College is a learning experience on many levels. It is more than school and partying, it is about the people that you meet. Some come to UW on scholarships because of athletics, others for academics, and some because of their ethnic background. Ethnic background? It would seem that everyone who has some sort of ethnicity in their blood can get a scholarship, but that is not the case.
The Lawton Undergrad Grant is available to any UW system student who is a Wisconsin resident, has completed 24 or more credits, is statutorily designated and self-identified as an African American, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan Native, or Southeast Asian student, has financial need for the grant, is in good academic standing and making satisfactory academic progress, and is enrolled for a minimum of six or more credits. It gives $12,000 or eight semesters of funding to recipients and provided 292 Madison students with a total of $736,141 in 2003, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
The requirement does not ask for any record as to participation in cultural activities or knowledge of history, so any student with one of the named ethnicities is eligible. Sadly, there are some students, though not all, who receive a free ride on their ancestors in place of someone without the required ethnicity.
The facts are simple: non-minority students will not receive the scholarships because they are not eligible.
It is ironic that a university so devoted to the elimination of stereotypes and discrimination can allow a scholarship whose focus is just that. These need-based grants should recognize academic merit instead of ethnic origin. Not only is this wrong, it is illegal. Wisconsin statutes governing the University of Wisconsin System Ch. 36.12 states that "no student may be denied admission to, participation in or the benefits of, or be discriminated against in any service, program, course … because of the student's race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, … ."
Last April, UW professor emeritus of economics and longtime critic of affirmative action, Lee Hansen, filed formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. In a letter to Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights James Manning, Mr. Hansen said, "the [UW System prohibits] from discriminating against students based on, among other characteristics, race, ethnicity and national origin." He made the decision to request reevaluating the scholarships after the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction decided to change its race-based scholarship from a minority scholarship program to the Precollege Scholarship Program that is open to all students. He hoped for a similar reconstruction for UW system schools, but unfortunately, nothing has come of it.
The UW System is committed to increasing diversity at UW campuses and therefore refuses to give up the Lawton scholarships. In order to do so, larger numbers of minority students must be enrolled to enhance the educational experience of non-minority students. They also want to meet the demands of employers who threaten to stop recruiting UW graduates unless the student body displays greater diversity. It is impossible to increase diversity by discrimination itself. How can they claim to eliminate discrimination and still practice it at the same time?
College is a learning experience on many levels. It is more than school and partying, it is about the people that you meet. There are white students who should have the same opportunity to receive a good education. Education is not something that should be denied to anyone, so scholarships should be based on merit, not background information. It is unfair to offer a scholarship to one individual because of ethnicity and deny another. People don't pick their genes, but if people were able to, a lot more would pick an ethnicity that allowed them scholarships without action.
Joelle Parks ([email protected]) is a sophomore intending to major in journalism.
