AcademicPlanningandAnalysis,OfficeoftheProvost,clh 3/2011
Analysis of How and When UWMadison Undergraduates are Satisfying the Ethnic Studies
Requirement
AcademicPlanningandAnalysis,OfficeoftheProvost
The Ethnic Studies Requirement (ESR) is one of five competency requirements required of all
undergraduatesatUWMadison.Facultydocument1736,adoptedin2003,explainedthepurposeofthe
EthnicStudiesRequirementasfollows:“TheUnivers i tyofWisconsinMadisoniscommittedtofostering
an understanding and appreciation of diversity, in the belief that doing so will: 1) better prepare
studentsforlifeandcareersinanincreasinglymulticulturalU.S.environment,2)addbreadthanddepth
totheUniversitycurriculum,and3)improvecampusclimate.”
In Fall 2010, Elaine Klein, now Chair of the
Undergraduate General Education Committee (UGEC),
contactedAcademicPlanning andAnalysisonbehalfoftheUGEC witharequestforinformationabout
how and when students are satisfying the Ethnic Studies Requirement. Specifically, the UGEC has an
interest in understanding during what term of enrollment students are satisfying the Ethnic Studies
Requirement, whether the timing of ESR course taking varies by school/college, and what courses
studentsareusingtosatisfytherequirement.
BecauseEthnicStudiesisarequirementtograduate,weusedagraduatingcohort.Allbachelorsdegree
recipients from the two most recent academic years 200809 and 200910
are included (13,368
graduates).WeattemptedtoidentifythefirsttermwhentheEthnicStudiesrequirementwassatisfied,
either by taking a course at UWMadison or by transferring a course taken at another institution and
whichEthnicStudiescoursewastaken.
SummaryofFindings
1. Most students take a UWMadison Ethnic Studies course to satisfy the Ethnic Studies graduation
requirement. Unlike other General Education competency requirements which can be satisfied
through high scores on Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams or scores on
Math or English placement tests, 86% of UWMadison graduates
satisfy the Ethnic Studies
Requirement with a UWMadison course. Twelve percent (12%) satisfy the requirement with a
course taken at another institution (transfer course) and 3% satisfy the requirement via other
means.
2. Aroundone inthree(31%)UWMadisongraduatessatisfiedtheEthnicStudiesrequirementduring
their first
two semesters of enrollment at UWMadison. One quarter satisfy the requirement just
before graduation (in or after their seventh semesters at UWMadison). There are considerable
school/college differences in the timing of Ethnic Studies satisfaction. Graduates from Nursing,
Human Ecology and Education satisfy Ethnic Studies earlier than the overall average.
Graduates
fromEngineeringarethemostlikelytosatisfyEthnicStudiesjustbeforegraduation.
3. Two particular Ethnic Studies courses account for 36% of the courses used to satisfy the Ethnic
Studies requirement. These two courses, Anthropology 104 and Sociology 134, are the most
frequentlytakenEthnicStudiescoursesby
graduatesineveryschool/college.
AcademicPlanningandAnalysis,OfficeoftheProvost,clh 3/2011
HowStudentsSatisfytheEthnicStudiesRequirement
The vast majority of students are satisfying the Ethnic Studies Requirement at UWMadison 86% of
graduates took a UWMadison Ethnic Studies course (Figure 1, Table 1). Twelve percent (12%) of
graduates took a course at another i nstitution and transferred the credits to UWMadison and 3%
satisfied
theEthnicStudiesrequirementsbyanalternativemethod(seelistbelow).
Figure1
SatisfactionMethodoftheEthnicStudiesRequirement(ESR)
ForBachelorsDegreeRecipientsfrom200809and200910
Unlike the other general education competency requirements in Communications and Quantitative
Reasoning,theEthnicStudiesRequirementis
notsatisfiedbyhighscoresonplacementtests,Advanced
Placement exams, or International Baccalaureate exams. This makes the Ethnic Studies Requirement
differentthantheCommunicationandQuantitativeReasoningrequirementsinthesensethatalmostall
newstudentsneed to take a coursein ordertosatisfytherequirement(afewgraduates
who entered
UWMadisonpriorto1996arenotsubjecttotheESRrequirement).Forthisreason,wewereperplexed
when we found that more than 350 graduates (3% of graduates) who had never tak en an approved
Ethnic Studies course. An examination of DARS reports for these students revealed several
alternative
methodsofESRsatisfaction.Thesemethods,codifiedinDARSbutnotinISIS,include:
1. CompletionofaspecificcoursesectionofatopicscourseinNursing(NUR490/CNP490section28).
2. Completionofanyof12otherspecificcoursesand/orcoursesectionsinspecificterms
1
.
