{"id":66,"date":"2006-07-02T22:50:58","date_gmt":"2006-07-03T03:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/?p=66"},"modified":"2006-07-02T23:41:43","modified_gmt":"2006-07-03T04:41:43","slug":"uw-diversity-tied-to-minorities-high-school-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/?p=66","title":{"rendered":"UW diversity tied to minorities’ high school success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprint from the <\/em>The Capital Times<\/span>, March 12, 2003<\/em>Understanding the UW-Madison‘<\/font>s admission policy for undergraduate minority students is difficult. Campus officials are reluctant to describe in detail how the admission process works. When they do speak about it, their descriptions invariably differ, enough to make one wonder exactly how admissions decisions are made. The latest description by Provost Peter Spear, for example, differs from that of his boss, Chancellor John Wiley, and his differs from that of Admission Director Rob Seltzer.<\/p>\n

What is going on? Why can‘<\/font>t they get their story straight? Or is the “<\/font>holistic“<\/font> admission process so complicated that nobody really understands it? Why is there no written manual explaining exactly how the process works?<\/p>\n

The difficulty of understanding the admission process is apparent from the Provost‘<\/font>s recent op-ed columns attempting to justify the affirmative action-based approach currently used by UW-Madison. Spear contends the campus “<\/font>. . . admission goal is to select students who can succeed . . . and . . . will contribute to the university community.“<\/font> But he fails to explain the meaning of two crucial words: “<\/font>succeed“<\/font> and “<\/font>contribute“<\/font>.<\/p>\n

By success, does he mean academic success, as measured by grade-point average? Or does he mean the likelihood of graduating? If success means academic performance, why doesn‘<\/font>t UW-Madison publish the first-year grade-point average of minority freshmen? Why not also publish data on high school class rank and ACT scores for enrolled minority students? Every fall campus press releases exclaim about the ever-higher ACT scores of entering freshman and the high percentages of them (about half) graduating in the top tenth of their high school class. Why not publicize similar information for entering minority freshmen?<\/p>\n

Information on the academic performance of minorities as a group is not enough, because it fails to reveal the impact of the double standard used in admitting minorities. Enrolled minority students can be divided into three groups. First, those who are admitted competitively, without reference to their race\/ethnicity. Second, those who fail to meet the minimum admission requirements because they did not graduate in the upper half of their high school class. Third, those whose records fall between these two groups–<\/font>they meet the minimum admission requirement but would not be admitted competitively. Information on the academic performance of these three distinct groups, both when they enroll here and during the course of their degree work, could easily be provided by the Provost‘<\/font>s staff.<\/p>\n

But, if the primary measure of success means the likelihood of graduating, why not calculate and publish six-year graduation rates for these same three groups of minority students? If the results show no appreciable difference in graduation rates, the Provost‘<\/font>s contention would be demonstrably correct. If, however, graduation rates differ appreciably, then the much-discussed “<\/font>holistic approach“<\/font> to campus admissions needs to be reviewed and perhaps changed.<\/p>\n

Even more difficult is figuring out the meaning of Spear‘<\/font>s phrase “<\/font>contribute to the university community.“<\/font> Do minorities, many of them not academically competitive, contribute simply by being enrolled because they increase diversity and thereby reduce concerns among administrators, as well as some faculty and students, about the dominance of white faces on Bascom Hill? Or, does the predominantly white student population find its education enhanced merely by seeing more minority faces on Bascom Hill, knowing many of these minority students–<\/font>but not which particular students–<\/font>gained admission because of their race\/ethnicity?<\/p>\n

And, what is the merit of having “<\/font>our community“<\/font> [student body] “<\/font>reflect the world in which we live“<\/font>? Suppose the state‘<\/font>s minority population of high school graduates is 10 percent. Does this mean that minorities among entering UW-Madison freshmen should equal this same 10 percent? Currently, minorities represent about nine percent of entering freshmen. Is this gap of one percentage point really that serious? Would eliminating that gap reduce the percentage of white faces on Bascom Hill enough so that proponents of diversity would be satisfied? Or does achieving diversity require reducing the percentage of white faces on Bascom Hill to say 85 percent or even 80 percent?<\/p>\n

The reality of “<\/font>the world in which we live“<\/font> is clear. Perhaps as few as one-third of Wisconsin‘<\/font>s minority high school graduates would be admitted to UW-Madison based on using a competitive, color-blind admission standard. The sad fact is that campus diversity goals for minority enrollment cannot be reached until substantially more minority high school graduates are as well academically prepared and motivated for college as non-minority high school graduates.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprint from the The Capital Times, March 12, 2003Understanding the UW-Madison‘s admission policy for undergraduate minority students is difficult. Campus officials are reluctant to describe in detail how the admission process works. When they do speak about it, their descriptions … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.ssc.wisc.edu\/~wlhansen\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}