Group recommends improving Black experience for students, staff at UW-Madison
UW-Madison's efforts to address racism against Black students have been ineffective and reactionary, according to a new report from an ad-hoc group faculty, students and alumni that recommends more than 20 steps the university can take to address the problem.
"Traditionally marginalized and facing challenges of being unseen, unheard, and unsafe, the Black community at UW–Madison has demonstrated resilience and tenacity, maintaining a persistent presence despite systemic adversities," the report reads. "We are still here. The recommended strategies in this report are aimed at fostering a university culture where Black individuals do not just survive but thrive."
UW-Madison has long struggled to recruit Black students — enrollment of Black students has stayed largely stagnant around 2.5% of the total population over the last 15 years — and Black students have detailed their experiences with harassment and microaggressions for decades.
The recommendations largely center on creating a culture of accountability for UW-Madison leadership in how its Black students and staff are treated on campus. A committee of administrators, students, faculty, staff and alumni developed nearly two dozen recommendations for the university . They include:
• Add staff in student retention and recruitment, especially with pre-college programs and at high schools with high percentages of Black students such as those in Milwaukee, Madison and around Dane County.
• The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association should develop programs that foster better relationships with UW-Madison's Black alumni, create mentorship programs between those alumni and current Black students and establish donor revenue streams for the Department of African American Studies through a Board of Visitors and endowed professorships.
• Create a physical space for Black faculty and staff to gather and create community.
• Add additional faculty to the Department of African American Studies department, as well as outreach and financial support roles.
• Create a database tracking enrollment and graduation of Black students and establish accountability standards to ensure recommendations are implemented.
The commission was formed out of conversations between the Blk Pwr Coalition, a student-led group, and UW-Madison leaders after a racist video from a white female student in May 2023 prompted days of protests and anger over bias and hate speech against students of color.
But political reality could hinder the university's ability to implement at least some of the recommendations: Last year, Wisconsin Republicans who lead the state Legislature pressured Universities of Wisconsin leadership to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion staff by withholding money, critical building projects and employee raises over their presence. Ultimately, the Legislature released funding in exchange for some DEI changes.
Nationally, universities are beginning to see the fallout from a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that banned affirmative action and prevented both public and private colleges from using race as a consideration in admissions. Elite colleges such as Harvard and MIT already have reported seeing fewer Black students in their incoming classes.
"While the Study Group is aware of the current legal landscape in Wisconsin limiting some DEI efforts, we still firmly believe that there are specific actions UW–Madison can take to positively impact the Black community," the report reads. "Our recommendations challenge UW–Madison to increase Black thriving by implementing new recruitment strategies, including the Black community in decision-making, amplifying the research that comprehensively tells the story of the Black experience at UW–Madison, and focusing on retaining and advancing the careers of Black faculty and staff and students."
Prompted by protests
The recommendations come nearly a year after Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin commissioned the 15-person committee to examine the Black lived experience for students and staff on campus. Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence LaVar Charleston will take the lead to turn the recommendations into changes, UW-Madison's statement said.
The video posted in May 2023 prompted many Black students to share their own experiences on campus.
In a statement Thursday, Mnookin thanked the committee for its work and acknowledged that UW-Madison has more to do in improving the experience for Black students and staff on campus.
"I also want to express my deep gratitude to the members of the Blk Pwr Coalition and other student leaders, whose advocacy on this issue played a significant role in prompting us to take on this important effort," Mnookin said. "Over the years, the university has undertaken a variety of efforts to support underrepresented minority members of our campus community — a number of which are described in thoughtful detail in the study group's report — but we recognize, and the ad hoc report confirms, that we still have much work to do."
As part of its research, the ad hoc committee concluded that UW-Madison is often reactive to Black issues on campus, rather than proactive, and often installs solutions only after issues arise. There seems to be a lack of recruitment regarding Black alumni and a lack of accountability for when previous enrollment and retention benchmarks for Black students were not met, the report reads.
The ad hoc committee also suggested UW-Madison add resources to its Department of African American Studies, including adding at least two more senior tenured faculty, communications and outreach staff and creating endowed professorships to advance research.
Reckoning with history
In addition to the recommendations, the ad hoc committee's report focused on UW-Madison's history of treatment toward Black students and six previous plans that studied the lack of diversity or how to increase enrollment and retention of students of color.
The committee wants to see UW-Madison continue to confront that history through further investment in the Center for Campus History. The center grew out of UW-Madison's Public History Project, an exhibit at the Chazen Museum during the fall 2022 semester aimed at highlighting what it said is UW-Madison's prejudice and discrimination toward minorities.
Numerous instances of racism on UW-Madison's campus throughout the years are well documented: A UW-Madison student was once evicted from campus housing for dating a Black man in 1947; UW-Madison faculty refused to accept 94 expelled Black students from UW-Oshkosh in 1969; and a prominent alumni award winner was stopped and questioned for his student ID his first week on campus in 2011.
UW-Madison's first ad-hoc group convened in 1987 to address racism on campus that pushed the creation of a multicultural center on campus and requirements for ethnic studies classes. Then-Chancellor Donna Shalala did not fully accept the recommendations from that group and instead created her own plan in 1988.
Hundreds of UW-Madison students protest following racist video emerges
