| "Plan 2008: Educational Quality Through Racial/Ethnic Diversity" is the most recent in a series of diversity programs coordinated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, following in the footsteps of the Madison Commitment of 1993 and the 1988 Madison Plan. The various plans and commitments have aimed to increase enrollment and retention of minority students with affirmative action admission and hiring policies and various programs to make the campus more welcoming to students of all backgrounds. In particular, Plan 2008 hopes to target American Indian, African American, Latino/a, and Southeast Asian American students. With its goal "to improve the classroom and social climate of this campus for those groups; and to increase the depth of understanding by the large majority of us who are not in those groups for their values, customs, and experiences," Plan 2008 includes a provision for a number of department-specific open forums to be held on the topic of diversity, the first of which took place on Sept. 30 at the School of Business' Grainger Hall, with the assistance of the Associated Students of Madison. Following on the heels of the Campus Diversity Forum held Sept. 29 at the Memorial Union (which drew over 600 participants), "Creating Inclusive Communities in the Classroom, the Boardroom, and Beyond" treated about 50 attending students and faculty members to three short speeches and four skits on diversity in the workplace and on campus, followed by a response panel. Dean of the Business School Michael Knetter set the tone by explaining the need for programs like Plan 2008: "Before, universities felt they were the vanguard [in promoting diversity]; today they are lagging behind." Keynote speaker and Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce Mary Burke agreed, stressing the need for diversity in business education as a preparation for the realities of the business world. Burke used Wisconsin's own Harley-Davidson plants as an example, citing their immensely successful system for supporting and investing in minority suppliers to ensure flawless business relations with "a supplier base that looks like [their] customer base." Thus assured of the necessity of diversity in the workplace, the audience was treated to a series of presentations by the Theatre for Cultural and Social Awareness troupe, headed by acting professor and founding director Patrick Sims. Sims invited the audience to think closely about the skits, each of which featured awkward situations that can arise even for people actively seeking to embrace diversity. Sims said he hoped he and his troupe had created ";something authentic, real, and natural" based on their own experiences, joking that "I open mouth [and] insert foot frequently." And so did the protagonist of the first skit, a young corporate go-getter named Steve who had just completed intensive diversity training and was challenged to make small talk with a real-live Black person. Steve panics as he tries to find common ground and eventually settles on the winter holidays, blurting out, "How was Kwanza?" The skits proceeded with varying degrees of seriousness, always with the central conflict left unresolved to encourage attendees to consider their own feelings about the difficult positions of the characters. In one, a student is informed that he has received a much-needed scholarship, but only because an influential member of the committee considers him a delightful exception to the lazier members of his race. In another, a White guest lecturer off-handedly remarks that a Black woman in her audience "knows what I mean" when discussing domestic violence as a recurring theme in rap music. Finally, a University Outreach Fund director has a difficult choice to make about how important her commitment to diversity is, when an affluent donor rumored to be homophobic is assigned a tour guide rumored to be gay. The forum was certainly an informative and positive experience for all those in attendance, but many students feel that well-intentioned speeches are doing little to meet the goals of Plan 2008. Josh Healey, a staff member of the Multicultural Student Coalition, has been vocal about the growing disillusionment with UW-Madison's succession of "plans." In a letter to the editor published in UW-Madison's independent student newspaper the Badger Herald, Healey criticized the forums as a whitewash for the poor progress and underfunding of the Plan. "If diversity were so important to Chancellor Wiley, Provost Peter Spear, Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity Bernice Durand, and the other top administrators (including former ones like Paul Barrows and Luoluo Hong), they would have made concrete changes long ago," said Healey. " Instead, their policies have made it so that in 2005, the number of African American students graduating from UW-Madison is smaller than it was in 1975." Healey elaborated on his position for Asian Wisconzine. "The truth is that the numbers of Blacks, Latinos, and Southeast Asian Americans who are enrolling and graduating from UW-Madison are no better than when Plan 2008 started in 1998. And some numbers have declined from 20 years ago. There are good programs already in place, like the PEOPLE (Pre-college Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence) program, but those programs are relatively small in scope and are in large part funded by private corporations like SBC -- so the university really can't even take credit for them. "I think they need to improve upon the"programs already in place that recruit and retain students of color and low-income students," Healey continued. "They need a strong affirmative action policy that sets concrete goals [for how many underrepresented students they're trying to enroll and graduate] and timelines [to hold them accountable, if they don't meet those deadlines]. No more empty promises." Healey's skepticism of the university's commitment to Plan 2008 seems confirmed by the text of the plan itself. The introduction of the online "living document" warns, "In Fiscal Years 1999-2001, the initial Plan 2008 years, the Plan is seriously underfunded. While this situation may improve over the years, we must be realistic in our expectations of funding." The 'seven goals' which guide the body of the plan include no specific numbers to achieve or dates to achieve them by. The percentage of minority students on campus is already less than half what it would be if it was the same as the proportion of minorities in Wisconsin's population, and current retention programs are doing little to close the gap. Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzell warned at the Sept. 29 Campus Diversity Forum, "If we fail to create a welcoming climate, we will fail to retain the best and brightest students; and we will rapidly become an irrelevant anachronism." If Plan 2008 is to succeed, UW may have to put its money where its mouth is. Plan 2008 can be read by visiting http://www.provost.wisc.edu/plan2008/ |
| Classroom, Boardroom, & Beyond: Plan 2008 Forums on Campus By Ben Freund |
 |
| Homepage |
|
| Nov. '05 Issue Preview |