Over the past decade, UW-Madison has focused much of its time and resources on recruiting minority students to campus. Their sometimes misguided efforts, the UW photoshopped pamphlet being a classic example, are undoubtedly well-intentioned, but they often ignore a more serious issue facing our campus: a persistent and substantial achievement gap between minority students and the rest of the student population.
Though wanting more diversity on an overwhelmingly white campus is a fine ideal, we must consider the facts pushing toward unrealistic goals. In 2009, the Census Bureau estimated our state population at about 89 percent Caucasian. This means that our campus population, which is about 87 percent white, is just about on target when you consider the rest of Wisconsin.
As a campus we have made significant gains the past decade. Plan 2008 can definitely take part of the credit for increasing minority enrollment. Though some groups are still underrepresented at our university, such as black and Hispanic students, overall we seemed to have reached a level of enrollment that makes sense for our state. Now, it's time to turn toward making sure these students have the services and programs needed to succeed.
In researching diversity on campus, I came across a set of disturbing statistics that may not be well-known among the student population. According to a MacIver Institute
Education Policy Analyst article by Christian D'Andrea, 82 percent of UW-Madison students graduate within six years of enrolling. The proportion of most minorities who graduate in the same amount of time drops to just 66 percent. This gives us one of the largest achievement gaps in the country, and though it has narrowed in recent years, it is far from closing for good.
Perhaps most importantly, many students feel the university is not working hard enough to help them succeed on campus, both academically and socially. In a recent wisc.edu survey on diversity, only 66 percent of seniors say they feel the university emphasizes providing the support they need to succeed, with similar numbers for both minority and non-minority students. To me, if one third of the students on campus feel the school doesn't make meeting their needs a priority, the university and its administration has failed those students.
Some projects currently being funded by the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates will help address this problem for all students, not just minority groups. The university is currently in the process of increasing faculty and improving academic support in areas such as chemistry and physics, which consistently prove the most difficult for students. The curriculum and teaching strategies of many classes are in the process of being reevaluated and revamped, and the new common scholarship application makes life infinitely easier for every student.
In order to make sure every student has the tools they need to succeed, the university should examine programs that work, such as Posse, and the Chancellor's scholarship. Participation in any of these programs significantly raises a student's chances of graduating, as does earning 54 or more credits in the first two years on campus. It's time for the school to examine these programs, and the personalized counseling and social support they offer and expand these ideas to a larger population to start closing that stubborn achievement gap.
Another successful component of a diverse campus is fostering understanding, yet another area UW-Madison must improve in. In the same survey only about one half of seniors said their time at the UW contributed meaningfully to their understanding of people from other backgrounds.
To my understanding, this is supposed to be the point of the Ethnic Studies curriculum requirement, but in most cases it doesn't seem very successful. My ethnic studies class had about 200 students and one discussion per week. Such an environment doesn't encourage meaningful experiences, and this is one failure of the system that should be revamped. The goal itself is noble and necessary, but smaller seminars featuring roundtable discussions of current events would be much more successful than lectures on African American literature.
To its credit, the university does address the gap in graduation rates in all of its current diversity planning, but we have a long way to go before we actually achieve real progress. For the next few years, we should worry more about the diversity of our graduates before we seek to improve the diversity of our students.
Lydia Statz is a junior majoring in journalism and international studies. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
