\No student may be denied admission to, participation in or the benefits of, or be discriminated against in any service, program, course or facility of the system or its institutions or centers because of the student's race, color, creed..."" Wisconsin State Statute 36.12.
For a number of years, the chancellor and director of admissions on this campus have been saying that a person's skin color is only one of a number of factors taken into consideration when determining undergraduate admission to UW-Madison, and that it is not given more weight than any other factor.
However, new information suggests that race plays a much more important role in determining admissions than the administration will admit.
According to information from the UW-Madison Office of Budget, Planning and Analysis, 81.3 percent of ""targeted minorities""'African American, Southeast Asian, Native American and Hispanic students'were accepted with ACT scores between 24 and 26 and no class rank available. Only 53.4 percent of ""nontargeted students""'White and Asian American students'were accepted in that category.
It gets worse. If a targeted minority was in the bottom half of his or her high school class rank, the admittance rate in the fall of 2000 was 33 percent. At the same time, if you were a nontargeted student, your chances of admittance were extremely slim, with an admittance rate of 3.3 percent.
It is true that the percentages may be slightly misleading because the number of applicants who fall into the nontargeted category is much greater than the number of applicants who fall into the targeted minorities category. But the fact remains: There is still a large discrepancy when none should exist. The standards of admission should be similar regardless of skin color. Just as it was wrong in the past to give whites preference based on their skin color, it is equally wrong to give students of color a preference today.
This admissions policy is clearly in violation of Wisconsin State Statute 36.12, which prohibits discrimination. White and Asian American students are being denied admissions based solely on the color of their skin.
Even more frightening is the fact that the admissions office does not have any hard and fast minimum standards. Without such standards, unqualified students are being admitted into the university.
This lack of standards tarnishes the reputation of the university and is unfair to those students admitted without the necessary academic background to be successful at this university. If a student has not successfully completed the background academic work necessary to prepare for this university, more than likely this student will struggle with the more intense curriculum offered at Madison.
This policy of admitting unqualified students is unfair to the majority of students of on this campus who'regardless of race'worked very hard to be successful in high school and are qualified to excel at this university. A school that admits unqualified students and has no minimum requirements does not have the same reputation as a school that accepts only the most qualified applicants who had to meet specific requirements before entering as a freshman.
Ironically, the students this policy is supposed to benefit the most'targeted minorities'are the same students it is most detrimental to. A majority of the ""targeted minorities"" on this campus are students who are very qualified, but these are the students that will be under the most scrutiny about their qualifications.
For example, a potential employer may question if an applicant should have been accepted to Madison, and may wonder if that student received special treatment because of the university's need for these students to succeed. A fellow classmate may not respect the ""targeted minority"" sitting next to him or her in class if aware of the different admission standards.
The UW-Madison Faculty Senate offers three simple minimum qualifications, which, if the admission office were required to follow, would at least move the admissions process in the right direction. These requirements are: graduating from the upper half of his or her high school class; having 16 high school credits from a list of core subjects; and having an ACT or SAT test score. It doesn't even matter what that score is because no student would be denied admission solely based on the test score.
These minimum standards are not very stringent, and students admitted to this university should be well above these standards. However, no student should be considered for admission without some academic success in his or her past.
The NCAA has minimum standards for student athletes wishing to attend college and participate in athletics. Minimum standards for every student wishing to attend what is supposed to be one of the top 10 public universities in the country is not asking too much.
