Within the past year, issues surrounding diversity have been hugely controversial throughout the university. From the Center for Equal Opportunity’s allegations that UW-Madison unfairly takes race into account in admissions, to individuals at a fraternity throwing beer bottles and yelling racial slurs at African American students walking past, it is clear that the university needs to strive for improvements in diversity on campus.
What is not so clear, however, are the means through which the university is currently striving for these improvements. For this reason and more, we strongly support the initiative to create a new campus diversity plan.
We believe that goals outlined in the UW System’s Plan 2008, the system’s diversity plan that expired in 2008, set a solid foundation for the committee drafting the plan to begin. While the goals described in this plan are legitimate ones, we believe Plan 2008 did not completely fulfill them and the university needs to continue to build on them.
In order to carry out goals such as increasing the number of Wisconsin high school graduates of color who apply and ultimately enroll at UW System institutions and reaching children and their parents at earlier ages, the university personnel need to consistently visit and communicate with students at diverse schools in the K-12 school system.
Often, these students are not aware of the options that are available to them with regards to postsecondary education. Even if they are aware, the “sticker shock” of college tuition prevents many from considering pursuing a degree. The university needs to explicitly outline scholarships and financial aid opportunities available to these students and their parents from a young age in order to combat the notion that college is not an option for them.
Similarly, the university should provide incoming students with information about how to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid application to incoming and potential students. The FAFSA application is quite dense, and providing an outline to students and parents at SOAR would open a door for students in need to obtain additional financial aid.
One goal we believe the new plan should incorporate is to increase the four-year graduation rate of students of color. For the class of 2009, 30 percent of targeted minority students graduated within four years and 69 percent had graduated after six years. In comparison, 55 percent of non-targeted students in the same class graduated after four years, and 84 percent did after six years.
These numbers indicate that a high percentage of students take six years to graduate and pay tuition for two years longer than typically deemed necessary. For students from lower income students, the additional time puts additional stress on their financial situation.
Additionally, the numbers indicate that diverse students on campus have significantly lower overall graduation rates than their non-minority peers. The university needs to investigate why these graduation rates are so different and take measures to close this gap.
We also support the Associated Students of Madison’s effort to rework the university’s ethnic studies requirement. While in its current format students do in some way learn about diverse racial and ethnic groups, we believe that classes that are more discussion-based would give students a deeper insight into current issues regarding diversity.
Even with all of these improvements, the overall campus climate still needs to change with regards to diversity. Incidents such as the aforementioned one where the African American females were targeted outside of a fraternity because of their race need to continue to be investigated and the perpetrators need to be held accountable. Rhetoric surrounding improving diversity on campus is moot unless the university takes actual action to not only improve life in the UW community for students of color, but also to foster an awareness about diversity amongst individuals who have little experience with it.
If you have a propositon for a new diversity plan, please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
