Does the University of Wisconsin-Madison have a plan to introduce diversity in grading—making sure that African Americans, Hispanics and other non-Asian minorities get the same proportion of good marks as whites and Asians? No. “Nothing could be further from the truth,’ said Professor Patrick Sims, UW Chief Diversity Officer and interim Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate. “Regrettably, Hansen’s assertion that the campus’s most recent strategic diversity framework embraces a quota system for apportioning grades by race, is a gross misrepresentation of our current efforts.”
That comment was in response to an article by emeritus Professor W. Lee Hansen, pointing to this definition of “Representational Equity” in the “Inclusive Excellence” diversity framework: “Proportional participation of historically underrepresented racial-ethnic groups at all levels of an institution, including high status special programs, high demand majors, and in the distribution of grades.” Hansen did not say that the controversial definition was in the new diversity plan. He wrote that “unbeknownst to faculty senators” voting on the plan, five goals and recommendations were based on the old plan–the UW System Inclusive Excellence framework, which contained the definition of “representational equity.” It seems clear that UW is broadly supporting “Inclusive Excellence.” Here is a webpage of the UW System, containing the grading-quota definition and carrying the copyright of the UW Regents. In a message to colleagues and campus officials, Professor Donald Downs, who differed with Hansen in an essay here, wrote that the definition has not been endorsed by the university, “but the wording is lurking out there in the system, and the diversity chair has pointed to it. So we are right that it has not been formalized, adopted, or even encouraged. But it has some presence in the system, and this must not be.”
I’m still not convinced the wording of the definition of “representational equality” is as insidious as it has been interpreted to be here and elsewhere. If you look into the research by Dr. Bensimon it’s based on, you still don’t find anyone advocating racial distribution of grades, just long-term outcomes in which anonymous grading would see students of all backgrounds succeeding equally. Much ado about nothing, though no one who posted it originally is finding it easy to say “whoops, I was wrong about that.”