Madison Mob Madness | Center for Equal Opportunity

This has been an exciting week for the Center for Equal Opportunity—and for the cause of true, colorblind equal opportunity.

On Tuesday at a press conference in Madison, Wisconsin, we released two studies that revealed severe discrimination based on race and ethnicity in undergraduate and law school admissions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with African Americans and Latinos being given huge preferences over whites and Asians.

You can read our press release here, which summarizes the studies and points out that the degree of discrimination in undergraduate admissions was the worst we have ever seen in the 15 years we have been publishing these studies of universities all over the country. You can also download the studies themselves.

Well, this was not a message that the university and others wanted to here. University officials met with student leaders and, as a result, a mob of protestors came to our press conference.

Now, the good news is that by the time they actually broke into the room where the press conference was being held, the press conference was almost over. In fact, the only people still asking questions were disgruntled students. So, in effect, the protestors succeeded only in shutting themselves down!

Still, it was a chilling display of attempted intimidation. Private property was broken into (the event was held at a hotel near the campus), a hotel employee injured, and the mob attempted to follow me into the elevator when I was returning to my room (the hotel staff stopped them).

Then, later in the day, I debated a law school professor there on the campus itself. To the university’s credit, it sent plenty of campus police to ensure that the event went forward. A huge number of students attended, and while they were occasionally unruly, I was able to have my say.

We’ve collected some links to the news coverage here:

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-673228
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-uw-madisonadmissi,0,2423949.story
http://host.madison.com/news/local/education/university/article_49f3f83a-dd9d-11e0-82b9-001cc4c03286.html
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-wisconsin-is-accused-of-bias-against-white-applicants/36170
http://host.madison.com/news/local/education/campus_connection/article_672151ac-ddd2-11e0-bada-001cc4c03286.html
http://badgerherald.com/news/2011/09/13/report_spurs_uw_stud.php
http://wsau.com/news/articles/2011/sep/13/reverse-discrimination-lawsuit-filed-against-uw/
http://www.dailycardinal.com/news/studies-critique-uw-madison-diversity-1.2587285 http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/09/14/study-claims-wisconsin-law-school-discriminates-against-whites/
http://host.madison.com/wsj/collection_e23ed0ac-debe-11e0-bec3-001cc4c03286.html?

The bottom line: CEO’s studies got lots of publicity, and the issue of racial and ethnic admissions preferences is on the front burner in Wisconsin (a state legislator has already announced that he plans to have hearings on whether the university is violating the law). Our opponents have been revealed as intellectually bankrupt, if not downright thugs.

The only bad news, but it’s important bad news: For the Center for Equal Opportunity to continue doing this kind of work, we need your support now. In the struggling Obama economy, our funding support is way down. So we know that times are tough—but fighting racial and ethnic preferences is not a task that can be put off. Please send your fully tax-deductible contribution to the Center for Equal Opportunity today!

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