3. “Exceptions”totheEthnicStudiesRequirement,approved byschool/collegeDeans’offices.

1
Specificcoursesinclude:Anthropology448(Spring2003),Anthropology353(Fall2003),AsianAmericanStudies
240(allsections,Fall2005;sections1and2,Spring2007),CommunicationArts613(section5,Fall2003),East
AsianLanguages&Literature520(Fall2007),HumanDevelopmentandFamilyStudies501(section1,Spring
2006),
History221(allsections,Fall2006;sections1and2,Spring2007),History600(section9,Spring2004),
Music201(allsections,Fall2002),ScandinavianStudies443(Spring2001),PoliticalScience695(section1,Fall
2006;section1,Fall2008;section1,Fall2007),UrbanandRegionalPlanning590(section3,
Fall2009).
Other
Satisfaction
Me thod
3%
Transfer
Course
12%
UWMadison
ESRCourse
86%
60%freshmanstarts
40%transferstarts
18%freshmanstarts
82%transferstarts
86%freshmanstarts
14%transferstarts
AcademicPlanningandAnalysis,OfficeoftheProvost,clh 3/2011
4. Completion of a teacher preparation program in the School of Education. Instead of completing a
UGECapproved Ethnic Studies course, students in certain School of Education programs were
requiredtocompletemultiplecoursesfocusedondiversityandculturalissuesspecifictoclassroom
environments.Itisourunderstandingthatthis
practicehassincebeendiscontinued.
Table1
SatisfactionMethodoftheEthnicStudiesRequirement(ESR)bySchoolCollege
ForBachelorsDegreeRecipientsfrom200809and200910
PercentofGraduates
Total
Grads
UWMadison
Course
Transfer
Course
OtherSatisfaction
Method
AgriculturalandLifeSciences 86 12 2 1,219
Business 91 8 1 1,298
Education 68 15 16* 846
Engineering 87 11 2 1,189
HumanEcology 88 11 1 689
LettersandScience 88 11 1 7,621
MedicineandPublicHealth 53 16 31** 120
Nursing 56 35 9 373
Pharmacy 58 42 0 12
Total 86 12 3 13,367
*Seenumber1inlistabove.**ThemuchhigherthanaverageproportionofgraduatesfromtheSchoolofMedicineandPublic
HealthwhonevertookanEthnicStudiescourseismainlydue tograduatesfromthePhysician’sAssistantprogramwhoentered
UWMadisonpriorto1996whenanEthnicStudies.
WhenStudentsSatisfytheEthnicStudiesRequirement
We examined when during the course of their semester enrollments students satisfied the Ethnic
StudiesRequirement(Figure2,Table2).Almostonethirdofstudents(31%)satisfiedtheEthnicStudies
Requirementduringtheirfirsttwosemesters(includingthosewhomatriculateatUWMadisonwithESR
already completed) and another quarter
(24%) completed the ESR during their second year (third or
fourthsemesters).Theremaining44%completedtheESRaftertheirfourth termatUWMadison.
Thereareconsiderableschool/collegedifferences inthetimingofESRcompletion.Graduatesfromthe
SchoolofNursingarethemostlikelycompleteESRbytheend
oftheirfirsttermatUWMadison‐sixty
percent (60%) of Nursing graduates completed ESR during the first year (50% in the first term).
Graduates from the Schools of Education and Human Ecology are also more likely than the overall
averagetocompleteESRduringthefirstyear.
Graduatesfrom
theCollegeofEnginee r ingcompleteESRthelatest.Engineeringgraduatesaretheleast
likelytocompleteESRduringtheirfirstyearat UWMadisonandthemostlikelytocomplete ESRafter
their fourth year. Almost a quarter (24%) of graduates from the College of Engineering complete ESR
aftertheirfourth
yearatUWMadisonandanadditional21%completeESRduringtheirfourthyear.
