Regent Policy Document 17-7 (formerly 84-5)

Restatement of Goals on Expanding Educational Opportunities for Minority and Disadvantaged Groups

The Board of Regents reaffirms its commitment to expand educational opportunities for members of minority and disadvantaged groups by: (a) adopting the Summary Restatement of Goals dated July 5, 1984; and (b) requesting the President of the University of Wisconsin System, in cooperation with the Department of Public Instruction, to prepare a 1985-87 biennial funding request that responds to, and is designed to, implement the minority and disadvantaged student program recommendations dated July 5, 1984.

The Board of Regents also reaffirms its policy on fiscal control of resources assigned to programs and services for minority students, which states: “allocations received through the special state appropriations for support services for minority students. . . shall not be reallocated to purposes other than support for programs and services for minority/disadvantaged students nor reduced without specific Board approval” (Board of Regents Policy Document 17-2, Formerly 72-9, AP #7.2 revised, June 1976); and “the Regents direct that resources not be diminished, but at a minimum, be maintained and if possible, expanded to provide support for special programs designed to increase opportunities for minority students and to improve the retention of these students” (Board of Regents Policy Document 17-5, Formerly 80-3, April 1980); and that the Regents request that System Administration prepare for the Board as part of the Annual Report on Progress and Achievement of Goals for American Racial and Ethnic Minority Students a budget report showing institutional and System resources assigned to minority and disadvantaged student programs.

Summary Restatement of Goals

The University of Wisconsin System unanimously endorses the reaffirmation of the principles set forth in AP #7.2:

“The long range objective of the UW System is to achieve the goals of equality of access and of opportunity. The achievement of these goals might be inferred from the attainment of a condition in which entry rates, academic success rates, graduation rates and distribution of educational and professional choices by minority students would more closely resemble those characteristics of all students of the UW System.”

In addition, the System feels that the Regents’ two basic quantitative goals of minority enrollment of 9,000 and minority bachelors degrees of 800 per year as stated in AP #7.2 should not be reduced but rather redefined in the context of the principles stated above. Therefore, the following redefinition of the University of Wisconsin System minority enrollment and graduation goals is proposed:

  1. New Freshmen Enrollment Goal:  To reach an ethnic distribution in the new freshman class that equals the ethnic distribution in the Wisconsin public high school graduating class.
  2. Undergraduate Enrollment Goal:  To reach year to year retention rates for minority students that are at least equal to the year to year retention rate for majority students.
  3. Bachelors Degrees Goal:  To reach graduation rates for minority students that are at least equal to the graduation rates of majority students.
  4. Graduate and Professional Enrollment Goal:  To continue the relationship between undergraduate and graduate/professional enrollment that now exists. Therefore as undergraduate enrollment increases in each minority group, graduate and professional enrollment will increase.

In addition to these University of Wisconsin System enrollment and graduation goals for minority students, it is also recommended that:

  1. Goals be adopted for all minorities with the measurement of progress toward the goals examined separately for each ethnic group.
  2. No individual University of Wisconsin institutional goals be set by System Administration; each University of Wisconsin Institution should be expected to establish its own goals in the context of the System goals.
  3. Time periods of five years be set for achievement of the enrollment goals and ten years for the achievement of the graduation goals.
  4. Actual enrollments be compared annually to enrollment projections to ensure that progress is being made toward the goals.

 

History: Res. 3109 adopted 07/13/1984; reaffirms RPDs 17-5 (formerly 80-3) and 17-6 (formerly 83-4).  See also RPD 17-2.

See Also:

SYS 170, Guidelines for the Lawton Undergraduate Minority Retention Grant Program (formerly ACPS 5.1)

[UW System Administrative policies are included for reference and are separate from Regent Policy Documents adopted by the Board.]