Next Steps Toward our UW-Madison Diversity Plan

Opening arguments in the Fisher v. UT-Austin Supreme Court case were made on October 10. This case could determine whether public colleges and universities can consider race as one of many factors when making admission decisions. The transcripts and audio of the actual arguments are now available here.

As many of you know, we launched discussions about the potential implications of this case last spring, mere weeks after the announcement that the case would be heard by the Supreme Court.  During that time, my office hosted Attorney Art Coleman of Education Counsel LLC, who led a series of briefings on campus with senior leadership, governance leaders, and others working in diversity and enrollment management areas, in an effort to create awareness and readiness for UW-Madison.

Over the next several weeks, we will continue these conversations as we build on the work begun at the 2012 Diversity Forum and look toward developing a new campus diversity plan. Representatives from the Office for Equity and Diversity Learning Communities and Assistant Vice Chancellor Ruby Paredes are organizing the ideas captured at the Forum table-top discussions, so that we can present them to the broad campus community.

In addition, we continue to finalize the 2012/13 Diversity Impact Report, which we will publish later this semester. We will meet with several leaders in our various governance communities soon, as we move toward creating a campus diversity planning committee to help guide our discussion institutionally.

We appreciate your support and work in diversity and inclusion.  On Wisconsin!

Damon Williams, Vice Provost & CDO/Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement