Stirring a longstanding local and national controversy, a series of UW System race-based grants has recently provoked both criticism and adulation.
\We believe the law is clear: that it is illegal to have programs for which skin color is an absolute [qualification]; that is, programs where you are not even considered if you have the wrong ethnicity,"" said Roger Clegg, general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative Virginia-based group that monitors state and federal race-exclusive programs.
The group is concerned with the Lawton Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant, which is given to blacks, Latino and American Indian students that return after freshman year. System officials contend the grant helps ameliorate the dropout rate among minorities.
""I think it does a lot of good things. The concept is that it's a retention grant, so new freshmen don't get it. It's for continuing students. It's based on financial need, so rich people don't get it. It only goes to needy students,"" said Steve Van Ess, director of UW-Madison student financial services.
""[The Lawton grant] really helps me concentrate more on my studies, because I have more time to study, because I don't have to worry about loans and being out of here in four years,"" said UW-Madison senior Adedayo Lesi, an economics major and recipient of the grant.
The grant's critics argue it is limited to students of color, a concept directly contrary to the 2003 Supreme Court ruling in Gratz v. Bollinger, which stated race would be a factor, but not the sole consideration, in collegiate admission.
Former UW-Madison economics professor W. Lee Hansen argued the Lawton grant flies in the face of the Civil Rights Act. Earlier this year, Hansen, who has publically opposed the Lawton program and other racially exclusive policies, wrote a letter urging the University to abolish the grant.
Hansen added the Lawton program could not be reconciled with State Statute 36.13, which is against discrimination of all kinds. He recommended a program based on economic standing, which, given the low average income of blacks, would be just as inclusive, but not restricted to them.
""My sense is that the Civil Rights movement was all about treating people equally,"" Hansen said, citing the Wisconsin Statute. ""The Lawton program goes directly against that, and while one can advance all kinds of arguments for race-based scholarships, it seems to me that if we're going to move into a world of non-discrimination, we should do it with every program right now.\
