UW Considers Admission Policies In Light Of Supreme Court’s Race Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the case challenging the use of race as a factor in university admission policies, won’t have any direct affect on the University of Wisconsin. But UW officials say they will continue to evaluate how it uses race in admissions decisions to ensure a diverse student body.

The court’s 7-1 ruling in the case challenging the admissions policy at the University of Texas in Austin was a narrow one. It did not overturn a lower court’s ruling that found a white student, Abigail Fisher, was not unfairly turned down for admission on the basis of her race. According to Sherilynn Ifill, of the national NAACP’s legal defense fund, the ruling does not change the current standard, which allows the use of race as one of many factors in admissions decisions only as long as race-neutral policies alone can not guarantee a diverse student body.

“I think it’s more sharpening the review that courts have to engage with when [a] university comes forward with their plans, and of course the collateral consequence is that universities will need to make a sharper presentation to the courts who will be looking much more closely and not using the standard of ‘good faith deference.’”

The ruling sent the Texas case back to the lower court to look more carefully at how the university actually considers race. The vice provost of enrollment management at the University of Wisconsin, Joanne Berg, says the UW will be looking closely at its holistic approach to granting admission that does give some consideration to race.

“We keep saying that race and ethnicity is going to help us in the classroom. Diversity is good for education, and we have to really measure that and think about what does that really mean. I mean it might sound good, but we really need to understand more about why it’s important.”

The Wisconsin system has not been challenged in court but conservative groups have called on the university to eliminate the consideration of students’ race altogether.