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Weekend, February 26-28, 2010
UW grad school sciences struggle with diversity Part 1 of 2 By Hannah McClung The Daily Cardinal
Graduate student diversity levels in multiple hard science departments have remained near constant over the past decade despite recruitment efforts. Underrepresented groups in graduate science departments include African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Southeast Asian Americans, according to enrollment documents provided by the UW-Madison Office of the Registrar. The percent of underrepresented graduate students in the sciences has remained almost constant at 4 percent from 1994 to 2008, according to the documents. In 2000 4.3 percent of graduate students in the
sciences were minorities and in 2005 it dropped to 3.5 percent. According to Damon Williams, UW-Madison Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate, diversity numbers are low in graduate science departments at every “institution across the country.” “These communities are very underrepresented at Michigan, Indiana, Harvard and Stanford,” Williams said. “The pipeline of talent amongst those communities is underrepresented across every institution.” Minorities are underrepresented in higher education overall but there is an even greater disparity in some of the programs, Williams said. Common factors for UW-Madison’s low diversity numbers are the weather and lack of money, according to Theresa Duello, associ-
3.36 4 7.2
percentage of target minorities at UW grad school in 1994 in the sciences percentage of target minorities at UW grad school in 2008 in the sciences percentage of UW undergraduates in 2008 who were targeted minorities on campus photo Illustration by Isabel Álvarez/the daily cardinal
ate director of Diversity Initiatives for the Endocrinology – Reproductive Physiology Program. “I don’t believe that the weather is a breaking point here, and we’ve got money, we could raise money,” said Duello. “You cannot be passive about this, it’s not adequate or sufficient to just send an e-mail to somebody.” According to Duello, the lack of diversity in science graduate pro-
Controversial renting ordinance considered by city subcommittee By Taylor Harvey The Daily Cardinal
The city Landlord and Tenant Issues Subcommittee discussed a controversial proposal to extend the dates landlords can begin rerenting occupied property Thursday. Students and those supporting the proposal said they feel the current leasing policies create a large false demand for properties, while leasing companies claim they are simply responding to supply and demand.
Adam Johnson, chair of Associated Students of Madison’s Legislative Affairs Committee, said there is artificial market demand being pushed onto students. “I think that there is some predatory and deceptive practices that go on in targeting advertising towards creating these false market pressures, and this happens to both freshmen and returning students,” he said. “Even students that have been here for several years think that everything good is gone by
December.” The Nov. 15 start date to sign leases also poses a conflict for graduate students, according to supporters. By the time grad school acceptance letters arrive, it is too late to lease in the downtown area, proponents said. Graduate students are presented with little opportunity to rent and are forced to the outskirts of off-campus housing. Some leasing companies said they lease page 3
“Rah-rah, UH RAH RAH”
Alison Bauter/the daily cardinal
Students perform their own rendition of “On, Wisconsin!” during an open-mic at Der Rathskeller.
grams makes recruitment difficult. Flow of Undergraduates The lack of diversity throughout the “pipeline” of undergraduate students moving to graduate school has “locked us in inactivity,” she said. “It is pretty safe to say there isn’t going to be a huge increase in the budget to work on this, so we all have to do a little more.”
“Nationally, when students in their first year enroll for college and declare majors, underrepresented minorities declare science majors at the same frequency … as their white counterparts,” Williams said. There’s the same amount of interest in completing a science program but somewhere along the way that goal is diversity page 3
BadgerCare Plus Basic Plan passes in Senate 17-16 By Cathy Martin The Daily Cardinal
The state Senate passed a bill Thursday that would provide basic health insurance to thousands of low-income Wisconsin residents. Gov. Jim Doyle introduced the BadgerCare Plus Basic Plan to the legislature last month, aiming to temporarily cover the nearly 25,000 people who were turned away from the state’s more comprehensive Core Plan. The BadgerCare Plus Core Plan stopped its enrollment October 2009 at 64,000 due to budget constraints. The Basic Plan would “offer a life-line for the people on the waiting list,” according to Julie Laundrie, spokesperson for the bill’s author Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee. The plan includes limited physician, hospital and prescription coverage. The bill passed 17 to 16 without a single Republican vote. Many who opposed the bill called it a step toward “Obamacare.” “We have an alternative program; it’s called the private sector,” Minority Leader Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said during the debate. But Carrie Lynch, spokesperson for state Senate Majority Leader Russell Decker, D-Schofield, said the plan applies only to childless adults with yearly incomes of less than $21,000 for whom the private market will not offer insurance. She said Decker voted for
the bill “to give access to people who desperately need health care and cannot get it anywhere else.” Lynch said the state did not allocate any funds to the program, which would be paid for entirely by individual $130 monthly premiums. However, state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, the sole Democrat to oppose the bill, said these would not be enough to sustain the program. She said Wisconsin would eventually have to take money out of the Core Plan or create an enormous reserve fund to make up the difference. “Sen. Decker voted for the bill to give access to people who desperately need health care and cannot get it anywhere else.” Carrie Lynch spokesperson Sen. Russell Decker
Vinehout said the plan would provide poor care and that only the sickest of those eligible for it, who already significantly pay out of pocket, would take advantage of it. “You can say they have an option, but are they going to choose that option?” Vinehout said. “The answer is no because it’s too much money.” The bill has moved to the state Assembly for consideration.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”