In today's Badger Herald, Gerald Cox wrote an interesting column about UW's lack of diversity and the achievement gap between white students in Wisconsin and their peers of color. If you've spent more than two minutes on campus you have likely noticed our lack of diversity, and while some are quick to say, "Well, these are the people who applied and were qualified enough to get in," we are in danger of missing the bigger picture if we fail to look beyond that.
Racial diversity - indeed diversity in any measure - is an inherent good. The more time we spend with people who don't look like us, talk like us, or worship like us, the better able we are to understand our world. One need only to look at the US Army or at major corporations around the world to see that many of the most successful enterprises in the world share this view of diversity. Diversity helps corporations reach into new markets and develop their products to reach millions of new consumers. Since the 1970s, when they first took significant steps to break down discrimination, we have watched the military become one of the most diverse institutions in our country. They fair far better than most communities, schools districts, and universities at having people of color in leadership positions. When the racial barriers to advancement are removed, we don't see an achievement gap.
Alas, we aren't talking about the military or large corporations, we're talking about our humble university. Mr. Cox points out that merely 12% of UW students are students of color, compared to 13.8% of Wisconsin's population and 14.9% of our high school graduates. Clearly, students of color are underrepresented by as much as 3% (a statistically significant number).
But who's to blame? Should we fault Holistic Admissions for "lowering the standards" of admission for students of color? Are high schools guilty for not encouraging more youth of color to participate in AP and college-track classes? Or is it parents who "don't care" about education and their children's future? If you answered yes to any or all of these, keep reading.
If you think Affirmative Action is to blame, and that the policy unfairly allows students of color to be admitted before white students with better grades and test scores, you need to more thoroughly look at what UW's Holistic Admissions policy says.
Let me clear up one thing about Holistic Admissions:
It isn't just about race! The sole reason I go to this school is the Holistic Admissions. The policy takes into account other factors like, "accomplishments, demographic factors, extracurricular activities, leadership qualities and racial and ethnic heritage, socioeconomic status, special talent and work experience," (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Seriously, my grades weren't the best, I did pretty well on the ACT, but what got me in here was all of the extracurriculars. I challenge anyone to say that I don't deserve an education at this fine institution simply because of my high school GPA.
Holistic Admissions is a good policy, but it won't solve the roots of the problem. It's kind of like kicking an extra point when you're down by two with a minute to spare. Sure, you'll close the gap a bit, but you won't really even up the game.
So let's dig a little deeper, maybe it's a problem with high schools. Mr. Cox points out that 8th graders in Wisconsin are showing a measurable achievement gap between white students and students of color. That might explain why my high school was so segregated. (There was one kid of color in my advanced level chemistry class of twenty-five students. If the class was representative of the student body there would have been six.) Perhaps guidence counselors should be pushing more students of color into upper level classes, but I think we're still kicking the extra point when we're down by two.
We've still got a problem, and I think I have a solution. But for that you're going to have to wait for tomorrow. This post is long enough as it is.
Racial diversity - indeed diversity in any measure - is an inherent good. The more time we spend with people who don't look like us, talk like us, or worship like us, the better able we are to understand our world. One need only to look at the US Army or at major corporations around the world to see that many of the most successful enterprises in the world share this view of diversity. Diversity helps corporations reach into new markets and develop their products to reach millions of new consumers. Since the 1970s, when they first took significant steps to break down discrimination, we have watched the military become one of the most diverse institutions in our country. They fair far better than most communities, schools districts, and universities at having people of color in leadership positions. When the racial barriers to advancement are removed, we don't see an achievement gap.
Alas, we aren't talking about the military or large corporations, we're talking about our humble university. Mr. Cox points out that merely 12% of UW students are students of color, compared to 13.8% of Wisconsin's population and 14.9% of our high school graduates. Clearly, students of color are underrepresented by as much as 3% (a statistically significant number).
But who's to blame? Should we fault Holistic Admissions for "lowering the standards" of admission for students of color? Are high schools guilty for not encouraging more youth of color to participate in AP and college-track classes? Or is it parents who "don't care" about education and their children's future? If you answered yes to any or all of these, keep reading.
If you think Affirmative Action is to blame, and that the policy unfairly allows students of color to be admitted before white students with better grades and test scores, you need to more thoroughly look at what UW's Holistic Admissions policy says.
Let me clear up one thing about Holistic Admissions:
It isn't just about race! The sole reason I go to this school is the Holistic Admissions. The policy takes into account other factors like, "accomplishments, demographic factors, extracurricular activities, leadership qualities and racial and ethnic heritage, socioeconomic status, special talent and work experience," (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Seriously, my grades weren't the best, I did pretty well on the ACT, but what got me in here was all of the extracurriculars. I challenge anyone to say that I don't deserve an education at this fine institution simply because of my high school GPA.
Holistic Admissions is a good policy, but it won't solve the roots of the problem. It's kind of like kicking an extra point when you're down by two with a minute to spare. Sure, you'll close the gap a bit, but you won't really even up the game.
So let's dig a little deeper, maybe it's a problem with high schools. Mr. Cox points out that 8th graders in Wisconsin are showing a measurable achievement gap between white students and students of color. That might explain why my high school was so segregated. (There was one kid of color in my advanced level chemistry class of twenty-five students. If the class was representative of the student body there would have been six.) Perhaps guidence counselors should be pushing more students of color into upper level classes, but I think we're still kicking the extra point when we're down by two.
We've still got a problem, and I think I have a solution. But for that you're going to have to wait for tomorrow. This post is long enough as it is.
6 Comments:
I'll be waiting for the solution tomorrow. Good post, Oliver. Students should be more aware of the Holistic policy and the specifics of Affirmative Action.
I definetly believe that the problem of diversity on this campus does not begin and end with the UW admissions board. There are many factors that play into this problem, and a certain amount of accountability must be spread out amoung (at the pre-college level) parents, teachers, school boards, guidance counselors, community members, friends, and the individual student themselves. Any solution that hopes to truly level the playing field early must take all of these factors into account.
I very much agree that some students start with an advantage because of their background, and I know that all of the factors I mentioned above (and many others) have played a huge role into my sucesses and failures.
A bigger problem than recruitment of students of color, etc. here at UW is retention. Check out the official report put out by the Office of Academic Planning and Analysis and the Provost's office: http://apa.wisc.edu/Diversity/DF2007_All_14_Posters.pdf
It was presented in poster form at the 8th annual Plan 2008 Diversity Forum. There are many statistics and much data presented, but one that stood out to me was that 75% (or 3/4, as they put it) of minority students vs 90% of other students "rate UW well in working to ensure all students have a good experience regardless of race or ethnicity."
It's a pretty hefty series of posters but quite intriguing if you really want to know if Plan 2008 has made progress or not. I would argue that we need to focus more on retaining the students of color that have already chosen to attend UW and improve the campus climate here.
** the URL is supposed to end ".pdf" it got cut off for some reason.
I have to ask, but can anyone name a school that doesn't have a "holistic admissions policy?" Oliver's right, it isn't just about race, but the only debate is whether race should be a factor. Is this just a P.C. way to avoid saying affirmative action?
UW-Madison has spent millions of dollars to recruit maybe 800 students of color a year. We regularly meet with around 10,000 students of color. It's not ecomomical for the school. Something is wrong and I don't think it's UW-Madison's fault.
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