Read the biography of regent Frederic Mohs.

Discuss this issue with Leah Thorsen and other readers.

Read the mission statement of the American Ethnic Coordinating Office at UW-Eau Claire. 

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UW Regents plan to examine race-based admissions

As the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents prepares to make a decision regarding race-based admissions, it faces questions of the legality of using race as a factor in admitting students as well as how to continue to encourage diversity on UW campuses. 

Promoting diversity and helping underrepresented groups attend universities is essential, but using race as a factor in admissions is not an acceptable way to accomplish these goals, said regent Frederic Mohs in a telephone interview.

Mohs strongly opposes race-based admissions and said that using race as a factor in admissions hasn’t worked well in the 35 years it has been in existence.

“It has changed from a temporary boost to a permanent racial entitlement, which is an entirely different animal,” Mohs said.

Seeking benefits based on skin color is wrong, and all citizens should be treated equally, Mohs said. He also is concerned that the policy is a violation of Wisconsin law.

“It’s my strong belief that what we’re doing is illegal,” Mohs said. He said Wisconsin Statute 3612 prohibits discrimination based on race, and when universities consider skin color in admissions, they are violating this law.

Mohs said he doesn’t deny that minorities face disadvantages, but he believes there are better ways to fight discrimination. He said Plan 2008, an initiative to promote diversity with seven objectives, is an effective way to attract qualified minority students to UW campuses.

“This country was built on individual rights, not group rights,” Mohs said.

Finding effective ways to fight discrimination is more important than a label given to a policy, said Barbara Stevens, Affirmative Action officer at UW-Eau Claire, where the regents will hold their fall meeting from Oct. 4 to Oct. 5.

“We need to look at what the actions are, not what the name is,” Stevens said. She said race is a factor when determining if a student is admitted, but it is only one of many factors.

Each campus chooses how it considers race in its admissions program, a policy 20-year-old Jesse Okiror agrees with.

“Having diversity on campus is important to all students,” said Okiror, a junior political science major at UW-Eau Claire. Okiror, who is African-American, is a Diversity Scholar, which means he receives full-paid tuition and room and board. Diversity Scholars are students from underrepresented groups who are academically successful and involved in the community.

At UW-Eau Claire, race isn’t a big factor in admissions, Okiror said. He said most minority students are admissible without having to take race into consideration, and that all university students must be ready to work with people from other backgrounds in the job place.

“Once we graduate, we’re going to have to deal with diversity,” Okiror said, adding that minority groups benefit from learning about the experiences of other minority groups.

Whatever policy the regents enact should be proactive toward increasing diversity on UW campuses, Okiror said. He also said that each campus should be allowed to choose the policy that would work best to promote diversity while focusing on recruitment and retention.

“All the UW schools have different numbers of underrepresentation,” he said.  

According to statistics compiled last year by the institutional planning office at UW-Eau Claire, 4.4 percent of undergraduate students were minorities. This number is projected to be around 4.5 percent this year, although results haven’t been tabulated, said Kay Magadance, a policy and planning analyst for the university.

At UW-Madison, 9 percent of students during the spring semester of 2001 were minorities, according to a report by the registrar's office. 

And while these numbers may seem low, they are encouraging to Jim Vance, director of the American Ethnic Coordinating Office at UW-Eau Claire.  Since assuming his job duties in 1988, he said he has seen a 200 percent jump in the number of minorities attending UW-Eau Claire. Vance said it is important to continue efforts to promote diversity in the UW System, and that this effort must be given a high priority. 

Mohs said it is not known when a final decision will be made by the regents about changes to the current policy.