The Board of Regents Education Committee passed the contested UW System freshmen admissions policy Thursday and the full Board will vote on it today.
The policy provides minimum requirements for freshmen admissions and broad criteria for evaluating qualified applicants through a comprehensive, individualized review process. Under the policy, individual institutions are free to establish more specific policies.
Through what UW-Madison has had for years and calls a “holistic” admissions process, all information is considered, including factors such as extracurricular activities, race and legacy, which can give an “edge” to an individual’s application.
The third—after academics and standardized test scores—criterion for admission includes considerations such as community service, status as a U.S. Military veteran, whether the applicant is socio-economically disadvantaged and whether the applicant is a member of a historically underrepresented racial or ethnic group.
Some are openly opposed to the policy.
Mike Mikalsen, research assistant and spokesperson for state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said Nass opposes the use of race in the admissions process.
“Support of outreach programs, such as those in Milwaukee Public Schools, is a less controversial and better approach than affirmative action,” Mikalsen said.
In a Monday letter to Regent President David Walsh, Nass proposed a recommendation to define “socio-economically disadvantaged” and remove the use of race and ethnicity.
As of now, a specific question regarding family income does not exist in the policy and cannot be added to the process because next year’s applications are already available.
However, Chairperson of the Education Committee Danae David said admissions committees throughout the UW System will be asked how to best incorporate questions regarding income information.
Although the ACT collects income information as part of demographics, the information is not always received before the admissions decision has been made.
There is also concern of the correlation between income and test scores.
“The higher the income, the higher your test scores,” Vice Chair of the Education Committee Michael Spector said, referring to the fact that applicants with higher incomes can pay for college test preparatory classes and that sometimes tests may be biased toward one socio-economic group or another. “This is the correlation we’re concerned about,” Spector said.
Additional revisions to the updated policy include removal of the preference of ACT over the SAT so either exam is equally acceptable. They also allow a fuller examination of all relevant academic considerations, including course load, level of coursework and grade point average, in addition to class rank.
