and the public school system,” Brendt said. “I’ve been here 17 years, and the PEOPLE program has been one of the most hopeful programs that the university has established … the most solid commitment towards a more diverse campus.”

One of the most valued assets of the program is the core of teachers who have made a commitment to helping the students and program succeed. Natalie Collins, a teacher from Milwaukee Custer High School, has been involved in the PEOPLE program for two summers and has seen the number of participants from her school increase from two in the inaugural year to 15 participants last summer.

Collins said the program makes many of her students more aware of the opportunities available to them after high school.

“PEOPLE is a program that is exposing students to university life,” Collins said. “It is opening doors of opportunity for a college education to students who wouldn’t normally be afforded this opportunity.”

Collins said giving students the experience of living on their own is enriching.
“One of the most beneficial aspects is living in the residence halls and experiencing the responsibility of having to get up, get some food, get to class and get schoolwork done, all independently,” Collins said. “Students from Custer High School that participated in the program came back to school … with a greater sense of maturity.”

Another important aspect of the PEOPLE program is its pledge to prepare students for the rigorous requirements of college life.

In addition to the hands-on coursework and research, students are developing a network of support with professors and other students.

Plan 2008’s final goal, to “diversify the student body,” is three-tiered. Under this goal, listed by Generation 2008, a student group trying to enact the goals of Plan 2008 before its deadline passes, the university hopes to increase the number of Wisconsin high school graduates of color who apply, are accepted and enroll at UW System institutions.

Paul Barrows, vice chancellor of student affairs, said the challenge of achieving this goal begins early in the education of students of color, such as the pre-college program initiatives of goal number two. Barrows also indicated that the areas where most students of color are recruited, particularly Madison and Milwaukee K-12 schools, are experiencing difficulty with high dropout rates and lower-than-average grade points with these students.

Barrows also indicated that students of color in areas such as Madison and Milwaukee are declining in performance.

“[Students of color] in the Madison and Milwaukee areas have very high dropout rates, and their grade-point average falls somewhere between a D+ and C-,” Barrows said. “We need to provide outreach programs to increase the high school completion rates, and if we accomplish that, we will increase the pool of eligible students for enrollment at the university level.”

Underscoring the final goal, Barrows also emphasized the need for all students to be exposed to a campus climate where they can interact with students of color on a routine basis.

“It is very important for the rest of the student body that we provide healthy interaction with students of color,” Barrows said.

While UW is recognized as one of the prominent schools nationwide, it has been historically weak in campus diversity, highlighting the importance of Plan 2008’s final goal, and even the plan as a whole.

According to national news syndicate US News and National Report, UW falls well below the national average for public schools in diversity. In the magazine’s annual campus diversity index, based on the enrollment of minorities, UW is ranked in the bottom 20th percentile out of the 157 public schools surveyed.

Saturday, Generation 2008 will hold a Plan 2008 Student Campus Forum to tackle these issues of campus diversity.

The forum will be taking place at the Pyle Center at 11:30 a.m. Interested students can pre-register for free at www.asm.wisc.edu.