A highschooler's race, income level and the amount of clubs and sports he or she joins will now offficially help decide if the student is admitted any UW System school.
Friday, the UW System Board of Regents unanimously passed the new UW System freshman admissions policy, despite scrutiny from several conservative state lawmakers.
Some members of the Legislature, including state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, claim the policy is an infringement on a Wisconsin statute that forbids the use of race in admissions decisions.
This new policy will take a more ""holistic"" approach by looking at a variety of factors including race, socioeconomic status, and involvement in extracurricular activities when making admissions decisions.
Yet Board of Regents President David Walsh said academic scores and grades will continue to be the primary criteria.
According to Walsh, this policy is not ""new"" at all because UW-Madison has been using it for 32 years, and other campuses in the UW System have used similar guidelines in admissions decisions.
The approval of this policy will simply put it down on paper, and extend it to all the schools in the UW System, Regent Charles Pruitt said. Both Walsh and Pruitt stressed that not much will change under the policy.
Walsh said this admissions policy is primarily about increasing the diversity of the student body, which he claims will foster a better educational experience and prepare students for the global economy.
""It recognizes the importance that we place on diversity on the campus, not just racial and economic diversity, but also diversity in terms of life experiences,"" Pruitt said.
However, Nass said the policy is ultimately racial profiling and claimed UW-Madison has been violating Wisconsin law for over 30 years by using it.
Nass argued the Regents are hiding behind the 2003 University of Michigan Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, which said race can be used in university admissions decisions, within limitations. The Regents maintained that this decision trumps Wisconsin law.
But according to Nass, the Supreme Court decision merely reads, ""If a state decides to use race as part of the admissions process, then here are the guidelines...,"" pointing out the ""if"" factor.
State Senate Education Committee member Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, even proposed a compromise to the ""race"" factor of holistic admissions—to discount Hispanics when considering race in the admissions process, a concept the Regents rejected immediately.
""Our society is used to giving preference to African Americans,"" Grothman was quoted by WKOW-TV's Channel 27 News. ""But why in the world would we give preferences to Hispanics who've just come here?""
Nass suggested other alternatives the UW system could embrace to increase diversity without using this admissions policy, including cultivating a communication link between the university and Wisconsin's K-12 schools, as well as more aggressively attracting minority students by reaching out to more states.
However, Pruitt said no student wants to be considered a number.
""Students want to be judged as an individual and that's all this policy does,"" he said. ""Let's base admissions decisions on the person as an individual and not reduce it to a mathematical calculation, which isn't practical or appropriate.""