AcademicPlanningandAnalysis,OfficeoftheProvost,clh 3/2011
Figure2
EnrollmentTermwhenEthnicStudiesRequirement(ESR)wasSatisfiedbySchool/College
ForBachelorsDegreeRecipientsfrom200809and200910whoTookanEthnicStudiesCourse
*MedicineandPharmacynotshownduetosmallnumbers.
Table2
TermwhenEthnicStudiesRequirement(ESR)wasSatisfiedbySchool/College
ForBachelorsDegreeRecipientsfrom200809and200910whoTookanEthnicStudiesCourse
PercentageCompletingESRinEnrollmentTerm
Total
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >8
CALS 18 13 11 14 9 10 8 6 10 1,190
Business 15 10 16 17 11 9 7 7 9 1,286
Education 29 11 12 12 8 8 6 4 10 704
Engineering 12 7 7 9 10 10 10 11 24 1,162
HumanEcology 24 14 15 14 11 8 5 4 5 680
L&S 21 9 12 12 11 11 10 7 7 7,538
Medicine 34 13 12 12 6 11 6 2 3 83
Nursing 50 10 15 13 4 2 0 1 6 340
Pharmacy 50 33 8 0 8 0 0 0 0 12
Total 21 10 12 13 10 10 9 7 9 12,995
1234 5678>8
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Total
Nursing
L&S
SoHE
Engineering
Education
Business
CALS
AcademicPlanningandAnalysis,OfficeoftheProvost,clh 3/2011
HowStudentsSatisfytheEthnicStudiesRequirement
Table 3 shows the twenty most frequently taken Ethnic Studies courses at both the overall university
level and within each school/college. Two courses, ranked first or second in every school/college,
accountforthevastmajorityofallEthnicStudiesenrollments.ThesecoursesareCulturalAnthropology
and Human Diversity (Anthropology 104)
and Problems of American Racial and Ethnic Minorities
(Sociology 134). Still among the 20 courses most frequently taken by recent graduates is The African
Storyteller,acoursethatwasdecertifiedasEthnicStudiesin2005.
Table3
RankingofMostCommonlyTakenUWMadisonEthnicStudiesCourses
ForBachelorsDegree
Recipientsfrom200809and200910whoTookanEthnicStudiesCourse
RankingofCourseFrequency
CALS BUS EDU ENG SoHE L&S NUR All Grads
CulturalAnthropologyandHumanDiversity 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 2,147
Probs.ofAmericanRacial&EthnicMinorities 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2,059
BlackMusicandAmericanCulturalHistory 3 3 3 3 5 33 881
IntroductiontoLiteratureofNativeAmerica 4 4 4 5 6 4 5 4 521
IndiansofNorthAmerica 5 9 5 4 9 5 8 5 409
IntroductiontoAfroAmericanHistory 6 6 8 10 66 320
EthnicMovementsintheUnitedStates5 10 8 10 7 256
MasterpiecesofAfricanAmericanLiterature 878 245
IntroductiontoAfroAmericanArt 674 9 240
TheAmericanWestto18506910 214
TheAmericanWestsince1850 8 9 11 203
PoliticsinMultiCulturalSocieties1010 6 12 195
IntrotoComparativeStudyofRace&Ethnicity 13 175
ImmigrationandAssimilationinAmer.History14 162
AsianAmericanMovement 7 8 9 15 157
TopicsinMusicandEthnicityintheU.S.7 16 154
TheAfricanStoryteller787 17 153
IntroductiontoFolklore7 10 18 144
IntroductiontoAsianAmericanStudies8 10 19 118
IssuesinAmericanIndianStudies 9 20 116
NativeAmer.Environ.Issues&theMedia 8 23
RacialandEthnicFamiliesintheU.S 3 76
TheAfroAmericanFamily 4 64
EnvironmentalChemistryandEthnicity 3 12
*MedicineandPharmacynotshownduetosmallenrollments.StudentsarecountedonceineachEthnicStudiescoursetaken.
However,itisrareforstudentstotakemorethanoneEthnicStudiescoursesoduplicationisminimal.