UW Regent Says Admission Policy Should Be Colorblind
MADISON, Wis.
University of Wisconsin Regent Fred Mohs has begun a campaign to remove race as a consideration for admission into the university system, although many of his colleagues say they are opposed to the suggestion.
State Superintendent John Benson, who is also a regent, says he believed the university’s affirmative action policies were key in diversifying the student body and minimizing society’s inequities.
“It is appropriate for the UW System, including UW-Madison, to adopt policies that .attempt to accommodate capable students who have been denied an equal opportunity to learn,” Benson says.
At a December meeting of the UW Board of Regents, Mohs called for a debate on the university’s admission policies and urged other regents to read a 15-page statement he wrote on the issue.
“At (UW-Madison) and its professional schools and, to a lesser degree, other campuses, targeted racial minorities — specifically, students who are Black, Hispanic, have an ancestor from Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos and American Indians — are treated differently than other students,” says Mohs, a Madison businessman.
Race has been a hot topic
recently at UW-Madison.
University officials in September admitted to digitally altering the cover photograph of an admissions booklet to include the face of a Black student among White fans at a Badgers football game. The school said it could not find a photo that reflected diversity on campus (see Black
Issues, Oct. 12).
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