Several large employers including General Motors Corp., Alcoa and others have stopped recruiting students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Engineering because of the schools lack of diversity. This action, while aimed at shaming the UW-Madison Administration, unfairly punishes students of all races by eliminating a primary source of post-graduation employment.
These corporations complain that students from UW-Madison lack the necessary skills to work in a multicultural workplace. They argue we are cultural klutzes.\ This argument is insulting. Whatever students lack in multicultural savvy, the professional skills and technical abilities we gain here more than make up for it.
Granted, only approx. 13 percent of the student body is made up of minorities, but the lack of students of color at UW-Madison reflects the make up of the state more than anything else.
UW-Madison has been charged with educating the residents of Wisconsin, where Blacks, Latinos, American Indians and Asians make up approx. 10 percent of the state's total population. Considering that the UW-Madison student body is 13 percent minority, the state is actually less diverse than the University that bears its name.
Fifteen percent of the students at Ohio State University, another Big Ten school, are minorities. This statistic initially makes the school seem more diverse than UW-Madison until one takes into account the fact that 15 percent of the state of Ohio's population is made up of people of color. Unlike UW-Madison, OSU is not more diverse than the state that it serves.
While these corporations' decision to stop recruiting on campus will successfully embarrass the UW-Madison administration, the decision could have the unforeseen effect of discouraging minorities from attending the university. What motivation would students of color have to attend our fine institution, if the companies that value diversity most avoid our campus?Cardinal View editorials are crafted independent of news coverage.
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