July 2007
Op-Ed Submission
The Attorney General’s “informal legal opinion” okaying the new University of Wisconsin System “holistic” admissions policy late in July is disappointing. It further solidifies UW System’s use of what most people in Wisconsin view as a preferential admissions policy. That policy is designed to benefit minority student applicants based on their race, ethnicity, and national origin.
Rep. Steven Nass and Senator Glenn Grothman, along with their colleagues, would have been more successful had they asked the Attorney General for an opinion on a different section of the laws governing the University of Wisconsin System. They and other legislators asked for an opinion on Wis. Stat. 36.11 (3) which says that:
”No sectarian or partisan tests of any tests based upon race, religion, national origin of U.S. citizens or sex shall ever be allowed in the admission of students thereto.”
The problem with 36.11 centers on the complicated legal meaning of the word “tests.”
A clearer prohibition against using race, ethnicity, and national origin in admissions decisions is contained in Wis. Stat. Chapter 36.12 which states that
“No student may be denied admission to or participation in or the benefits of, or may be discriminated against in any service program, course or facilities of the system or its institutions because of a student’s race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, disability, ancestry, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status or parental status.”
This language is certainly clear enough. To most people, “no” means “no.”
Racial preferences play an important role at UW-Madison. For applicants with similar academic records, admission rates are higher for minority applicants than for non-minority applicants. In addition, various scholarship programs are open only to minority students despite a Department of Education ruling outlawing such scholarship programs in the state’s Department of Public Instruction.
Campus officials regularly attempt to rationalize their admissions policy. They do so without regard to the results of the preferential treatment for minorities. The outcomes are clear and very sad. Minority students admitted preferentially are less like to succeed as shown by their much lower graduation rates. In short, the price of attempting to boost freshman minority enrollment rates is to decrease minority graduation rates. Is this the way minority students should be treated, led on by an institution seeking to “look good” in the promotion of “diversity” rather than acting ethically?
Every year countless non-minority Wisconsin high school graduates who apply to but are not admitted to UW-Madison come to realize their academic aspirations have been thwarted by the politically correct practice of preferential admissions. How sad for a great university to compromise on admission by merit in its pursuit of the fuzzy and elusive goal of “diversity.”