October 31, 2008
To Chancellor Martin
Subject: On Diversity-A Suggestion?
Despite more than 40 years of UW-Madison affirmative action/diversity programs involving in recent years an annual expenditure o f roughly twenty-million dollars, gaps in retention and graduation rates between minority and non-minority students persist. Based on the available evidence, it appears that in your words nobody knows “what has worked and what hasn’t worked so well.” Rather than trying to answer what may well prove to be unanswerable questions about the effectiveness of these programs, the time has come for a new approach.
Let me offer this suggestion. If our goal is to increase the success of minority students in graduating from UW-Madison, the best option is to end the practice of admitting minority applicants who are not academically competitive with non-minority applicants. Doing so will within the next few years narrow the existing gaps in minority retention and graduation rates. Redirecting resources to help these I academically competitive targeted minority students (e.g., augmenting their need-based grants, providing them with additional academic support) holds the potential for further increasing their retention and in tum raising graduation rates among this cohort. These two changes would mean admitting fewer minority applicants, with the effect o f increasing the likelihood that enrolled targeted minority students would graduate in timely fashion.
I realize this change would not be greeted with great enthusiasm by some people on the Madison campus. But this change would not signify a lowering of the priority for increased diversity. Rather it would shift the emphasis from enrolling larger numbers of minority applicants to making certain the somewhat smaller numbers admitted and later enrolled are more likely to graduate.
Experience has shown that trying to increase the number of freshman minority students is at odds with the goal o f increasing the number o f minorities who graduate with baccalaureate degrees. I speak as a retired faculty member who over the past several decades has written and spoken about the frustration the campus has experienced trying to pursue conflicting diversity goals.
Continuation of UW-Madison’s long-standing policy of admitting minority applicants who are not academically competitive is likely to bedevil you just as it did your predecessors. Acting quickly to put the diversity issue on a solid and successful path is essential to moving forward with your Kohl Center agenda.
If you are interested in discussing this suggestion, I would be happy to meet with you.
Cordially,
W. Lee Hansen
Professor Emeritus, Economics
UW-Madison