Reprint from the Badger Herald, April 4, 1997“If you are critical of diversity policy and believe it doesn’t work, don’t you think you have an obligation to suggest how to improve it.” This frequent question to me reflects annoyance with my criticisms of UW-Madison’s near-sacred commitment to the elusive goal of racial/ethnic diversity.
How should I respond to this challenge? If the problem of increasing minority enrollment could be solved easily, somebody would surely have found the answer long ago. There are any number of stubborn problems we just don’t know how to fix, and this may be one of them. Despite 25 years of trying, minority enrollment growth has kept pace but not increased relative to the growing pool of minority high school graduates. This is not for lack of effort. Over the years countless reports to the Faculty Senate have grappled with this issue and offered recommendations for new and more vigorous action.
What emerges from these reports and news articles is a distinctive and repeated cycle that goes like this. Previously established goals and timetables are not met. Student groups mobilize to push for increased University action. Recruitment/retention policies and procedures are reexamined by faculty committees. Strong minority group pressures shape the development of more and “better” programs. New appointments are made to invigorate implementation of these programs.
In the aftermath, faculty members, administrators, and minority student groups all feel good. Time passes. No gains occur. The cycle repeats itself.
The latest cycle began last spring. The Civil Rights Defense Coalition, a special interest group of student minority organizations, detailed the failure of UW-Madison’s latest effort, the 1994 Madison Commitment. It also pushed a new goal and a timetable for reaching that goal — the year 2000. Under pressure, the Chancellor agreed to the CRDC’s goal and timetable. Then, last fall, the CRDC offered a 17-point plan to improve minority recruitment/retention programs. The Chancellor and various faculty committees subsequently endorsed this plan. Now, with almost certain passage of the University Committee’s Resolution on Diversity at next Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting, the UW-Madison will find itself committed to a renewed quest for diversity, this one framed by the CRDC.
What is the likelihood of success? Proponents of diversity are optimistic. They contend that this time the UW-Madison can and will achieve its goals. Not only has it learned from past mistakes, but new strategies are in place and new programs are being mounted. This, of course, has been said before — many times. If the best predictor of the future is past experience, nobody should be optimistic. The record of the past, unfortunately, is a record of failure: disappointing outcomes and resources squandered in an attempt to reach unreachable goals.
Are the goal and timetable attainable? Evidence shows that the CRDC goal of overall proportional minority representation among new freshmen by the year 2000 has already been met — thus, it constitutes no challenge at all. Yet, the CRDC’s real but unstated goal of proportional representation for African Americans is clearly unreachable by the year 2000 — thus, it constitutes an impossible challenge.
But rather than belabor these matters, let me offer a constructive proposal. Suppose we retain the diversity program but make one key change. Let us require, henceforth, that minority applicants meet the same admission standard required of all other applicants. This change is not inconsistent with the concept of diversity. It is, however, at odds with the prevalent view of diversity which demands a double admissions standard, with a lower standard for minorities, as the only way to meet arbitrary diversity goals and targets.
Suppose we move to a single admission standard for everyone. This modification, if widely announced, would immediately eliminate the erroneous suspicions among most nonminority students that most minority students are enrolled here only because they qualify under a lower admission standard. Nonminority students would come to realize that the admissions process is once again fair, that everyone is admitted on academic merit. Even more important, this change would remove for minorities the terrible stigma of inferiority created by lower admissions standards.
Redefining diversity in this way would also go a long way toward eliminating the much-discussed “hostile climate” for minority students at UW-Madison. Minority students who enroll would be able to compete on an equal basis with nonminority students. Efforts to assist minorities academically should be continued, along with efforts to assist disadvantaged students whatever their racial/ethnic background. The goal would be to help ensure that both well-qualified minority and nonminority entrants succeed academically.
Under this plan, UW-Madison should quickly be able to create a highly successful diversity program. It would produce talented, well-educated minority graduates at the same rate as nonminority graduates. This plan would accomplish more in attracting other well-qualified minority students than anything else we could do.
Rather than merely hoping for better performance on the diversity front, why not, for once, stack the cards in favor of a successful diversity program? Three steps are all that is required. Eliminate goals and timetables. Implement a single, uniform admission standard. Help all students who need academic help. Period.
Making such a bold change requires open debate and collective intellectual courage. Are we up to the challenge?