The University of Wisconsin System released its annual accountability report Friday, highlighting that the system is achieving the majority of its goals but still lacks progress on diversity issues.
According to the report, titled Achieving Excellence,"" the UW System met or partially met 19 of its 20 goals for the year. The system succeeded in raising graduation rates, second-year retention rates, the average number of credits taken to complete a degree and the overall quality of the learning environment.
In the categories of graduation and second-year retention rates, UW-Madison alone has rates significantly higher than the rest of the system, according to UW System spokesperson David Giroux.
However, the UW System still needs to improve in enrolling students from multicultural and disadvantaged backgrounds, according to Giroux.
""The one goal where we are clearly falling short in consistently over the past several years is in the areas related to serving, enrolling, graduating more students of color,"" Giroux said.
He said the category in need of the most improvement is the number of multicultural and disadvantaged students enrolled in pre-college programs, adding there was a decrease in involvement in these programs.
Giroux also said despite an increase in graduation and retention rates in the UW System overall, the gap between white and non-white students persists in these areas.
For instance, although the UW System's average six-year graduation rate has risen to 64.8 percent overall, that rate remains at only 44.3 percent for students of color, according to the report.
According to Giroux, many of the goals will carry over from this year to next.
Giroux said he hopes assessing the UW System's performance in these benchmarks can help administrators making decisions about the university's finances to focus on the areas needing the most improvement.
""The reason you measure things is so that you know where you need to improve, and clearly in areas dealing with multicultural students, students from disadvantaged backgrounds '¦ we need to invest more in their success,"" Giroux said. ""And that will in turn translate into our success as a university and a state.
