The Milwaukee Journal reported that "The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse would charge students $1,320 over three years on top of annual tuition increases to expand and diversify its student body under a pilot program approved Thursday by the UW System Board of Regents."
"A major focus of the program is bringing in more low-income and minority students, of which UW-La Crosse has few. The university would hire new staff to help recruit and retain 500 such students. It would use $3.8 million to fund scholarships and other forms of financial aid."
"We are targeting two particular groups," Lostetter (UW-La Crosse vice chancellor for administration and finance) said. "Students from the bottom two income quintiles and students of color."
If this new fee/student tax is approved by Governor Doyle and the Legislature, I hope it will be challenged in court. The basic problem, as I see it, is that the program will discriminate against white students, not once, but twice. First, by favoring "students of color" over students of non-color or wrong color, the university is using irrelevant and discriminatory criteria to select students, rather than having a merit based system. Then, to add insult to injury, they will require all students, including those with pale skin, to pay towards a program that discriminates on the basis of skin color. Students of all colors who oppose racial discrimination should protest this tax. It is offensive enough that racism against white students is celebrated by our morally bankrupt Board of Regents, but now they have the gall to require students to pay more for an expanded program of racism. At the very least, they should have a conscience clause which would allow students to avoid paying into a reprehensible, discriminatory program. Or is it OK to discriminate against white people?
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UW System Board of Regents."
the above would be JIM DOYLE'S board???
Wonder what voting group he is pandering to now.
I don't know who appointed the regents. Did Jim Doyle appoint them all or are there some from previous administrations? Anyway, this discrimination plan will need the approval of both the governor and the legislature.
Funny that I don't see droves of white students out protesting. Could it be that the students themselves don't have a problem with this? Perhaps the students themselves who are in the UW system might know more than some old folks grasping at straws to attack the school because the end goal for these attacks is to shut it down completely and lose public colleges. If you research the groups that mostly attack UW you will find they get $$$ from people who want to privatize all forms of education.
BTW, I have 2 kids at UW, my son and daughter-in-law. She is from Puerto Rico and is pre-med. This program won't help her one iota! And, neither of my kids have an issue with this........seems like all money of mine finally is starting to show results since my son can grasp the bigger picture of educating a whole society.........which is more than I can say for you.
Reading this post was truly scary in my opinion. And it showed me that this country's power brokers are fighting tooth and nail to keep this country as pale-skinned as humanly possible. Discrimination against whites? If that isnt' the most ludricus thing i've heard of in my natural life. White people, from a global perspective are overwhelmingly the minority in the world population, but yet run and control practicley everything that the world sees, hears, buys, builds, governs, plays, and much much more. The US is one of the youngest countries in the entire world, but yet the US is by far the most powerful. Non pale skinned US citizens have been discriminated against since Christopher Columbus "discovered America". These discriminated groups include american-indians, east-indians, chinese, japanese, mexican, african-americans, native africans, even the irish, and that's just to get the list started. White people are quickly becoming the minority in the US now, particularly with the exponentially growing hispanic population and it is evident that white people are fighting it every step of the way by doing what they have historically done, that is changing federal, state and local laws to maintain their power positions and minimize the opportunity for large numbers of people of color of advancing and competing with them for these power positions. With this said, I support the "tax whitey" initiative as Denis calls it, as it is an extremely small step in helping to get more faces of color amongst the population of US powerbrokers and decision-makers.
Anon, thanks for your contribution here and I hope that you will join us for an evening of conversation, as we could probably take up this subject at greater length. Anyway, I am reminded of a quote, I think by Thomas Sowell, that can fairly well sum up my position on this. It goes something like this: "We (as in our government) have a hard enough time treating people justly today. How could we possibly correct all the injustices of the past?" I can certainly appreciate the hardship and suffering of the groups that you mentioned, of which I am one, Irish. And I can appreciate your desire to help people who have been wronged. But where we part company is that I don't think it is possible to correct hundreds of years of injustice, perpetrated by others, but paid for by me and you. We would create a balkanized society with competing claims of victimhood. How could this all be sorted out fairly? It can't. So your earnest desire to help people today will simply create more injustice, as innocent people (innocent at least of the atrocities of slavery etc...) are made to make ammends for crimes that they did not commit. They will resent this treatment, rightfully in my view, and needless anamosity (sp?) will be created. Harm will be the result of your attempts to do good.
i think its absolutely possible to start correcting the injustices of the past. Its very simple, here's how, create opportunities for all people to have a chance at life by giving them access to opportunities. People of color want the same thing white people do, to be able to provide for their families, obtain a good job, and educate their children. So what i interpret from your assessment is that its better to stifle opportunity for all, because it will eventually hurt the majority's power positions. So lets not truly try to create equality, lets just say we do.
What's happend in the past is the past, we're in the 21st century now and yet we're still in a 18th century mentality. In the 21st century, smart people aren't satisfied with the status quo and aren't scared to change it, they also value different experiences and practice diversity, not just talk about it because not only does it benefit the bottom line in the world of business, but because its the right thing to do.
Of course their will be resentment from the majority, they should resent it. Just as the millions of other hispanics and african americans have resented that same treatment for the past 2-3 centuries.
OK, so you can correct past injustices. And you mention the injustices suffered by the Irish. I am 75% Irish. What am I owed, and by whom?
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